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[
"The Kooks",
"Inside In/Inside Out (2005-2007)",
"what did the kooks do in 2005?",
"Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005.",
"was the album a success?",
"Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098.",
"what was their biggest hit on the album?",
"\"Naive\" and \"She Moves in Her Own Way\" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.",
"what did they do after this album?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK",
"what was the albums top track?",
"\"Naive\" and \"She Moves in Her Own Way\" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.",
"did they ever get on the top ten again?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_91d1eb6f729445928adbed0066c95e82_1
|
what was their biggest accomplishment?
| 8 |
what was the Kooks biggest accomplishment?
|
The Kooks
|
After they had signed to Virgin Records, the Kooks were reluctant to record an album straight away, stating a desire to focus more on their live performances and songwriting. The band has said embarking on their first live tour instead of recording an album initially helped them develop their style and sound. As Pritchard claimed, "We didn't sit down with a blueprint. We just naturally developed and we didn't try to shape or mould ourselves to anything." As a result, they went into the studio with hundreds of songs from a variety of genres, and it took an "incredible amount of patience" from producer Tony Hoffer to shape the content into what would become the record. Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098. Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard would thank the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success [of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not] because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back." Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naive", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naive" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time. Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty." Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else". Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium". The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007. CANNOTANSWER
|
The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006
|
The Kooks () are an English indie rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The band consists of Luke Pritchard (vocals/rhythm guitar), Hugh Harris (lead guitar/synthesizer/bass) and Alexis Nunez (drums).
Their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion movement and post-punk revival of the new millennium. The Kooks have experimented in several genres including rock, Britpop, pop, reggae, ska, and more recently, funk and hip-hop, being described once as a "more energetic Thrills or a looser Sam Roberts Band, maybe even a less severe Arctic Monkeys at times".
Signed to Virgin Records just three months after forming, the Kooks broke into the musical mainstream with their debut album Inside In/Inside Out (2006). The album was ultimately successful, achieving quadruple platinum status in the UK within a year and also overseas in the form of a platinum certification in Australia and two times platinum in Ireland. The Kooks found themselves entering into mainstream media attention, with the band winning the award for Best UK & Ireland Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 and picking up a nomination at The Brit Awards for the single "She Moves in Her Own Way". With their follow-up Konk (2008) debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, it recorded first week sales of 65,000, achieving gold status in both the UK and Ireland. Their third studio album, entitled Junk of the Heart, was released on 12 September 2011. Their fourth album Listen was released on 8 September 2014. Their most recent album Let’s Go Sunshine was released on 2 September 2018 and peaked at No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart.
History
Formation and early years (2002–2004)
Three members (Garred, Pritchard and Harris) of the Kooks all met as students at the BRIT School in Croydon, all three moving further south to join BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) (where they met Rafferty, who was from Brighton) in 2002. The inspiration to form a band came to Pritchard as he and Garred were out shopping for clothes one day in Primark as a joke. Speaking to MTV Garred said, "we had a vision on how we wanted the band to look and stuff—so we bought some clothes and these hats, it was fun." Sharing a love of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Police and David Bowie, Pritchard got Harris and Rafferty involved under the guise of a school music project. Pritchard himself said "We got together just on a whim, really." With a strong demo of their material Garred and Pritchard went in search of a gig, and according to Garred, they were able to book their first show simply because the landlord liked their hats. "So we went in to get a gig, we don't have a demo blid burnt, and this guy told us, 'Well, you can't get a gig if you don't have a demo, but I like your hats, so I'm going to give you a gig'", said Garred. However, the band was unable to make the performance as they were finishing off their demo at the time.
Taking their name from the David Bowie song with the same title, Pritchard said the first song they played as a group was a cover version of the Strokes' "Reptilia". The Kooks recorded an EP demo, sending it out in search of gigs; they instead received offers from managers and record companies. The band had only been together as a group for four months when they signed with Virgin Records, after being spotted by several label scouts at the Brighton Free Butt Festival in 2005. In an interview with musicOMH, Pritchard revealed "It was really quick how it all happened, we did a demo with a mate of ours in London, which we sent off to one guy to get some gigs, and he turned out to be a manager. He rung us up and it kind of went from there." The members of the band have since revealed that they felt they weren't ready at the time, "We were way too early to sign a record deal ... We were really young, we'd been together like two or three months, so we really didn't want to sign. But then we thought it's a really good opportunity and Virgin seemed like really cool people – they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from", said Pritchard, who has also complimented the space the record label allowed for the band to grow: "They were patient with us and let us develop our style, whatever it was."
Inside In/Inside Out (2005–2007)
After they had signed to Virgin Records, the Kooks were reluctant to record an album straight away, stating a desire to focus more on their live performances and songwriting. The band has said embarking on their first live tour instead of recording an album initially helped them develop their style and sound. As Pritchard claimed, "We didn’t sit down with a blueprint. We just naturally developed and we didn’t try to shape or mould ourselves to anything." As a result, they went into the studio with hundreds of songs from a variety of genres, and it took an "incredible amount of patience" from producer Tony Hoffer to shape the content into what would become the record.
Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098. Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard thanked the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back." Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naïve", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naïve" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.
Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty." Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else". Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium".
The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007.
Rafferty's departure and Konk (2008)
Rafferty was fired from the band on 31 January 2008, after a series of absences due to illness and long-standing rumours about his place in the band; drug addiction was also quoted as one of the reasons for his departure. Rafferty subsequently refuted these claims, saying that he had been fired from the band because he "didn't think Konk was very good, and I said that." Dan Logan, bassist with a local Brighton band Cat the Dog, was drafted in as a temporary replacement for Rafferty. After the departure of Rafferty, the band had considered splitting up. Pritchard discussed the possibility of Dan Logan joining the band as their new bassist, "It's been really strange for us but it's something that had to happen. Dan hasn’t joined the band properly yet. We're trying him out, but I love playing with him." In October 2008, Peter Denton - who had previously filled in for Rafferty during the Inside In/Inside Out touring cycle - was chosen as the permanent bassist.
The Kooks released their second album, Konk, in April 2008. The record was named after the studio where it was recorded and produced by Tony Hoffer, who worked on the band's debut album, Inside In/Inside Out. Prior to releasing the album, in an interview with NME, lead singer Luke Pritchard had claimed to have 80-90 songs written for the album, stating, "I want this album to be big……I've got an ego, I want the album to do well. I want our singles to come on the radio and for people to literally have their heads blown off by them". Recorded over a total of seven weeks in London and Los Angeles Pritchard told NME the band had wanted more input into their second album. "Tony's a genius, but this time we wanted more involvement in the production," said Pritchard.
Konk went on to debut on the UK Albums Chart at number one with first week sales of 65,901 units. The album also spawned three top 50 hits including their highest chart performer to date, "Always Where I Need to Be", which peaked at number three.
In the United States, it reached number 41 on the Billboard 200 and the album's first single, "Always Where I Need to Be", peaked at number 22 on the Alternative Songs chart. The album was certified gold in both the UK and Ireland. A second limited edition two disc version of Konk entitled RAK was also released. The name was taken from the London studio where The Kooks recorded seven new live tracks along with the Arctic Monkeys and Mike Crossey, producer for The Zutons.
Allmusic said with Konk, The Kooks "explores pop and rock in all their glory," while BBC Music described their second album as "a little contrived with the recycling of old guitar lines and intros." NME suggested the departure of Rafferty affected Konk production, stating "Konk is the sound of a band in disarray, unsuccessfully attempting to hold things together."
Junk of the Heart (2009–2013)
In April 2009, the Kooks revealed to BBC's Newsbeat that they were working on their third studio album. Drummer Paul Garred left the band in late 2009, due to a nerve problem in his arm, and was temporarily replaced initially by Nicholas Millard from the band Crackout, then Chris Prendergast for live shows. However, Garred returned for the recording sessions in late 2010, while continuing to not tour with the band, as Pritchard recently stated his injury "turned more into a psychological thing" whereby he "feels uncomfortable playing for long periods of time" for fear of his arm "flaring up". One of the band's first main attempts at writing for this album together took place away from their usual surroundings, as frontman Luke Pritchard told Newsbeat, "We kind of barricaded ourselves in the countryside for a few weeks—stayed at some friend's who have a cottage in Norfolk." However, the band recently revealed that over two weeks there, the band only managed to make one new song: "Eskimo Kiss". After hiring and firing new producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Adele) despite having some "really good sessions together", the band returned to previous producer Tony Hoffer who gave them a "new direction" and they recorded the album in a more contemporary style.
In January 2011, Pritchard announced that they had recorded fourteen new tracks. The band announced via social media that they had finished the new album on 30 March, which was eventually announced as Junk of the Heart. The first single taken from the album was "Is It Me" for Europe and "Junk of the Heart" elsewhere. The album was released in Europe on 9 September 2011 and in the U.K. on 12 September. Garred appeared in the promotional videos for "Is It Me" and "Junk of the Heart", and performed with the band in live sessions for Live from Abbey Road and Live Lounge. But for 2011 shows in the months prior to the album's release, Prendergast was still on drums, and when the band went on tour in October, they brought in session drummer Denny Weston who continued until mid-2012. Garred finally left the band in November, with Alexis Nunez (formerly of Golden Silvers) joining in mid-2012 as The Kooks' new touring drummer before eventually becoming a full member.
Listen (2014–2016)
On 20 April 2014 they released a new single titled "Down". Their new album, Listen, was released on 8 September 2014. According to reports, singer Luke Pritchard and 25-year-old London-based hip hop producer Inflo share co-producing credits. This is their first album with new drummer Alexis Nunez. In an interview in July 2014, Pritchard stated that Listen includes more improvisation and found that “that kind of fearlessness when you make the first album kind of crept back in.” Upon its release, the album debuted at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart, then fell to No. 57 the week after, and the next week dropped off the chart. A remix album for Listen, entitled Hello, What's Your Name?, was released on 4 December 2015. It features remixes by Jack Beats, The Nextmen, Montmartre and Kove among others.
The critical reception towards the album was mixed, but some of the reviews rated it as a "total fail both commercially and musically".
During the band's North America tour in mid-2015, Denton took two weeks of paternity leave to attend to the birth of his second son; Denny Weston, who was the Kooks' tour drummer prior to Nunez joining, filled in on bass.
The Best of... So Far (2017)
On 21 November 2016, the Kooks announced a 'Best Of' UK Tour to take place in April and May 2017 to mark their tenth anniversary as a band, in which they were planning to perform hits, b-sides and brand new music. To coincide with the tour, on 31 March 2017 the band announced the upcoming release of The Best of... So Far, as well as releasing "Be Who You Are", one of two new songs included on the compilation. Pritchard stressed that this compilation and tour did not signal the end of the band, stating, "It's been the greatest pleasure to work, travel, fight, hate and love the best and most talented people I've met in my life. It's the greatest job in the world and we don't intend to stop any time soon."
The two new tracks were produced by Brandon Friesen, who had also been overseeing sessions for the band's next studio album. Consisting of songs written by Pritchard while the other band members spent time with their families, the new album is deemed to be more of a band effort, as opposed to Listen which was constructed individually. "This one’s very much 'us' – all rehearsing songs, all arranging songs, all playing together. It’s got the same sort of energy that we had on our first couple of albums, which we were probably running away from a little bit for a while, but now we’ve gone back to it," said Pritchard. "Brandon Friesen, our producer, has taken more of a production role than me, so I won’t be taking the credit. On Listen, me and Inflo worked together everyday. But this one’s been much more of a band record. It’s been far more collaborative."
On 8 April 2017, the Kooks decided to start the tour with two warm up shows in their spiritual home of Brighton, a matinee gig at The Prince Albert pub and The Haunt in the evening; both these sold out within two hours on the day of the gig. They subsequently performed at the Isle of Wight Festival 2017.
Let's Go Sunshine (2018)
On 16 May 2018, The Kooks announced that their upcoming fifth studio album will be released on 31 August 2018. They also shared two new songs called ‘No Pressure’ and ‘All the Time’ which were played by them earlier this year during The Best Of Tour in South America. Several songs including ’No Pressure,’ ’All the Time,’ and ’Fractured and Dazed’ were released prior to the release of the full album.
On 4 September, the band announced a U.S. tour to take place in November.
On 30 October, the band announced that the U.S. tour had to be rescheduled for early 2019 due to "unforeseen circumstances." When the band resumed performing at the Corona Capital festival in Mexico on 17 November 2018, Pete Denton was absent, with Peter Randall - who had previously played bass for Adele - in his place. Denton was also missing from subsequent shows.
The band addressed Denton's absence by announcing on 3 January 2019 via their Twitter account that Denton was no longer playing with the band. On the same day, Denton responded via his personal account that the position was "complicated" and that his advisers had told him not to discuss the matter for the time being.
After being unable to tour in 2020 due to COVID-19, The Kooks made their live return at Tramlines Festival on 23 July 2021 with Jonathan Harvey on bass duties.
Musical style and influences
The Kooks have mentioned drawing on a number of varied sources to create their sound, listing the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Chris de Burgh among influences on songwriting style and musical presentation over the course of their four albums.
The band's debut album Inside In/Inside Out was touted as a typical Britpop record, and was influenced by the Libertines, Thin Lizzy, the Police and containing elements of the 60s British pop movement. Pritchard's lyrical style was compared to that of a "younger, less pathetic version of Pete Doherty's mush-mouth style". The band themselves felt the album was not consistent in its direction. "The first record was definitely genre-hopping. [...] The first album was finding its feet, it was gadabout", said Harris in an interview for The Sunday Business Post.
On the follow-up Konk, the band attempted to find a more mature and polished sound. Drawing on a much wider choice of material for the album (about 80 to 90 new songs had been accumulated within the band's repertoire by this stage), the band began to incorporate more a hard-edged rock focus into their music. Critics drew comparisons to the work of The Kinks throughout the album, it being recorded at the studio owned by Ray Davies. Also noted were the band’s growing similarities in musical direction to The Fratellis and the Arctic Monkeys. "I think we've made a dynamic album", Pritchard said. "Every song has its own character. It's a good pop album."
Their fourth album, Listen, includes much more percussion and cross rhythms than previous material. Pritchard described Listen as "percussion sonnets". "The first couple albums I made I never really thought about rhythms, I focused on the recording and the lyrics", Pritchard said.
Band members
Current members
Luke Pritchard – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar (2004–present)
Hugh Harris – lead guitar, backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2004–present), bass (2008–present), rhythm guitar (2004-2008, 2018-present)
Alexis Nunez – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Peter Denton – bass, backing vocals, rhythm guitar (2008–2018)
Max Rafferty – bass, backing vocals (2004-2008)
Paul Garred – drums, percussion (2004-2009, 2010-2012)
Touring musicians
Nicholas Millard – drums and percussion (2008)
Dan Logan – bass, backing vocals (2008)
Chris Prendergast – drums and percussion (2010–2011)
Denny Weston – drums (2011-2012), bass (2015)
Thom Kirkpatrick – synthesizer (2011-2012)
Jack Berkeley – guitar, percussion, backing vocals (2013–2015)
Peter Randall – bass, backing vocals (2018–2019)
Jonathan Harvey – bass, backing vocals (2021–present)
Timeline
Discography
Inside In / Inside Out (2006)
Konk (2008)
Junk of the Heart (2011)
Listen (2014)
Let's Go Sunshine (2018)
References
External links
English rock music groups
Musical groups from Brighton and Hove
Musical groups established in 2004
Virgin Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English indie rock groups
| true |
[
"FK Dojransko Ezero Nov Dojran () is a football club based in the town of Nov Dojran, North Macedonia. They are currently competing in the Macedonian Third League (South Division).\n\nHistory\nThe club was founded in 1978. Their biggest accomplishment was playing in the Macedonian Second League.\n\nExternal links\nClub info at MacedonianFootball \nHotel Istatov \nMakFudbal \nFootball Federation of Macedonia \n\nFootball clubs in North Macedonia\nFK Dojransko Ezero\nAssociation football clubs established in 1978\n1978 establishments in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia",
"is a Japanese professional Go player.\n\nBiography\nAkiyama became a professional in 1992 at the age of 14. He was taught by Yasuro Kikuchi. In 1999, he was promoted to 7 dan. His biggest accomplishment came in 2002 when he was runner-up for the NEC Shun-Ei title to Shinji Takao. He currently resides in Tokyo, Japan.\n\nPromotion record\n\nPast runners-up\n\nReferences\n\n1977 births\nLiving people\nJapanese Go players\nAsian Games medalists in go\nGo players at the 2010 Asian Games\nAsian Games bronze medalists for Japan\nMedalists at the 2010 Asian Games"
] |
[
"The Kooks",
"Inside In/Inside Out (2005-2007)",
"what did the kooks do in 2005?",
"Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005.",
"was the album a success?",
"Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098.",
"what was their biggest hit on the album?",
"\"Naive\" and \"She Moves in Her Own Way\" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.",
"what did they do after this album?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK",
"what was the albums top track?",
"\"Naive\" and \"She Moves in Her Own Way\" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.",
"did they ever get on the top ten again?",
"I don't know.",
"what was their biggest accomplishment?",
"The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006"
] |
C_91d1eb6f729445928adbed0066c95e82_1
|
what was their debut album?
| 9 |
what was the Kooks debut album?
|
The Kooks
|
After they had signed to Virgin Records, the Kooks were reluctant to record an album straight away, stating a desire to focus more on their live performances and songwriting. The band has said embarking on their first live tour instead of recording an album initially helped them develop their style and sound. As Pritchard claimed, "We didn't sit down with a blueprint. We just naturally developed and we didn't try to shape or mould ourselves to anything." As a result, they went into the studio with hundreds of songs from a variety of genres, and it took an "incredible amount of patience" from producer Tony Hoffer to shape the content into what would become the record. Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098. Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard would thank the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success [of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not] because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back." Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naive", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naive" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time. Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty." Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else". Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium". The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007. CANNOTANSWER
|
their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out,
|
The Kooks () are an English indie rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The band consists of Luke Pritchard (vocals/rhythm guitar), Hugh Harris (lead guitar/synthesizer/bass) and Alexis Nunez (drums).
Their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion movement and post-punk revival of the new millennium. The Kooks have experimented in several genres including rock, Britpop, pop, reggae, ska, and more recently, funk and hip-hop, being described once as a "more energetic Thrills or a looser Sam Roberts Band, maybe even a less severe Arctic Monkeys at times".
Signed to Virgin Records just three months after forming, the Kooks broke into the musical mainstream with their debut album Inside In/Inside Out (2006). The album was ultimately successful, achieving quadruple platinum status in the UK within a year and also overseas in the form of a platinum certification in Australia and two times platinum in Ireland. The Kooks found themselves entering into mainstream media attention, with the band winning the award for Best UK & Ireland Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 and picking up a nomination at The Brit Awards for the single "She Moves in Her Own Way". With their follow-up Konk (2008) debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, it recorded first week sales of 65,000, achieving gold status in both the UK and Ireland. Their third studio album, entitled Junk of the Heart, was released on 12 September 2011. Their fourth album Listen was released on 8 September 2014. Their most recent album Let’s Go Sunshine was released on 2 September 2018 and peaked at No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart.
History
Formation and early years (2002–2004)
Three members (Garred, Pritchard and Harris) of the Kooks all met as students at the BRIT School in Croydon, all three moving further south to join BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) (where they met Rafferty, who was from Brighton) in 2002. The inspiration to form a band came to Pritchard as he and Garred were out shopping for clothes one day in Primark as a joke. Speaking to MTV Garred said, "we had a vision on how we wanted the band to look and stuff—so we bought some clothes and these hats, it was fun." Sharing a love of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Police and David Bowie, Pritchard got Harris and Rafferty involved under the guise of a school music project. Pritchard himself said "We got together just on a whim, really." With a strong demo of their material Garred and Pritchard went in search of a gig, and according to Garred, they were able to book their first show simply because the landlord liked their hats. "So we went in to get a gig, we don't have a demo blid burnt, and this guy told us, 'Well, you can't get a gig if you don't have a demo, but I like your hats, so I'm going to give you a gig'", said Garred. However, the band was unable to make the performance as they were finishing off their demo at the time.
Taking their name from the David Bowie song with the same title, Pritchard said the first song they played as a group was a cover version of the Strokes' "Reptilia". The Kooks recorded an EP demo, sending it out in search of gigs; they instead received offers from managers and record companies. The band had only been together as a group for four months when they signed with Virgin Records, after being spotted by several label scouts at the Brighton Free Butt Festival in 2005. In an interview with musicOMH, Pritchard revealed "It was really quick how it all happened, we did a demo with a mate of ours in London, which we sent off to one guy to get some gigs, and he turned out to be a manager. He rung us up and it kind of went from there." The members of the band have since revealed that they felt they weren't ready at the time, "We were way too early to sign a record deal ... We were really young, we'd been together like two or three months, so we really didn't want to sign. But then we thought it's a really good opportunity and Virgin seemed like really cool people – they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from", said Pritchard, who has also complimented the space the record label allowed for the band to grow: "They were patient with us and let us develop our style, whatever it was."
Inside In/Inside Out (2005–2007)
After they had signed to Virgin Records, the Kooks were reluctant to record an album straight away, stating a desire to focus more on their live performances and songwriting. The band has said embarking on their first live tour instead of recording an album initially helped them develop their style and sound. As Pritchard claimed, "We didn’t sit down with a blueprint. We just naturally developed and we didn’t try to shape or mould ourselves to anything." As a result, they went into the studio with hundreds of songs from a variety of genres, and it took an "incredible amount of patience" from producer Tony Hoffer to shape the content into what would become the record.
Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098. Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard thanked the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back." Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naïve", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naïve" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.
Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty." Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else". Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium".
The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007.
Rafferty's departure and Konk (2008)
Rafferty was fired from the band on 31 January 2008, after a series of absences due to illness and long-standing rumours about his place in the band; drug addiction was also quoted as one of the reasons for his departure. Rafferty subsequently refuted these claims, saying that he had been fired from the band because he "didn't think Konk was very good, and I said that." Dan Logan, bassist with a local Brighton band Cat the Dog, was drafted in as a temporary replacement for Rafferty. After the departure of Rafferty, the band had considered splitting up. Pritchard discussed the possibility of Dan Logan joining the band as their new bassist, "It's been really strange for us but it's something that had to happen. Dan hasn’t joined the band properly yet. We're trying him out, but I love playing with him." In October 2008, Peter Denton - who had previously filled in for Rafferty during the Inside In/Inside Out touring cycle - was chosen as the permanent bassist.
The Kooks released their second album, Konk, in April 2008. The record was named after the studio where it was recorded and produced by Tony Hoffer, who worked on the band's debut album, Inside In/Inside Out. Prior to releasing the album, in an interview with NME, lead singer Luke Pritchard had claimed to have 80-90 songs written for the album, stating, "I want this album to be big……I've got an ego, I want the album to do well. I want our singles to come on the radio and for people to literally have their heads blown off by them". Recorded over a total of seven weeks in London and Los Angeles Pritchard told NME the band had wanted more input into their second album. "Tony's a genius, but this time we wanted more involvement in the production," said Pritchard.
Konk went on to debut on the UK Albums Chart at number one with first week sales of 65,901 units. The album also spawned three top 50 hits including their highest chart performer to date, "Always Where I Need to Be", which peaked at number three.
In the United States, it reached number 41 on the Billboard 200 and the album's first single, "Always Where I Need to Be", peaked at number 22 on the Alternative Songs chart. The album was certified gold in both the UK and Ireland. A second limited edition two disc version of Konk entitled RAK was also released. The name was taken from the London studio where The Kooks recorded seven new live tracks along with the Arctic Monkeys and Mike Crossey, producer for The Zutons.
Allmusic said with Konk, The Kooks "explores pop and rock in all their glory," while BBC Music described their second album as "a little contrived with the recycling of old guitar lines and intros." NME suggested the departure of Rafferty affected Konk production, stating "Konk is the sound of a band in disarray, unsuccessfully attempting to hold things together."
Junk of the Heart (2009–2013)
In April 2009, the Kooks revealed to BBC's Newsbeat that they were working on their third studio album. Drummer Paul Garred left the band in late 2009, due to a nerve problem in his arm, and was temporarily replaced initially by Nicholas Millard from the band Crackout, then Chris Prendergast for live shows. However, Garred returned for the recording sessions in late 2010, while continuing to not tour with the band, as Pritchard recently stated his injury "turned more into a psychological thing" whereby he "feels uncomfortable playing for long periods of time" for fear of his arm "flaring up". One of the band's first main attempts at writing for this album together took place away from their usual surroundings, as frontman Luke Pritchard told Newsbeat, "We kind of barricaded ourselves in the countryside for a few weeks—stayed at some friend's who have a cottage in Norfolk." However, the band recently revealed that over two weeks there, the band only managed to make one new song: "Eskimo Kiss". After hiring and firing new producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Adele) despite having some "really good sessions together", the band returned to previous producer Tony Hoffer who gave them a "new direction" and they recorded the album in a more contemporary style.
In January 2011, Pritchard announced that they had recorded fourteen new tracks. The band announced via social media that they had finished the new album on 30 March, which was eventually announced as Junk of the Heart. The first single taken from the album was "Is It Me" for Europe and "Junk of the Heart" elsewhere. The album was released in Europe on 9 September 2011 and in the U.K. on 12 September. Garred appeared in the promotional videos for "Is It Me" and "Junk of the Heart", and performed with the band in live sessions for Live from Abbey Road and Live Lounge. But for 2011 shows in the months prior to the album's release, Prendergast was still on drums, and when the band went on tour in October, they brought in session drummer Denny Weston who continued until mid-2012. Garred finally left the band in November, with Alexis Nunez (formerly of Golden Silvers) joining in mid-2012 as The Kooks' new touring drummer before eventually becoming a full member.
Listen (2014–2016)
On 20 April 2014 they released a new single titled "Down". Their new album, Listen, was released on 8 September 2014. According to reports, singer Luke Pritchard and 25-year-old London-based hip hop producer Inflo share co-producing credits. This is their first album with new drummer Alexis Nunez. In an interview in July 2014, Pritchard stated that Listen includes more improvisation and found that “that kind of fearlessness when you make the first album kind of crept back in.” Upon its release, the album debuted at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart, then fell to No. 57 the week after, and the next week dropped off the chart. A remix album for Listen, entitled Hello, What's Your Name?, was released on 4 December 2015. It features remixes by Jack Beats, The Nextmen, Montmartre and Kove among others.
The critical reception towards the album was mixed, but some of the reviews rated it as a "total fail both commercially and musically".
During the band's North America tour in mid-2015, Denton took two weeks of paternity leave to attend to the birth of his second son; Denny Weston, who was the Kooks' tour drummer prior to Nunez joining, filled in on bass.
The Best of... So Far (2017)
On 21 November 2016, the Kooks announced a 'Best Of' UK Tour to take place in April and May 2017 to mark their tenth anniversary as a band, in which they were planning to perform hits, b-sides and brand new music. To coincide with the tour, on 31 March 2017 the band announced the upcoming release of The Best of... So Far, as well as releasing "Be Who You Are", one of two new songs included on the compilation. Pritchard stressed that this compilation and tour did not signal the end of the band, stating, "It's been the greatest pleasure to work, travel, fight, hate and love the best and most talented people I've met in my life. It's the greatest job in the world and we don't intend to stop any time soon."
The two new tracks were produced by Brandon Friesen, who had also been overseeing sessions for the band's next studio album. Consisting of songs written by Pritchard while the other band members spent time with their families, the new album is deemed to be more of a band effort, as opposed to Listen which was constructed individually. "This one’s very much 'us' – all rehearsing songs, all arranging songs, all playing together. It’s got the same sort of energy that we had on our first couple of albums, which we were probably running away from a little bit for a while, but now we’ve gone back to it," said Pritchard. "Brandon Friesen, our producer, has taken more of a production role than me, so I won’t be taking the credit. On Listen, me and Inflo worked together everyday. But this one’s been much more of a band record. It’s been far more collaborative."
On 8 April 2017, the Kooks decided to start the tour with two warm up shows in their spiritual home of Brighton, a matinee gig at The Prince Albert pub and The Haunt in the evening; both these sold out within two hours on the day of the gig. They subsequently performed at the Isle of Wight Festival 2017.
Let's Go Sunshine (2018)
On 16 May 2018, The Kooks announced that their upcoming fifth studio album will be released on 31 August 2018. They also shared two new songs called ‘No Pressure’ and ‘All the Time’ which were played by them earlier this year during The Best Of Tour in South America. Several songs including ’No Pressure,’ ’All the Time,’ and ’Fractured and Dazed’ were released prior to the release of the full album.
On 4 September, the band announced a U.S. tour to take place in November.
On 30 October, the band announced that the U.S. tour had to be rescheduled for early 2019 due to "unforeseen circumstances." When the band resumed performing at the Corona Capital festival in Mexico on 17 November 2018, Pete Denton was absent, with Peter Randall - who had previously played bass for Adele - in his place. Denton was also missing from subsequent shows.
The band addressed Denton's absence by announcing on 3 January 2019 via their Twitter account that Denton was no longer playing with the band. On the same day, Denton responded via his personal account that the position was "complicated" and that his advisers had told him not to discuss the matter for the time being.
After being unable to tour in 2020 due to COVID-19, The Kooks made their live return at Tramlines Festival on 23 July 2021 with Jonathan Harvey on bass duties.
Musical style and influences
The Kooks have mentioned drawing on a number of varied sources to create their sound, listing the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Chris de Burgh among influences on songwriting style and musical presentation over the course of their four albums.
The band's debut album Inside In/Inside Out was touted as a typical Britpop record, and was influenced by the Libertines, Thin Lizzy, the Police and containing elements of the 60s British pop movement. Pritchard's lyrical style was compared to that of a "younger, less pathetic version of Pete Doherty's mush-mouth style". The band themselves felt the album was not consistent in its direction. "The first record was definitely genre-hopping. [...] The first album was finding its feet, it was gadabout", said Harris in an interview for The Sunday Business Post.
On the follow-up Konk, the band attempted to find a more mature and polished sound. Drawing on a much wider choice of material for the album (about 80 to 90 new songs had been accumulated within the band's repertoire by this stage), the band began to incorporate more a hard-edged rock focus into their music. Critics drew comparisons to the work of The Kinks throughout the album, it being recorded at the studio owned by Ray Davies. Also noted were the band’s growing similarities in musical direction to The Fratellis and the Arctic Monkeys. "I think we've made a dynamic album", Pritchard said. "Every song has its own character. It's a good pop album."
Their fourth album, Listen, includes much more percussion and cross rhythms than previous material. Pritchard described Listen as "percussion sonnets". "The first couple albums I made I never really thought about rhythms, I focused on the recording and the lyrics", Pritchard said.
Band members
Current members
Luke Pritchard – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar (2004–present)
Hugh Harris – lead guitar, backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2004–present), bass (2008–present), rhythm guitar (2004-2008, 2018-present)
Alexis Nunez – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Peter Denton – bass, backing vocals, rhythm guitar (2008–2018)
Max Rafferty – bass, backing vocals (2004-2008)
Paul Garred – drums, percussion (2004-2009, 2010-2012)
Touring musicians
Nicholas Millard – drums and percussion (2008)
Dan Logan – bass, backing vocals (2008)
Chris Prendergast – drums and percussion (2010–2011)
Denny Weston – drums (2011-2012), bass (2015)
Thom Kirkpatrick – synthesizer (2011-2012)
Jack Berkeley – guitar, percussion, backing vocals (2013–2015)
Peter Randall – bass, backing vocals (2018–2019)
Jonathan Harvey – bass, backing vocals (2021–present)
Timeline
Discography
Inside In / Inside Out (2006)
Konk (2008)
Junk of the Heart (2011)
Listen (2014)
Let's Go Sunshine (2018)
References
External links
English rock music groups
Musical groups from Brighton and Hove
Musical groups established in 2004
Virgin Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English indie rock groups
| true |
[
"\"What a Night\" is a song performed by British band, Loveable Rogues. It was their debut single and was intended to feature on a debut album. The single was released in Ireland and the United Kingdom on 19 April 2013. The band were dropped from Syco in October 2013, but the single was featured on their debut album This and That, released in 2014 on Super Duper Records.\n\nBackground\nLoveable Rogues first announced that they're signed to Syco on June, 2012. In late 2012, the band released a free mixtape through their Soundcloud channel. The collection of songs was released as a free download and was called 'First Things First'. \"What A Night\" was previewed along with new songs such as \"Maybe Baby\", \"Talking Monkeys\" and \"Honest\".\n\nMusic video\n\nTwo teaser videos were released before the music video. The first teaser video was uploaded to their Vevo channel on 11 February 2013. The second teaser released two days after or a week before the music video released; on 19 February 2013, the music video was uploaded to their Vevo channel.\nThe video features the band having a night party with their friends.\n\nChart performance\n\"What a Night\" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 9 on 27 April 2013 after debuting at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart Update.\n\nTrack listing\nDigital download\n What a Night - 2:50\n Nuthouse - 3:58\n What a Night (feat. Lucky Mason) Sonny J Mason Remix] - 3:41\n What a Night (Supasound Radio Remix) - 2:42\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2013 debut singles\n2013 songs\nSyco Music singles\nSong recordings produced by Red Triangle (production team)\nSongs written by Rick Parkhouse\nSongs written by George Tizzard",
"Endless Scroll is the debut studio album by American punk band Bodega. It was released on June 1, 2018 under What's Your Rupture?.\n\nRelease\nOn April 3, 2018, Bodega announced the release of their debut album, along with the single \"Can't Knock the Hustle\". The next single \"Jack In Titanic\" was released on May 3, 2018.\n\nCritical reception\n\nEndless Scroll was met with \"generally favorable\" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 74, based on 13 reviews. Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 75 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 14 reviews.\n\nAccolades\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n2018 debut albums\nWhat's Your Rupture? albums"
] |
[
"The Kooks",
"Inside In/Inside Out (2005-2007)",
"what did the kooks do in 2005?",
"Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005.",
"was the album a success?",
"Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098.",
"what was their biggest hit on the album?",
"\"Naive\" and \"She Moves in Her Own Way\" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.",
"what did they do after this album?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK",
"what was the albums top track?",
"\"Naive\" and \"She Moves in Her Own Way\" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.",
"did they ever get on the top ten again?",
"I don't know.",
"what was their biggest accomplishment?",
"The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006",
"what was their debut album?",
"their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out,"
] |
C_91d1eb6f729445928adbed0066c95e82_1
|
who did the band work with?
| 10 |
who did the band The Kooks work with?
|
The Kooks
|
After they had signed to Virgin Records, the Kooks were reluctant to record an album straight away, stating a desire to focus more on their live performances and songwriting. The band has said embarking on their first live tour instead of recording an album initially helped them develop their style and sound. As Pritchard claimed, "We didn't sit down with a blueprint. We just naturally developed and we didn't try to shape or mould ourselves to anything." As a result, they went into the studio with hundreds of songs from a variety of genres, and it took an "incredible amount of patience" from producer Tony Hoffer to shape the content into what would become the record. Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098. Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard would thank the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success [of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not] because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back." Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naive", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naive" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time. Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty." Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else". Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium". The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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The Kooks () are an English indie rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The band consists of Luke Pritchard (vocals/rhythm guitar), Hugh Harris (lead guitar/synthesizer/bass) and Alexis Nunez (drums).
Their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion movement and post-punk revival of the new millennium. The Kooks have experimented in several genres including rock, Britpop, pop, reggae, ska, and more recently, funk and hip-hop, being described once as a "more energetic Thrills or a looser Sam Roberts Band, maybe even a less severe Arctic Monkeys at times".
Signed to Virgin Records just three months after forming, the Kooks broke into the musical mainstream with their debut album Inside In/Inside Out (2006). The album was ultimately successful, achieving quadruple platinum status in the UK within a year and also overseas in the form of a platinum certification in Australia and two times platinum in Ireland. The Kooks found themselves entering into mainstream media attention, with the band winning the award for Best UK & Ireland Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 and picking up a nomination at The Brit Awards for the single "She Moves in Her Own Way". With their follow-up Konk (2008) debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, it recorded first week sales of 65,000, achieving gold status in both the UK and Ireland. Their third studio album, entitled Junk of the Heart, was released on 12 September 2011. Their fourth album Listen was released on 8 September 2014. Their most recent album Let’s Go Sunshine was released on 2 September 2018 and peaked at No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart.
History
Formation and early years (2002–2004)
Three members (Garred, Pritchard and Harris) of the Kooks all met as students at the BRIT School in Croydon, all three moving further south to join BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) (where they met Rafferty, who was from Brighton) in 2002. The inspiration to form a band came to Pritchard as he and Garred were out shopping for clothes one day in Primark as a joke. Speaking to MTV Garred said, "we had a vision on how we wanted the band to look and stuff—so we bought some clothes and these hats, it was fun." Sharing a love of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Police and David Bowie, Pritchard got Harris and Rafferty involved under the guise of a school music project. Pritchard himself said "We got together just on a whim, really." With a strong demo of their material Garred and Pritchard went in search of a gig, and according to Garred, they were able to book their first show simply because the landlord liked their hats. "So we went in to get a gig, we don't have a demo blid burnt, and this guy told us, 'Well, you can't get a gig if you don't have a demo, but I like your hats, so I'm going to give you a gig'", said Garred. However, the band was unable to make the performance as they were finishing off their demo at the time.
Taking their name from the David Bowie song with the same title, Pritchard said the first song they played as a group was a cover version of the Strokes' "Reptilia". The Kooks recorded an EP demo, sending it out in search of gigs; they instead received offers from managers and record companies. The band had only been together as a group for four months when they signed with Virgin Records, after being spotted by several label scouts at the Brighton Free Butt Festival in 2005. In an interview with musicOMH, Pritchard revealed "It was really quick how it all happened, we did a demo with a mate of ours in London, which we sent off to one guy to get some gigs, and he turned out to be a manager. He rung us up and it kind of went from there." The members of the band have since revealed that they felt they weren't ready at the time, "We were way too early to sign a record deal ... We were really young, we'd been together like two or three months, so we really didn't want to sign. But then we thought it's a really good opportunity and Virgin seemed like really cool people – they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from", said Pritchard, who has also complimented the space the record label allowed for the band to grow: "They were patient with us and let us develop our style, whatever it was."
Inside In/Inside Out (2005–2007)
After they had signed to Virgin Records, the Kooks were reluctant to record an album straight away, stating a desire to focus more on their live performances and songwriting. The band has said embarking on their first live tour instead of recording an album initially helped them develop their style and sound. As Pritchard claimed, "We didn’t sit down with a blueprint. We just naturally developed and we didn’t try to shape or mould ourselves to anything." As a result, they went into the studio with hundreds of songs from a variety of genres, and it took an "incredible amount of patience" from producer Tony Hoffer to shape the content into what would become the record.
Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098. Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard thanked the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back." Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naïve", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naïve" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.
Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty." Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else". Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium".
The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007.
Rafferty's departure and Konk (2008)
Rafferty was fired from the band on 31 January 2008, after a series of absences due to illness and long-standing rumours about his place in the band; drug addiction was also quoted as one of the reasons for his departure. Rafferty subsequently refuted these claims, saying that he had been fired from the band because he "didn't think Konk was very good, and I said that." Dan Logan, bassist with a local Brighton band Cat the Dog, was drafted in as a temporary replacement for Rafferty. After the departure of Rafferty, the band had considered splitting up. Pritchard discussed the possibility of Dan Logan joining the band as their new bassist, "It's been really strange for us but it's something that had to happen. Dan hasn’t joined the band properly yet. We're trying him out, but I love playing with him." In October 2008, Peter Denton - who had previously filled in for Rafferty during the Inside In/Inside Out touring cycle - was chosen as the permanent bassist.
The Kooks released their second album, Konk, in April 2008. The record was named after the studio where it was recorded and produced by Tony Hoffer, who worked on the band's debut album, Inside In/Inside Out. Prior to releasing the album, in an interview with NME, lead singer Luke Pritchard had claimed to have 80-90 songs written for the album, stating, "I want this album to be big……I've got an ego, I want the album to do well. I want our singles to come on the radio and for people to literally have their heads blown off by them". Recorded over a total of seven weeks in London and Los Angeles Pritchard told NME the band had wanted more input into their second album. "Tony's a genius, but this time we wanted more involvement in the production," said Pritchard.
Konk went on to debut on the UK Albums Chart at number one with first week sales of 65,901 units. The album also spawned three top 50 hits including their highest chart performer to date, "Always Where I Need to Be", which peaked at number three.
In the United States, it reached number 41 on the Billboard 200 and the album's first single, "Always Where I Need to Be", peaked at number 22 on the Alternative Songs chart. The album was certified gold in both the UK and Ireland. A second limited edition two disc version of Konk entitled RAK was also released. The name was taken from the London studio where The Kooks recorded seven new live tracks along with the Arctic Monkeys and Mike Crossey, producer for The Zutons.
Allmusic said with Konk, The Kooks "explores pop and rock in all their glory," while BBC Music described their second album as "a little contrived with the recycling of old guitar lines and intros." NME suggested the departure of Rafferty affected Konk production, stating "Konk is the sound of a band in disarray, unsuccessfully attempting to hold things together."
Junk of the Heart (2009–2013)
In April 2009, the Kooks revealed to BBC's Newsbeat that they were working on their third studio album. Drummer Paul Garred left the band in late 2009, due to a nerve problem in his arm, and was temporarily replaced initially by Nicholas Millard from the band Crackout, then Chris Prendergast for live shows. However, Garred returned for the recording sessions in late 2010, while continuing to not tour with the band, as Pritchard recently stated his injury "turned more into a psychological thing" whereby he "feels uncomfortable playing for long periods of time" for fear of his arm "flaring up". One of the band's first main attempts at writing for this album together took place away from their usual surroundings, as frontman Luke Pritchard told Newsbeat, "We kind of barricaded ourselves in the countryside for a few weeks—stayed at some friend's who have a cottage in Norfolk." However, the band recently revealed that over two weeks there, the band only managed to make one new song: "Eskimo Kiss". After hiring and firing new producer Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Adele) despite having some "really good sessions together", the band returned to previous producer Tony Hoffer who gave them a "new direction" and they recorded the album in a more contemporary style.
In January 2011, Pritchard announced that they had recorded fourteen new tracks. The band announced via social media that they had finished the new album on 30 March, which was eventually announced as Junk of the Heart. The first single taken from the album was "Is It Me" for Europe and "Junk of the Heart" elsewhere. The album was released in Europe on 9 September 2011 and in the U.K. on 12 September. Garred appeared in the promotional videos for "Is It Me" and "Junk of the Heart", and performed with the band in live sessions for Live from Abbey Road and Live Lounge. But for 2011 shows in the months prior to the album's release, Prendergast was still on drums, and when the band went on tour in October, they brought in session drummer Denny Weston who continued until mid-2012. Garred finally left the band in November, with Alexis Nunez (formerly of Golden Silvers) joining in mid-2012 as The Kooks' new touring drummer before eventually becoming a full member.
Listen (2014–2016)
On 20 April 2014 they released a new single titled "Down". Their new album, Listen, was released on 8 September 2014. According to reports, singer Luke Pritchard and 25-year-old London-based hip hop producer Inflo share co-producing credits. This is their first album with new drummer Alexis Nunez. In an interview in July 2014, Pritchard stated that Listen includes more improvisation and found that “that kind of fearlessness when you make the first album kind of crept back in.” Upon its release, the album debuted at No. 16 on the UK Albums Chart, then fell to No. 57 the week after, and the next week dropped off the chart. A remix album for Listen, entitled Hello, What's Your Name?, was released on 4 December 2015. It features remixes by Jack Beats, The Nextmen, Montmartre and Kove among others.
The critical reception towards the album was mixed, but some of the reviews rated it as a "total fail both commercially and musically".
During the band's North America tour in mid-2015, Denton took two weeks of paternity leave to attend to the birth of his second son; Denny Weston, who was the Kooks' tour drummer prior to Nunez joining, filled in on bass.
The Best of... So Far (2017)
On 21 November 2016, the Kooks announced a 'Best Of' UK Tour to take place in April and May 2017 to mark their tenth anniversary as a band, in which they were planning to perform hits, b-sides and brand new music. To coincide with the tour, on 31 March 2017 the band announced the upcoming release of The Best of... So Far, as well as releasing "Be Who You Are", one of two new songs included on the compilation. Pritchard stressed that this compilation and tour did not signal the end of the band, stating, "It's been the greatest pleasure to work, travel, fight, hate and love the best and most talented people I've met in my life. It's the greatest job in the world and we don't intend to stop any time soon."
The two new tracks were produced by Brandon Friesen, who had also been overseeing sessions for the band's next studio album. Consisting of songs written by Pritchard while the other band members spent time with their families, the new album is deemed to be more of a band effort, as opposed to Listen which was constructed individually. "This one’s very much 'us' – all rehearsing songs, all arranging songs, all playing together. It’s got the same sort of energy that we had on our first couple of albums, which we were probably running away from a little bit for a while, but now we’ve gone back to it," said Pritchard. "Brandon Friesen, our producer, has taken more of a production role than me, so I won’t be taking the credit. On Listen, me and Inflo worked together everyday. But this one’s been much more of a band record. It’s been far more collaborative."
On 8 April 2017, the Kooks decided to start the tour with two warm up shows in their spiritual home of Brighton, a matinee gig at The Prince Albert pub and The Haunt in the evening; both these sold out within two hours on the day of the gig. They subsequently performed at the Isle of Wight Festival 2017.
Let's Go Sunshine (2018)
On 16 May 2018, The Kooks announced that their upcoming fifth studio album will be released on 31 August 2018. They also shared two new songs called ‘No Pressure’ and ‘All the Time’ which were played by them earlier this year during The Best Of Tour in South America. Several songs including ’No Pressure,’ ’All the Time,’ and ’Fractured and Dazed’ were released prior to the release of the full album.
On 4 September, the band announced a U.S. tour to take place in November.
On 30 October, the band announced that the U.S. tour had to be rescheduled for early 2019 due to "unforeseen circumstances." When the band resumed performing at the Corona Capital festival in Mexico on 17 November 2018, Pete Denton was absent, with Peter Randall - who had previously played bass for Adele - in his place. Denton was also missing from subsequent shows.
The band addressed Denton's absence by announcing on 3 January 2019 via their Twitter account that Denton was no longer playing with the band. On the same day, Denton responded via his personal account that the position was "complicated" and that his advisers had told him not to discuss the matter for the time being.
After being unable to tour in 2020 due to COVID-19, The Kooks made their live return at Tramlines Festival on 23 July 2021 with Jonathan Harvey on bass duties.
Musical style and influences
The Kooks have mentioned drawing on a number of varied sources to create their sound, listing the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Chris de Burgh among influences on songwriting style and musical presentation over the course of their four albums.
The band's debut album Inside In/Inside Out was touted as a typical Britpop record, and was influenced by the Libertines, Thin Lizzy, the Police and containing elements of the 60s British pop movement. Pritchard's lyrical style was compared to that of a "younger, less pathetic version of Pete Doherty's mush-mouth style". The band themselves felt the album was not consistent in its direction. "The first record was definitely genre-hopping. [...] The first album was finding its feet, it was gadabout", said Harris in an interview for The Sunday Business Post.
On the follow-up Konk, the band attempted to find a more mature and polished sound. Drawing on a much wider choice of material for the album (about 80 to 90 new songs had been accumulated within the band's repertoire by this stage), the band began to incorporate more a hard-edged rock focus into their music. Critics drew comparisons to the work of The Kinks throughout the album, it being recorded at the studio owned by Ray Davies. Also noted were the band’s growing similarities in musical direction to The Fratellis and the Arctic Monkeys. "I think we've made a dynamic album", Pritchard said. "Every song has its own character. It's a good pop album."
Their fourth album, Listen, includes much more percussion and cross rhythms than previous material. Pritchard described Listen as "percussion sonnets". "The first couple albums I made I never really thought about rhythms, I focused on the recording and the lyrics", Pritchard said.
Band members
Current members
Luke Pritchard – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar (2004–present)
Hugh Harris – lead guitar, backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2004–present), bass (2008–present), rhythm guitar (2004-2008, 2018-present)
Alexis Nunez – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Peter Denton – bass, backing vocals, rhythm guitar (2008–2018)
Max Rafferty – bass, backing vocals (2004-2008)
Paul Garred – drums, percussion (2004-2009, 2010-2012)
Touring musicians
Nicholas Millard – drums and percussion (2008)
Dan Logan – bass, backing vocals (2008)
Chris Prendergast – drums and percussion (2010–2011)
Denny Weston – drums (2011-2012), bass (2015)
Thom Kirkpatrick – synthesizer (2011-2012)
Jack Berkeley – guitar, percussion, backing vocals (2013–2015)
Peter Randall – bass, backing vocals (2018–2019)
Jonathan Harvey – bass, backing vocals (2021–present)
Timeline
Discography
Inside In / Inside Out (2006)
Konk (2008)
Junk of the Heart (2011)
Listen (2014)
Let's Go Sunshine (2018)
References
External links
English rock music groups
Musical groups from Brighton and Hove
Musical groups established in 2004
Virgin Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
English indie rock groups
| false |
[
"Anthony Earle Peter Butler (born 13 February 1957) is a British bassist, best known for his work with Scottish rock band Big Country. He has also worked with On the Air, The Pretenders, Roger Daltrey, and Pete Townshend, among others.\n\nEarly life\nButler was born at Hammersmith Hospital in White City, London, England. His parents are of Dominican heritage.\n\nCareer\nIn the late 1970s Butler joined the short-lived band On the Air which also included drummer Mark Brzezicki and Simon Townshend (the younger brother of The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend). On the Air released two singles in 1980 and toured with the Scottish band The Skids, which was where Butler met Stuart Adamson. In 1982 Butler joined Adamson's new band Big Country with his drumming partner Mark Brzezicki, which went on to enjoy success internationally during the 1980s and 1990s, he remained in the band until the end of 2000.\n\nHe also did session work with other artists including Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and The Pretenders among others, and declined an invitation by Chrissie Hynde to join The Pretenders.\n\nIn 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, Butler reunited with founder members Bruce Watson and Mark Brzezicki to embark on a tour of the UK. He became lead vocalist for the first time, taking over from the deceased Stuart Adamson. The band toured during 2010–11 with Mike Peters of The Alarm on vocals. Butler left Big Country again in 2012, citing differences with his bandmates, to be replaced by former Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes.\n\nButler moved to Cornwall with his family in the 1980s and became a further education teacher in the 2000s. As of 2017, Butler ran courses in music at Petroc College in Devon.\n\nWhile Butler did not join The Pretenders permanently, he did a couple of sessions with the Pretenders out of which came the 1982 singles \"My City Was Gone\" and \"Back on the Chain Gang.\"\n\nIn 2017/18 Butler released an autobiography and a solo album My Time.\n\nDiscography\n\nSolo albums\nTony Butler has released three solo albums:\nThe Great Unknown (1997)\nLife Goes On (2005)\nMy Time (2018)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website\nPretenders 977 Radio\n\nLiving people\n1957 births\nBig Country members\nBlack British rock musicians\nEnglish people of Dominica descent\nEnglish rock bass guitarists\nMale bass guitarists\nMusicians from London\nPeople from Shepherd's Bush\nThe Pretenders members",
"Ken Koblun is a Canadian musician who during the 1960s played alongside Neil Young in The Jades, the Squires, the Stardusters, and briefly Buffalo Springfield. He replaced Comrie Smith in 3's a Crowd, playing with the band from 1966 to 1967.\n\nEarly years\nKoblun began his music career as the bassist for the Squires, a teen band formed by Young in the early 60's out of Earl Grey Junior High. After the band broke up, Koblun found work playing bass for various folk musicians. When Stephen Stills and Richie Furay were seeking to start a rock band in Los Angeles, a few months after Koblun had taken a trip to New York City in 1965, they could not find Young, but did succeed in locating Koblun, whom they convinced to come to California to join the group. However, he stayed for only a few days before deciding to return to Canada where he joined up with 3's a Crowd. In January 1967, a replacement was needed for Bruce Palmer, who was fighting possible deportation. Koblun only played with them for about a month before the band decided his personality was undesirable and his bass playing not as good as they anticipated. During that time he did appear in one of the few film clips of the band, doing lip synchronization to \"Sit Down, I Think I Love You\" on the television show Where The Action Is. Koblun did not record with the band, but Young's epic \"Broken Arrow\" is dedicated to Koblun in the sleeve notes of Buffalo Springfield Again.\n\nKoblun appeared on the 3's a Crowd album Christopher's Movie Matinée.\n\nHe has worked with various musicians such as, Richie Furay, Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin, Donna Warner, David Wiffen, Trevor Veitch, Brent Titcomb, and Richard Patterson.\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\nCanadian bass guitarists\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
] |
[
"Edward Elgar",
"Growing reputation"
] |
C_f146bd8d3ee34fc486d76f99e126e1d1_1
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did he have anyone influence his career?
| 1 |
did Edward Elgar have anyone influence his career?
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Edward Elgar
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During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come." In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written - if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation. The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British Army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music continues to be played more in Britain than elsewhere.
Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the moving-coil microphone in 1923 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius.
Biography
Early years
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England on 2 June 1857. His father, William Henry Elgar (1821–1906), was raised in Dover and had been apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. In 1848 he married Ann Greening (1822–1902), daughter of a farm worker. Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.
Elgar's mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development. He inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. His friend and biographer W. H. "Billy" Reed wrote that Elgar's early surroundings had an influence that "permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality". He began composing at an early age; for a play written and acted by the Elgar children when he was about ten, he wrote music that forty years later he rearranged with only minor changes and orchestrated as the suites titled The Wand of Youth.
Until he was fifteen, Elgar received a general education at Littleton (now Lyttleton) House school, near Worcester. His only formal musical training beyond piano and violin lessons from local teachers consisted of more advanced violin studies with Adolf Pollitzer, during brief visits to London in 1877–78. Elgar said, "my first music was learnt in the Cathedral ... from books borrowed from the music library, when I was eight, nine or ten." He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music. He later said that he had been most helped by Hubert Parry's articles in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to the Leipzig Conservatory for further musical studies, but his father could not afford to send him. Years later, a profile in The Musical Times considered that his failure to get to Leipzig was fortunate for Elgar's musical development: "Thus the budding composer escaped the dogmatism of the schools." However, it was a disappointment to Elgar that on leaving school in 1872 he went not to Leipzig but to the office of a local solicitor as a clerk. He did not find an office career congenial, and for fulfilment he turned not only to music but to literature, becoming a voracious reader. Around this time, he made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist.
After a few months, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop. He was an active member of the Worcester Glee club, along with his father, and he accompanied singers, played the violin, composed and arranged works, and conducted for the first time. Pollitzer believed that, as a violinist, Elgar had the potential to be one of the leading soloists in the country, but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked a full enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist. At twenty-two he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at the Worcester and County Lunatic Asylum in Powick, from Worcester. The band consisted of: piccolo, flute, clarinet, two cornets, euphonium, three or four first and a similar number of second violins, occasional viola, cello, double bass and piano. Elgar coached the players and wrote and arranged their music, including quadrilles and polkas, for the unusual combination of instruments. The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments." He held the post for five years, from 1879, travelling to Powick once a week. Another post he held in his early days was professor of the violin at the Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen.
Although rather solitary and introspective by nature, Elgar thrived in Worcester's musical circles. He played in the violins at the Worcester and Birmingham Festivals, and one great experience was to play Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 and Stabat Mater under the composer's baton. Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band). Elgar arranged numerous pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and others for the quintet, honing his arranging and compositional skills.
In his first trips abroad, Elgar visited Paris in 1880 and Leipzig in 1882. He heard Saint-Saëns play the organ at the Madeleine and attended concerts by first-rate orchestras. In 1882 he wrote, "I got pretty well dosed with Schumann (my ideal!), Brahms, Rubinstein & Wagner, so had no cause to complain." In Leipzig he visited a friend, Helen Weaver, who was a student at the Conservatoire. They became engaged in the summer of 1883, but for unknown reasons the engagement was broken off the next year. Elgar was greatly distressed, and some of his later cryptic dedications of romantic music may have alluded to Helen and his feelings for her. Throughout his life, Elgar was often inspired by close women friends; Helen Weaver was succeeded by Mary Lygon, Dora Penny, Julia Worthington, Alice Stuart Wortley and finally Vera Hockman, who enlivened his old age.
In 1882, seeking more professional orchestral experience, Elgar was employed as a violinist in Birmingham in William Stockley's Orchestra, for whom he played every concert for the next seven years and where he later said he "learned all the music I know". On 13 December 1883 he took part with Stockley in a performance at Birmingham Town Hall of one of his first works for full orchestra, the Sérénade mauresque – the first time one of his compositions had been performed by a professional orchestra. Stockley had invited him to conduct the piece but later recalled "he declined, and, further, insisted upon playing in his place in the orchestra. The consequence was that he had to appear, fiddle in hand, to acknowledge the genuine and hearty applause of the audience." Elgar often went to London in an attempt to get his works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and low on money. He wrote to a friend in April 1884, "My prospects are about as hopeless as ever ... I am not wanting in energy I think, so sometimes I conclude that 'tis want of ability. ... I have no money – not a cent."
Marriage
When Elgar was 29, he took on a new pupil, Caroline Alice Roberts, known as Alice, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and published author of verse and prose fiction. Eight years older than Elgar, Alice became his wife three years later. Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "Alice's family was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic. She was disinherited." They were married on 8 May 1889, at Brompton Oratory. From then until her death, she acted as his business manager and social secretary, dealt with his mood swings, and was a perceptive musical critic. She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. In time, he would learn to accept the honours given him, realising that they mattered more to her and her social class and recognising what she had given up to further his career. In her diary, she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman." As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin-and-piano piece Salut d'Amour to her. With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, and Elgar started devoting his time to composition. Their only child, Carice Irene, was born at their home in West Kensington on 14 August 1890. Her name, revealed in Elgar's dedication of Salut d'Amour, was a contraction of her mother's names Caroline and Alice.
Elgar took full advantage of the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music. In the days before miniature scores and recordings were available, it was not easy for young composers to get to know new music. Elgar took every chance to do so at the Crystal Palace concerts. He and Alice attended day after day, hearing music by a wide range of composers. Among these were masters of orchestration from whom he learned much, such as Berlioz and Richard Wagner. His own compositions made little impact on London's musical scene. August Manns conducted Elgar's orchestral version of Salut d'amour and the Suite in D at the Crystal Palace, and two publishers accepted some of Elgar's violin pieces, organ voluntaries, and part songs. Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly. For example, an offer from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to run through some of his works was withdrawn at the last second when Sir Arthur Sullivan arrived unannounced to rehearse some of his own music. Sullivan was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened. Elgar's only important commission while in London came from his home city: the Worcester Festival Committee invited him to compose a short orchestral work for the 1890 Three Choirs Festival. The result is described by Diana McVeagh in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as "his first major work, the assured and uninhibited Froissart." Elgar conducted the first performance in Worcester in September 1890. For lack of other work, he was obliged to leave London in 1891 and return with his wife and child to Worcestershire, where he could earn a living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching. They settled in Alice's former home town, Great Malvern.
Growing reputation
During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."
In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.
The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.
National and international fame
Elgar's biographer Basil Maine commented, "When Sir Arthur Sullivan died in 1900 it became apparent to many that Elgar, although a composer of another build, was his true successor as first musician of the land." Elgar's next major work was eagerly awaited. For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1900, he set Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem The Dream of Gerontius for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Richter conducted the premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly. Critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance. It was performed in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1901 and again in 1902, conducted by Julius Buths, who also conducted the European premiere of the Enigma Variations in 1901. The German press was enthusiastic. The Cologne Gazette said, "In both parts we meet with beauties of imperishable value. ... Elgar stands on the shoulders of Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt, from whose influences he has freed himself until he has become an important individuality. He is one of the leaders of musical art of modern times." The Düsseldorfer Volksblatt wrote, "A memorable and epoch-making first performance! Since the days of Liszt nothing has been produced in the way of oratorio ... which reaches the greatness and importance of this sacred cantata." Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as the leading composer of his day, was so impressed that in Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar." Performances in Vienna, Paris and New York followed, and The Dream of Gerontius soon became equally admired in Britain. According to Kennedy, "It is unquestionably the greatest British work in the oratorio form ... [it] opened a new chapter in the English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation." Elgar, as a Roman Catholic, was much moved by Newman's poem about the death and redemption of a sinner, but some influential members of the Anglican establishment disagreed. His colleague, Charles Villiers Stanford complained that the work "stinks of incense". The Dean of Gloucester banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester the following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance.
Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which were composed between 1901 and 1930. It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms, where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called the "trio") of the first march came into his head, he told his friend Dora Penny, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em – will knock 'em flat". When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade Concert, it was conducted by Henry Wood, who later wrote that the audience "rose and yelled ... the one and only time in the history of the Promenade concerts that an orchestral item was accorded a double encore." To mark the coronation of Edward VII, Elgar was commissioned to set A. C. Benson's Coronation Ode for a gala concert at the Royal Opera House on 30 June 1902. The approval of the king was confirmed, and Elgar began work. The contralto Clara Butt had persuaded him that the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance march could have words fitted to it, and Elgar invited Benson to do so. Elgar incorporated the new vocal version into the Ode. The publishers of the score recognised the potential of the vocal piece, "Land of Hope and Glory", and asked Benson and Elgar to make a further revision for publication as a separate song. It was immensely popular and is now considered an unofficial British national anthem. In the United States, the trio, known simply as "Pomp and Circumstance" or "The Graduation March", has been adopted since 1905 for virtually all high school and university graduations.
In March 1904 a three-day festival of Elgar's works was presented at Covent Garden, an honour never before given to any English composer. The Times commented, "Four or five years ago if any one had predicted that the Opera-house would be full from floor to ceiling for the performance of an oratorio by an English composer he would probably have been supposed to be out of his mind." The king and queen attended the first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius, and returned the next evening for the second, the London premiere of The Apostles (first heard the previous year at the Birmingham Festival). The final concert of the festival, conducted by Elgar, was primarily orchestral, apart for an excerpt from Caractacus and the complete Sea Pictures (sung by Clara Butt). The orchestral items were Froissart, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a new orchestral work, In the South, inspired by a holiday in Italy.
Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904. The following month, he and his family moved to Plâs Gwyn, a large house on the outskirts of Hereford, overlooking the River Wye, where they lived until 1911. Between 1902 and 1914, Elgar was, in Kennedy's words, at the zenith of popularity. He made four visits to the US, including one conducting tour, and earned considerable fees from the performance of his music. Between 1905 and 1908, he held the post of Peyton Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. He had accepted the post reluctantly, feeling that a composer should not head a school of music. He was not at ease in the role, and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on the critics and on English music in general: "Vulgarity in the course of time may be refined. Vulgarity often goes with inventiveness ... but the commonplace mind can never be anything but commonplace. An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and will point out to you that it is white – all over white – and somebody will say, 'What exquisite taste'. You know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all, that it is the want of taste, that is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything." He regretted the controversy and was glad to hand on the post to his friend Granville Bantock in 1908. His new life as a celebrity was a mixed blessing to the highly strung Elgar, as it interrupted his privacy, and he often was in ill-health. He complained to Jaeger in 1903, "My life is one continual giving up of little things which I love." Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would have collaborated with Bernard Shaw had Shaw been willing.
Elgar paid three visits to the USA between 1905 and 1911. His first was to conduct his music and to accept a doctorate from Yale University. His principal composition in 1905 was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, dedicated to Samuel Sanford. It was well received but did not catch the public imagination as The Dream of Gerontius had done and continued to do. Among keen Elgarians, however, The Kingdom was sometimes preferred to the earlier work: Elgar's friend Frank Schuster told the young Adrian Boult: "compared with The Kingdom, Gerontius is the work of a raw amateur." As Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his first symphony, a project that had been in his mind in various forms for nearly ten years. His First Symphony (1908) was a national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch. There were performances in Rome, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and fifteen British towns and cities. In just over a year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe.
The Violin Concerto (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists of the time. Elgar wrote it during the summer of 1910, with occasional help from W. H. Reed, the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed a firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I Knew Him (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition. The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with Kreisler and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion." So great was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugène Ysaÿe spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented Ysaÿe from playing it in London.
The Violin Concerto was Elgar's last popular triumph. The following year he presented his Second Symphony in London, but was disappointed at its reception. Unlike the First Symphony, it ends not in a blaze of orchestral splendour but quietly and contemplatively. Reed, who played at the premiere, later wrote that Elgar was recalled to the platform several times to acknowledge the applause, "but missed that unmistakable note perceived when an audience, even an English audience, is thoroughly roused or worked up, as it was after the Violin Concerto or the First Symphony." Elgar asked Reed, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." The work was, by normal standards, a success, with twenty-seven performances within three years of its premiere, but it did not achieve the international furore of the First Symphony.
Last major works
In June 1911, as part of the celebrations surrounding the coronation of King George V, Elgar was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour limited to twenty-four holders at any time. The following year, the Elgars moved back to London, to a large house in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, designed by Norman Shaw. There Elgar composed his last two large-scale works of the pre-war era, the choral ode, The Music Makers (for the Birmingham Festival, 1912) and the symphonic study Falstaff (for the Leeds Festival, 1913). Both were received politely but without enthusiasm. Even the dedicatee of Falstaff, the conductor Landon Ronald, confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece," while the musical scholar Percy Scholes wrote of Falstaff that it was a "great work" but, "so far as public appreciation goes, a comparative failure."
When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused. He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later withdrew. He signed up as a special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army. He composed patriotic works, Carillon, a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, and Polonia, an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune.
Elgar's other compositions during the war included incidental music for a children's play, The Starlight Express (1915); a ballet, The Sanguine Fan (1917); and The Spirit of England (1915–17, to poems by Laurence Binyon), three choral settings very different in character from the romantic patriotism of his earlier years. His last large-scale composition of the war years was The Fringes of the Fleet, settings of verses by Rudyard Kipling, performed with great popular success around the country, until Kipling for unexplained reasons objected to their performance in theatres. Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company.
Towards the end of the war, Elgar was in poor health. His wife thought it best for him to move to the countryside, and she rented "Brinkwells", a house near Fittleworth in Sussex, from the painter Rex Vicat Cole. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced four large-scale works. The first three of these were chamber pieces: the Violin Sonata in E minor, the Piano Quintet in A minor, and the String Quartet in E minor. On hearing the work in progress, Alice Elgar wrote in her diary, "E. writing wonderful new music". All three works were well received. The Times wrote, "Elgar's sonata contains much that we have heard before in other forms, but as we do not at all want him to change and be somebody else, that is as it should be." The quartet and quintet were premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May 1919. The Manchester Guardian wrote, "This quartet, with its tremendous climaxes, curious refinements of dance-rhythms, and its perfect symmetry, and the quintet, more lyrical and passionate, are as perfect examples of chamber music as the great oratorios were of their type."
By contrast, the remaining work, the Cello Concerto in E minor, had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season in October 1919. Apart from the Elgar work, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity." Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played the work for him again later. In contrast with the First Symphony and its hundred performances in just over a year, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.
Last years
Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion, his admirers continued to present his works when possible. Reed singles out a performance of the Second Symphony in March 1920 conducted by "a young man almost unknown to the public", Adrian Boult, for bringing "the grandeur and nobility of the work" to a wider public. Also in 1920, Landon Ronald presented an all-Elgar concert at the Queen's Hall. Alice Elgar wrote with enthusiasm about the reception of the symphony, but this was one of the last times she heard Elgar's music played in public. After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two.
Elgar was devastated by the loss of his wife. With no public demand for new works, and deprived of Alice's constant support and inspiration, he allowed himself to be deflected from composition. His daughter later wrote that Elgar inherited from his father a reluctance to "settle down to work on hand but could cheerfully spend hours over some perfectly unnecessary and entirely unremunerative undertaking", a trait that became stronger after Alice's death. For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies. Throughout his life he was a keen amateur chemist, sometimes using a laboratory in his back garden. He even patented the "Elgar Sulphuretted Hydrogen Apparatus" in 1908. He enjoyed football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., for whom he composed an anthem, "He Banged the Leather for Goal", and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protégés, the conductor Malcolm Sargent and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, both recalled rehearsals with Elgar at which he swiftly satisfied himself that all was well and then went off to the races. In his younger days, Elgar had been an enthusiastic cyclist, buying Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife in 1903 (he named his "Mr. Phoebus"). As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about the countryside by his chauffeur. In November and December 1923, he took a voyage to Brazil, journeying up the Amazon to Manaus, where he was impressed by its opera house, the Teatro Amazonas. Almost nothing is recorded about Elgar's activities or the events that he encountered during the trip, which gave the novelist James Hamilton-Paterson considerable latitude when writing Gerontius, a fictional account of the journey.
After Alice's death, Elgar sold the Hampstead house, and after living for a short time in a flat in St James's in the heart of London, he moved back to Worcestershire, to the village of Kempsey, where he lived from 1923 to 1927. He did not wholly abandon composition in these years. He made large-scale symphonic arrangements of works by Bach and Handel and wrote his Empire March and eight songs Pageant of Empire for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Shortly after these were published, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick on 13 May 1924, following the death of Sir Walter Parratt.
From 1926 onwards, Elgar made a series of recordings of his own works. Described by the music writer Robert Philip as "the first composer to take the gramophone seriously", he had already recorded much of his music by the early acoustic-recording process for His Master's Voice (HMV) from 1914 onwards, but the introduction of electrical microphones in 1925 transformed the gramophone from a novelty into a realistic medium for reproducing orchestral and choral music. Elgar was the first composer to take full advantage of this technological advance. Fred Gaisberg of HMV, who produced Elgar's recordings, set up a series of sessions to capture on disc the composer's interpretations of his major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations, Falstaff, the first and second symphonies, and the cello and violin concertos. For most of these, the orchestra was the LSO, but the Variations were played by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. Later in the series of recordings, Elgar also conducted two newly founded orchestras, Boult's BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elgar's recordings were released on 78-rpm discs by both HMV and RCA Victor. After World War II, the 1932 recording of the Violin Concerto with the teenage Menuhin as soloist remained available on 78 and later on LP, but the other recordings were out of the catalogues for some years. When they were reissued by EMI on LP in the 1970s, they caused surprise to many by their fast tempi, in contrast to the slower speeds adopted by many conductors in the years since Elgar's death. The recordings were reissued on CD in the 1990s.
In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Pathé for a newsreel depicting a recording session of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. It is believed to be the only surviving sound film of Elgar, who makes a brief remark before conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before." A memorial plaque to Elgar at Abbey Road was unveiled on 24 June 1993.
A late piece of Elgar's, the Nursery Suite, was an early example of a studio premiere: its first performance was in the Abbey Road studios. For this work, dedicated to the wife and daughters of the Duke of York, Elgar once again drew on his youthful sketch-books.
In his final years, Elgar experienced a musical revival. The BBC organised a festival of his works to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday, in 1932. He flew to Paris in 1933 to conduct the Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellow composer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing. He was sought out by younger musicians such as Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent and John Barbirolli, who championed his music when it was out of fashion. He began work on an opera, The Spanish Lady, and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony. His final illness prevented their completion. He fretted about the unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony, but at other times he said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it – or write a better one." After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young, in co-operation with the BBC and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady, which was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1997.
Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation on 8 October 1933. He told his consulting doctor, Arthur Thomson, that he had no faith in an afterlife: "I believe there is nothing but complete oblivion." Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and was buried next to his wife at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern.
Music
Influences, antecedents and early works
Elgar was contemptuous of folk music and had little interest in or respect for the early English composers, calling William Byrd and his contemporaries "museum pieces". Of later English composers, he regarded Purcell as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings. The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism, the influence of Wagner is apparent, but Elgar's individual style of orchestration owes much to the clarity of nineteenth-century French composers, Berlioz, Massenet, Saint-Saëns and, particularly, Delibes, whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired.
Elgar began composing when still a child, and all his life he drew on his early sketchbooks for themes and inspiration. The habit of assembling his compositions, even large-scale ones, from scraps of themes jotted down randomly remained throughout his life. His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 1878 and 1881, and music of many types for the Powick Asylum band. Diana McVeagh in Grove's Dictionary finds many embryonic Elgarian touches in these pieces, but few of them are regularly played, except Salut d'Amour and (as arranged decades later into The Wand of Youth Suites) some of the childhood sketches. Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 1889–91, the overture Froissart, was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner, but also showing further Elgarian characteristics. Orchestral works composed during the subsequent years in Worcestershire include the Serenade for Strings and Three Bavarian Dances. In this period and later, Elgar wrote songs and part songs. W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised the part song The Snow, for female voices, and Sea Pictures, a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra which remains in the repertory.
Elgar's principal large-scale early works were for chorus and orchestra for the Three Choirs and other festivals. These were The Black Knight, King Olaf, The Light of Life, The Banner of St George and Caractacus. He also wrote a Te Deum and Benedictus for the Hereford Festival. Of these, McVeagh comments favourably on his lavish orchestration and innovative use of leitmotifs, but less favourably on the qualities of his chosen texts and the patchiness of his inspiration. McVeagh makes the point that, because these works of the 1890s were for many years little known (and performances remain rare), the mastery of his first great success, the Enigma Variations, appeared to be a sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade.
Peak creative years
Elgar's best-known works were composed within the twenty-one years between 1899 and 1920. Most of them are orchestral. Reed wrote, "Elgar's genius rose to its greatest height in his orchestral works" and quoted the composer as saying that, even in his oratorios, the orchestral part is the most important. The Enigma Variations made Elgar's name nationally. The variation form was ideal for him at this stage of his career, when his comprehensive mastery of orchestration was still in contrast to his tendency to write his melodies in short, sometimes rigid, phrases. His next orchestral works, Cockaigne, a concert-overture (1900–1901), the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901), and the gentle Dream Children (1902), are all short: the longest of them, Cockaigne, lasting less than fifteen minutes. In the South (1903–1904), although designated by Elgar as a concert-overture, is, according to Kennedy, really a tone poem and the longest continuous piece of purely orchestral writing Elgar had essayed. He wrote it after setting aside an early attempt to compose a symphony. The work reveals his continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in the middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at less than its brightest." In 1905 Elgar completed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. This work is based, unlike much of Elgar's earlier writing, not on a profusion of themes but on only three. Kennedy called it a "masterly composition, equalled among English works for strings only by Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia."
During the next four years Elgar composed three major concert pieces, which, though shorter than comparable works by some of his European contemporaries, are among the most substantial such works by an English composer. These were his First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Second Symphony, which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour. McVeagh says of the symphonies that they "rank high not only in Elgar's output but in English musical history. Both are long and powerful, without published programmes, only hints and quotations to indicate some inward drama from which they derive their vitality and eloquence. Both are based on classical form but differ from it to the extent that ... they were considered prolix and slackly constructed by some critics. Certainly the invention in them is copious; each symphony would need several dozen music examples to chart its progress."
Elgar's Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, in the view of Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind". They are, however, very different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached the height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart, is lyrical throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns. The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to another age, another world ... the simplest of all Elgar's major works ... also the least grandiloquent." Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study Falstaff, which has divided opinion even among Elgar's strongest admirers. Donald Tovey viewed it as "one of the immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with Shakespeare's", while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters. Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works. Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work.
The major works for voices and orchestra of the twenty-one years of Elgar's middle period are three large-scale works for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and the oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); and two shorter odes, the Coronation Ode (1902) and The Music Makers (1912). The first of the odes, as a pièce d'occasion, has rarely been revived after its initial success, with the culminating "Land of Hope and Glory". The second is, for Elgar, unusual in that it contains several quotations from his earlier works, as Richard Strauss quoted himself in Ein Heldenleben. The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius, was and remains the best-loved and most performed. On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory." All three of the large-scale works follow the traditional model with sections for soloists, chorus and both together. Elgar's distinctive orchestration, as well as his melodic inspiration, lifts them to a higher level than most of their British predecessors.
Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid, a play by George Moore and W. B. Yeats (1901), and for The Starlight Express, a play based on a story by Algernon Blackwood (1916). Of the former, Yeats called Elgar's music "wonderful in its heroic melancholy". Elgar also wrote a number of songs during his peak period, of which Reed observes, "it cannot be said that he enriched the vocal repertory to the same extent as he did that of the orchestra."
Final years and posthumous completions
After the Cello Concerto, Elgar completed no more large-scale works. He made arrangements of works by Bach, Handel and Chopin, in distinctively Elgarian orchestration, and once again turned his youthful notebooks to use for the Nursery Suite (1931). His other compositions of this period have not held a place in the regular repertory. For most of the rest of the twentieth century, it was generally agreed that Elgar's creative impulse ceased after his wife's death. Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony led to a reconsideration of this supposition. Elgar left the opening of the symphony complete in full score, and those pages, along with others, show Elgar's orchestration changed markedly from the richness of his pre-war work. The Gramophone described the opening of the new work as something "thrilling ... unforgettably gaunt". Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, premiered at the Proms in August 2006. Elgar's sketches for a piano concerto dating from 1913 were elaborated by the composer Robert Walker and first performed in August 1997 by the pianist David Owen Norris. The realisation has since been extensively revised.
Reputation
Views of Elgar's stature have varied in the decades since his music came to prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century. Richard Strauss, as noted, hailed Elgar as a progressive composer; even the hostile reviewer in The Observer, unimpressed by the thematic material of the First Symphony in 1908, called the orchestration "magnificently modern". Hans Richter rated Elgar as "the greatest modern composer" in any country, and Richter's colleague Arthur Nikisch considered the First Symphony "a masterpiece of the first order" to be "justly ranked with the great symphonic models – Beethoven and Brahms." By contrast, the critic W. J. Turner, in the mid-twentieth century, wrote of Elgar's "Salvation Army symphonies," and Herbert von Karajan called the Enigma Variations "second-hand Brahms". Elgar's immense popularity was not long-lived. After the success of his First Symphony and Violin Concerto, his Second Symphony and Cello Concerto were politely received but without the earlier wild enthusiasm. His music was identified in the public mind with the Edwardian era, and after the First World War he no longer seemed a progressive or modern composer. In the early 1920s, even the First Symphony had only one London performance in more than three years. Wood and younger conductors such as Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli championed Elgar's music, but in the recording catalogues and the concert programmes of the middle of the century his works were not well represented.
In 1924, the music scholar Edward J. Dent wrote an article for a German music journal in which he identified four features of Elgar's style that gave offence to a section of English opinion (namely, Dent indicated, the academic and snobbish section): "too emotional", "not quite free from vulgarity", "pompous", and "too deliberately noble in expression". This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy. In the later years of the century there was, in Britain at least, a revival of interest in Elgar's music. The features that had offended austere taste in the inter-war years were seen from a different perspective. In 1955, the reference book The Record Guide wrote of the Edwardian background during the height of Elgar's career:
By the 1960s, a less severe view was being taken of the Edwardian era. In 1966 the critic Frank Howes wrote that Elgar reflected the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life, before World War I swept so much away. In Howes's view, there was a touch of vulgarity in both the era and Elgar's music, but "a composer is entitled to be judged by posterity for his best work. ... Elgar is historically important for giving to English music a sense of the orchestra, for expressing what it felt like to be alive in the Edwardian age, for conferring on the world at least four unqualified masterpieces, and for thereby restoring England to the comity of musical nations."
In 1967 the critic and analyst David Cox considered the question of the supposed Englishness of Elgar's music. Cox noted that Elgar disliked folk-songs and never used them in his works, opting for an idiom that was essentially German, leavened by a lightness derived from French composers including Berlioz and Gounod. How then, asked Cox, could Elgar be "the most English of composers"? Cox found the answer in Elgar's own personality, which "could use the alien idioms in such a way as to make of them a vital form of expression that was his and his alone. And the personality that comes through in the music is English." This point about Elgar's transmuting his influences had been touched on before. In 1930 The Times wrote, "When Elgar's first symphony came out, someone attempted to prove that its main tune on which all depends was like the Grail theme in Parsifal. ... but the attempt fell flat because everyone else, including those who disliked the tune, had instantly recognized it as typically 'Elgarian', while the Grail theme is as typically Wagnerian." As for Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and Stravinsky made particular reference to it, and Sibelius called him "the personification of the true English character in music ... a noble personality and a born aristocrat".
Among Elgar's admirers there is disagreement about which of his works are to be regarded as masterpieces. The Enigma Variations are generally counted among them. The Dream of Gerontius has also been given high praise by Elgarians, and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated. Many rate the Violin Concerto equally highly, but some do not. Sackville-West omitted it from the list of Elgar masterpieces in The Record Guide, and in a long analytical article in The Musical Quarterly, Daniel Gregory Mason criticised the first movement of the concerto for a "kind of sing-songiness ... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry." Falstaff also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite, and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it. In a Musical Times 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by contrast, several contributors share Eric Blom's view that Falstaff is the greatest of all Elgar's works.
The two symphonies divide opinion even more sharply. Mason rates the Second poorly for its "over-obvious rhythmic scheme", but calls the First "Elgar's masterpiece. ... It is hard to see how any candid student can deny the greatness of this symphony." However, in the 1957 centenary symposium, several leading admirers of Elgar express reservations about one or both symphonies. In the same year, Roger Fiske wrote in The Gramophone, "For some reason few people seem to like the two Elgar symphonies equally; each has its champions and often they are more than a little bored by the rival work." The critic John Warrack wrote, "There are no sadder pages in symphonic literature than the close of the First Symphony's Adagio, as horn and trombones twice softly intone a phrase of utter grief", whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and angst and is marked instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."
Despite the fluctuating critical assessment of the various works over the years, Elgar's major works taken as a whole have in the twenty-first century recovered strongly from their neglect in the 1950s. The Record Guide in 1955 could list only one currently available recording of the First Symphony, none of the Second, one of the Violin Concerto, two of the Cello Concerto, two of the Enigma Variations, one of Falstaff, and none of The Dream of Gerontius. Since then there have been multiple recordings of all the major works. More than thirty recordings have been made of the First Symphony since 1955, for example, and more than a dozen of The Dream of Gerontius. Similarly, in the concert hall, Elgar's works, after a period of neglect, are once again frequently programmed. The Elgar Society's website, in its diary of forthcoming performances, lists performances of Elgar's works by orchestras, soloists and conductors across Europe, North America and Australia.
Honours, awards and commemorations
Elgar was knighted in 1904, and in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. In 1920 he received the Cross of Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown; in 1924 he was made Master of the King's Musick; the following year he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; and in 1928 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). Between 1900 and 1931, Elgar received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Yale (USA), Aberdeen, Western Pennsylvania (USA), Birmingham and London. Foreign academies of which he was made a member were Regia Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; Accademia del Reale Istituto Musicale, Florence; Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris; Institut de France; and the American Academy. In 1931 he was created a Baronet, of Broadheath in the County of Worcester. In 1933 he was promoted within the Royal Victorian Order to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO). In Kennedy's words, he "shamelessly touted" for a peerage, but in vain. In Who's Who, post-First World War, he claimed to have been awarded "several Imperial Russian and German decorations (lapsed)". Elgar was offered, but declined, the office of Mayor of Hereford (despite not being a member of its city council) when he lived in the city in 1905. The same year he was made an honorary freeman of the city of Worcester.
The house in Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born is now the Elgar Birthplace Museum, devoted to his life and work. Elgar's daughter, Carice, helped to found the museum in 1936 and bequeathed to it much of her collection of Elgar's letters and documents on her death in 1970. Carice left Elgar manuscripts to musical colleges: The Black Knight to Trinity College of Music; King Olaf to the Royal Academy of Music; The Music Makers to Birmingham University; the Cello Concerto to the Royal College of Music; The Kingdom to the Bodleian Library; and other manuscripts to the British Museum. The Elgar Society dedicated to the composer and his works was formed in 1951.
Elgar's statue at the end of Worcester High Street stands facing the cathedral, only yards from where his father's shop once stood. Another statue of the composer by Rose Garrard is at the top of Church Street in Malvern, overlooking the town and giving visitors an opportunity to stand next to the composer in the shadow of the Hills that he so often regarded. In September 2005, a third statue sculpted by Jemma Pearson was unveiled near Hereford Cathedral in honour of his many musical and other associations with the city. It depicts Elgar with his bicycle. From 1999 until early 2007, new Bank of England twenty pound notes featured a portrait of Elgar. The change to remove his image generated controversy, particularly because 2007 was the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. From 2007 the Elgar notes were phased out, ceasing to be legal tender on 30 June 2010. There are around 65 roads in the UK named after Elgar, including six in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Elgar had three locomotives named in his honour.
Elgar's life and music have inspired works of literature including the novel Gerontius and several plays. Elgar's Rondo, a 1993 stage play by David Pownall depicts the dead Jaeger offering ghostly advice on Elgar's musical development. Pownall also wrote a radio play, Elgar's Third (1994); another Elgar-themed radio play is Alick Rowe's The Dorabella Variation (2003). David Rudkin's BBC television "Play for Today" Penda's Fen (1974) deals with themes including sex and adolescence, spying, and snobbery, with Elgar's music, chiefly The Dream of Gerontius, as its background. In one scene, a ghostly Elgar whispers the secret of the "Enigma" tune to the youthful central character, with an injunction not to reveal it. Elgar on the Journey to Hanley, a novel by Keith Alldritt (1979), tells of the composer's attachment to Dora Penny, later Mrs Powell, (depicted as "Dorabella" in the Enigma Variations), and covers the fifteen years from their first meeting in the mid-1890s to the genesis of the Violin Concerto when, in the novel, Dora has been supplanted in Elgar's affections by Alice Stuart-Wortley.
Perhaps the best-known work depicting Elgar is Ken Russell's 1962 BBC television film Elgar, made when the composer was still largely out of fashion. This hour-long film contradicted the view of Elgar as a jingoistic and bombastic composer, and evoked the more pastoral and melancholy side of his character and music.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
The Elgar Society, official site.
The Elgar Foundation and Birthplace Museum, official site.
"Elgar, Sir Edward William" at The National Archives
"The Growing Significance of Elgar", lecture by Simon Mundy, Gresham College, 29 June 2007
1857 births
1934 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century male conductors (music)
19th-century conductors (music)
19th-century English musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century British conductors (music)
20th-century English musicians
20th-century British male musicians
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Brass band composers
British ballet composers
British male conductors (music)
Burials in Worcestershire
Catholic liturgical composers
Classical composers of church music
Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Composers awarded knighthoods
Composers for carillon
Composers for pipe organ
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from colorectal cancer
English classical composers
English conductors (music)
English male classical composers
English Roman Catholics
English Romantic composers
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors
Masters of the King's Music
Members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Members of the Order of Merit
Metropolitan Special Constabulary officers
Musicians from Worcestershire
Oratorio composers
People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire
People from Worcester, England
People of the Victorian era
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
People from Fittleworth
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"The phrase \"Anyone for tennis?\" (also given as \"Tennis, anyone?\") is an English language idiom primarily of the 20th century. The phrase is used to invoke a stereotype of shallow, leisured, upper-class toffs (tennis was, particularly before the widespread advent of public courts in the later 20th century, seen as a posh game for the rich, with courts popular at country clubs and private estates). It's a stereotypical entrance or exit line given to a young man of this class in a superficial drawing-room comedy.\n\nA close paraphase of the saying, was used in George Bernard Shaw's 1914 drawing-room comedy Misalliance, in which Johnny Tarleton asks \"Anybody on for a game of tennis?\" (An 1891 story in the satirical magazine Punch put a generally similar notion in the mouth of a similar type of character: \"I’m going to see if there’s anyone on the tennis-court, and get a game if I can. Ta-ta!\".)\n\n\"Anyone for tennis?\" is particularly associated with the early career of Hollywood star Humphrey Bogart, and he is cited as the first person to use the phrase on stage. At the start of his career, in the 1920s and early 1930s, Bogart appeared in many Broadway plays in what Jeffrey Meyers characterized as \"charming and fatuous roles – in [one of] which he is supposed to have said 'Tennis, anyone?'\".\n\nIf Bogart ever did speak the line, it would have presumably been in the 1925 play Hell's Bells, set at the Tanglewood Lodge in New Dauville, Connecticut. Bogart claimed that his line in the play was \"It's forty-love outside. Anyone care to watch?\", and that indeed is what is printed in the script. However, according to Darwin Porter, director John Hayden crossed out that line and replaced it with \"Tennis anyone?\" before opening night. And several observers have asserted that he did say it, reportedly including Louella Parsons and Richard Watts Jr. Erskine Johnson, in a 1948 interview, reports Bogart as saying \"I used to play juveniles on Broadway and came bouncing into drawing rooms with a tennis racket under my arm and the line: 'Tennis anybody?' It was a stage trick to get some of the characters off the set so the plot could continue.\" But Bogart's usual stance was denial of using that precise phrase (\"The lines I had were corny enough, but I swear to you, never once did I have to say 'Tennis, anyone?'\"), although averring that it did characterize generally some of his early roles.\n\nThe phrase continued to drift through media in the 20th century and, to a diminished extent, into the 21st, often at random or just because tennis generally is the subject, rather than specifically to invoke or mock vapid toffs. It appears in the lyric of the \"Beautiful Girl Montage\" in the classic 1952 musical movie Singin' in the Rain,, in the Daffy Duck cartoons Rabbit Fire, Drip-Along Daffy and The Ducksters (1950-1951),, and in the lyric and title of the 1968 song \"Anyone for Tennis\" by the British rock band Cream, which was the theme song of the film The Savage Seven. William Holden's shallow rich playboy character jokes \"tennis, anyone?\" when flirting with Joan Vohs's in the 1954 film Sabrina (in which Bogart plays another character). The television series Anyone for Tennyson? (1976–1978) riffs on the name, as does the 1981 stage play Anyone for Denis? \"Anyone for Tennis\" is the title of the B-side instrumental for Men at Work's 1981 single Who Can It Be Now?. And so forth.\n\nThe phrase also occurs in Monty Python's spoof sketch Sam Peckinpah's \"Salad Days\".\n\nReferences \n\nEnglish phrases\nTennis culture\nQuotations from literature\nMetaphors referring to sport",
"\"Did Anyone Approach You?\" is a song by the Norwegian band A-ha. It was the third single to be taken from their 2002 album Lifelines. It was recorded at The Alabaster Room in New York City sometime between June 2001 and January 2002.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Did Anyone Approach You? (Original Album Version)\" (4:11)\n \"Did Anyone Approach You? (Turner Remix)\" (3:43)\n \"Did Anyone Approach You? (Reamped)\" (4:51)\n \"Did Anyone Approach You? (Tore Johansson Remix)\" (5:55)\n \"Afternoon High (Demo Version)\" (4:40)\n \"Did Anyone Approach You? (Video Clip)\" (4:11)\n\nVideo\nThe video was filmed by Lauren Savoy, the wife of A-ha guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. It was shot at Ullevaal Stadion on 6 June 2002, the first concert on the band's Lifelines tour.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2002 singles\nA-ha songs\nSongs written by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy\nWarner Music Group singles\n2002 songs"
] |
[
"Edward Elgar",
"Growing reputation",
"did he have anyone influence his career?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_f146bd8d3ee34fc486d76f99e126e1d1_1
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did he win any awards?
| 2 |
did Edward Elgar win any awards?
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Edward Elgar
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During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come." In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written - if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation. The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British Army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music continues to be played more in Britain than elsewhere.
Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the moving-coil microphone in 1923 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius.
Biography
Early years
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England on 2 June 1857. His father, William Henry Elgar (1821–1906), was raised in Dover and had been apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. In 1848 he married Ann Greening (1822–1902), daughter of a farm worker. Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.
Elgar's mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development. He inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. His friend and biographer W. H. "Billy" Reed wrote that Elgar's early surroundings had an influence that "permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality". He began composing at an early age; for a play written and acted by the Elgar children when he was about ten, he wrote music that forty years later he rearranged with only minor changes and orchestrated as the suites titled The Wand of Youth.
Until he was fifteen, Elgar received a general education at Littleton (now Lyttleton) House school, near Worcester. His only formal musical training beyond piano and violin lessons from local teachers consisted of more advanced violin studies with Adolf Pollitzer, during brief visits to London in 1877–78. Elgar said, "my first music was learnt in the Cathedral ... from books borrowed from the music library, when I was eight, nine or ten." He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music. He later said that he had been most helped by Hubert Parry's articles in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to the Leipzig Conservatory for further musical studies, but his father could not afford to send him. Years later, a profile in The Musical Times considered that his failure to get to Leipzig was fortunate for Elgar's musical development: "Thus the budding composer escaped the dogmatism of the schools." However, it was a disappointment to Elgar that on leaving school in 1872 he went not to Leipzig but to the office of a local solicitor as a clerk. He did not find an office career congenial, and for fulfilment he turned not only to music but to literature, becoming a voracious reader. Around this time, he made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist.
After a few months, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop. He was an active member of the Worcester Glee club, along with his father, and he accompanied singers, played the violin, composed and arranged works, and conducted for the first time. Pollitzer believed that, as a violinist, Elgar had the potential to be one of the leading soloists in the country, but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked a full enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist. At twenty-two he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at the Worcester and County Lunatic Asylum in Powick, from Worcester. The band consisted of: piccolo, flute, clarinet, two cornets, euphonium, three or four first and a similar number of second violins, occasional viola, cello, double bass and piano. Elgar coached the players and wrote and arranged their music, including quadrilles and polkas, for the unusual combination of instruments. The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments." He held the post for five years, from 1879, travelling to Powick once a week. Another post he held in his early days was professor of the violin at the Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen.
Although rather solitary and introspective by nature, Elgar thrived in Worcester's musical circles. He played in the violins at the Worcester and Birmingham Festivals, and one great experience was to play Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 and Stabat Mater under the composer's baton. Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band). Elgar arranged numerous pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and others for the quintet, honing his arranging and compositional skills.
In his first trips abroad, Elgar visited Paris in 1880 and Leipzig in 1882. He heard Saint-Saëns play the organ at the Madeleine and attended concerts by first-rate orchestras. In 1882 he wrote, "I got pretty well dosed with Schumann (my ideal!), Brahms, Rubinstein & Wagner, so had no cause to complain." In Leipzig he visited a friend, Helen Weaver, who was a student at the Conservatoire. They became engaged in the summer of 1883, but for unknown reasons the engagement was broken off the next year. Elgar was greatly distressed, and some of his later cryptic dedications of romantic music may have alluded to Helen and his feelings for her. Throughout his life, Elgar was often inspired by close women friends; Helen Weaver was succeeded by Mary Lygon, Dora Penny, Julia Worthington, Alice Stuart Wortley and finally Vera Hockman, who enlivened his old age.
In 1882, seeking more professional orchestral experience, Elgar was employed as a violinist in Birmingham in William Stockley's Orchestra, for whom he played every concert for the next seven years and where he later said he "learned all the music I know". On 13 December 1883 he took part with Stockley in a performance at Birmingham Town Hall of one of his first works for full orchestra, the Sérénade mauresque – the first time one of his compositions had been performed by a professional orchestra. Stockley had invited him to conduct the piece but later recalled "he declined, and, further, insisted upon playing in his place in the orchestra. The consequence was that he had to appear, fiddle in hand, to acknowledge the genuine and hearty applause of the audience." Elgar often went to London in an attempt to get his works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and low on money. He wrote to a friend in April 1884, "My prospects are about as hopeless as ever ... I am not wanting in energy I think, so sometimes I conclude that 'tis want of ability. ... I have no money – not a cent."
Marriage
When Elgar was 29, he took on a new pupil, Caroline Alice Roberts, known as Alice, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and published author of verse and prose fiction. Eight years older than Elgar, Alice became his wife three years later. Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "Alice's family was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic. She was disinherited." They were married on 8 May 1889, at Brompton Oratory. From then until her death, she acted as his business manager and social secretary, dealt with his mood swings, and was a perceptive musical critic. She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. In time, he would learn to accept the honours given him, realising that they mattered more to her and her social class and recognising what she had given up to further his career. In her diary, she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman." As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin-and-piano piece Salut d'Amour to her. With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, and Elgar started devoting his time to composition. Their only child, Carice Irene, was born at their home in West Kensington on 14 August 1890. Her name, revealed in Elgar's dedication of Salut d'Amour, was a contraction of her mother's names Caroline and Alice.
Elgar took full advantage of the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music. In the days before miniature scores and recordings were available, it was not easy for young composers to get to know new music. Elgar took every chance to do so at the Crystal Palace concerts. He and Alice attended day after day, hearing music by a wide range of composers. Among these were masters of orchestration from whom he learned much, such as Berlioz and Richard Wagner. His own compositions made little impact on London's musical scene. August Manns conducted Elgar's orchestral version of Salut d'amour and the Suite in D at the Crystal Palace, and two publishers accepted some of Elgar's violin pieces, organ voluntaries, and part songs. Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly. For example, an offer from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to run through some of his works was withdrawn at the last second when Sir Arthur Sullivan arrived unannounced to rehearse some of his own music. Sullivan was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened. Elgar's only important commission while in London came from his home city: the Worcester Festival Committee invited him to compose a short orchestral work for the 1890 Three Choirs Festival. The result is described by Diana McVeagh in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as "his first major work, the assured and uninhibited Froissart." Elgar conducted the first performance in Worcester in September 1890. For lack of other work, he was obliged to leave London in 1891 and return with his wife and child to Worcestershire, where he could earn a living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching. They settled in Alice's former home town, Great Malvern.
Growing reputation
During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."
In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.
The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.
National and international fame
Elgar's biographer Basil Maine commented, "When Sir Arthur Sullivan died in 1900 it became apparent to many that Elgar, although a composer of another build, was his true successor as first musician of the land." Elgar's next major work was eagerly awaited. For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1900, he set Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem The Dream of Gerontius for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Richter conducted the premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly. Critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance. It was performed in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1901 and again in 1902, conducted by Julius Buths, who also conducted the European premiere of the Enigma Variations in 1901. The German press was enthusiastic. The Cologne Gazette said, "In both parts we meet with beauties of imperishable value. ... Elgar stands on the shoulders of Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt, from whose influences he has freed himself until he has become an important individuality. He is one of the leaders of musical art of modern times." The Düsseldorfer Volksblatt wrote, "A memorable and epoch-making first performance! Since the days of Liszt nothing has been produced in the way of oratorio ... which reaches the greatness and importance of this sacred cantata." Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as the leading composer of his day, was so impressed that in Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar." Performances in Vienna, Paris and New York followed, and The Dream of Gerontius soon became equally admired in Britain. According to Kennedy, "It is unquestionably the greatest British work in the oratorio form ... [it] opened a new chapter in the English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation." Elgar, as a Roman Catholic, was much moved by Newman's poem about the death and redemption of a sinner, but some influential members of the Anglican establishment disagreed. His colleague, Charles Villiers Stanford complained that the work "stinks of incense". The Dean of Gloucester banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester the following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance.
Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which were composed between 1901 and 1930. It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms, where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called the "trio") of the first march came into his head, he told his friend Dora Penny, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em – will knock 'em flat". When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade Concert, it was conducted by Henry Wood, who later wrote that the audience "rose and yelled ... the one and only time in the history of the Promenade concerts that an orchestral item was accorded a double encore." To mark the coronation of Edward VII, Elgar was commissioned to set A. C. Benson's Coronation Ode for a gala concert at the Royal Opera House on 30 June 1902. The approval of the king was confirmed, and Elgar began work. The contralto Clara Butt had persuaded him that the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance march could have words fitted to it, and Elgar invited Benson to do so. Elgar incorporated the new vocal version into the Ode. The publishers of the score recognised the potential of the vocal piece, "Land of Hope and Glory", and asked Benson and Elgar to make a further revision for publication as a separate song. It was immensely popular and is now considered an unofficial British national anthem. In the United States, the trio, known simply as "Pomp and Circumstance" or "The Graduation March", has been adopted since 1905 for virtually all high school and university graduations.
In March 1904 a three-day festival of Elgar's works was presented at Covent Garden, an honour never before given to any English composer. The Times commented, "Four or five years ago if any one had predicted that the Opera-house would be full from floor to ceiling for the performance of an oratorio by an English composer he would probably have been supposed to be out of his mind." The king and queen attended the first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius, and returned the next evening for the second, the London premiere of The Apostles (first heard the previous year at the Birmingham Festival). The final concert of the festival, conducted by Elgar, was primarily orchestral, apart for an excerpt from Caractacus and the complete Sea Pictures (sung by Clara Butt). The orchestral items were Froissart, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a new orchestral work, In the South, inspired by a holiday in Italy.
Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904. The following month, he and his family moved to Plâs Gwyn, a large house on the outskirts of Hereford, overlooking the River Wye, where they lived until 1911. Between 1902 and 1914, Elgar was, in Kennedy's words, at the zenith of popularity. He made four visits to the US, including one conducting tour, and earned considerable fees from the performance of his music. Between 1905 and 1908, he held the post of Peyton Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. He had accepted the post reluctantly, feeling that a composer should not head a school of music. He was not at ease in the role, and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on the critics and on English music in general: "Vulgarity in the course of time may be refined. Vulgarity often goes with inventiveness ... but the commonplace mind can never be anything but commonplace. An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and will point out to you that it is white – all over white – and somebody will say, 'What exquisite taste'. You know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all, that it is the want of taste, that is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything." He regretted the controversy and was glad to hand on the post to his friend Granville Bantock in 1908. His new life as a celebrity was a mixed blessing to the highly strung Elgar, as it interrupted his privacy, and he often was in ill-health. He complained to Jaeger in 1903, "My life is one continual giving up of little things which I love." Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would have collaborated with Bernard Shaw had Shaw been willing.
Elgar paid three visits to the USA between 1905 and 1911. His first was to conduct his music and to accept a doctorate from Yale University. His principal composition in 1905 was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, dedicated to Samuel Sanford. It was well received but did not catch the public imagination as The Dream of Gerontius had done and continued to do. Among keen Elgarians, however, The Kingdom was sometimes preferred to the earlier work: Elgar's friend Frank Schuster told the young Adrian Boult: "compared with The Kingdom, Gerontius is the work of a raw amateur." As Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his first symphony, a project that had been in his mind in various forms for nearly ten years. His First Symphony (1908) was a national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch. There were performances in Rome, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and fifteen British towns and cities. In just over a year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe.
The Violin Concerto (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists of the time. Elgar wrote it during the summer of 1910, with occasional help from W. H. Reed, the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed a firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I Knew Him (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition. The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with Kreisler and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion." So great was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugène Ysaÿe spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented Ysaÿe from playing it in London.
The Violin Concerto was Elgar's last popular triumph. The following year he presented his Second Symphony in London, but was disappointed at its reception. Unlike the First Symphony, it ends not in a blaze of orchestral splendour but quietly and contemplatively. Reed, who played at the premiere, later wrote that Elgar was recalled to the platform several times to acknowledge the applause, "but missed that unmistakable note perceived when an audience, even an English audience, is thoroughly roused or worked up, as it was after the Violin Concerto or the First Symphony." Elgar asked Reed, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." The work was, by normal standards, a success, with twenty-seven performances within three years of its premiere, but it did not achieve the international furore of the First Symphony.
Last major works
In June 1911, as part of the celebrations surrounding the coronation of King George V, Elgar was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour limited to twenty-four holders at any time. The following year, the Elgars moved back to London, to a large house in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, designed by Norman Shaw. There Elgar composed his last two large-scale works of the pre-war era, the choral ode, The Music Makers (for the Birmingham Festival, 1912) and the symphonic study Falstaff (for the Leeds Festival, 1913). Both were received politely but without enthusiasm. Even the dedicatee of Falstaff, the conductor Landon Ronald, confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece," while the musical scholar Percy Scholes wrote of Falstaff that it was a "great work" but, "so far as public appreciation goes, a comparative failure."
When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused. He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later withdrew. He signed up as a special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army. He composed patriotic works, Carillon, a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, and Polonia, an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune.
Elgar's other compositions during the war included incidental music for a children's play, The Starlight Express (1915); a ballet, The Sanguine Fan (1917); and The Spirit of England (1915–17, to poems by Laurence Binyon), three choral settings very different in character from the romantic patriotism of his earlier years. His last large-scale composition of the war years was The Fringes of the Fleet, settings of verses by Rudyard Kipling, performed with great popular success around the country, until Kipling for unexplained reasons objected to their performance in theatres. Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company.
Towards the end of the war, Elgar was in poor health. His wife thought it best for him to move to the countryside, and she rented "Brinkwells", a house near Fittleworth in Sussex, from the painter Rex Vicat Cole. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced four large-scale works. The first three of these were chamber pieces: the Violin Sonata in E minor, the Piano Quintet in A minor, and the String Quartet in E minor. On hearing the work in progress, Alice Elgar wrote in her diary, "E. writing wonderful new music". All three works were well received. The Times wrote, "Elgar's sonata contains much that we have heard before in other forms, but as we do not at all want him to change and be somebody else, that is as it should be." The quartet and quintet were premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May 1919. The Manchester Guardian wrote, "This quartet, with its tremendous climaxes, curious refinements of dance-rhythms, and its perfect symmetry, and the quintet, more lyrical and passionate, are as perfect examples of chamber music as the great oratorios were of their type."
By contrast, the remaining work, the Cello Concerto in E minor, had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season in October 1919. Apart from the Elgar work, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity." Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played the work for him again later. In contrast with the First Symphony and its hundred performances in just over a year, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.
Last years
Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion, his admirers continued to present his works when possible. Reed singles out a performance of the Second Symphony in March 1920 conducted by "a young man almost unknown to the public", Adrian Boult, for bringing "the grandeur and nobility of the work" to a wider public. Also in 1920, Landon Ronald presented an all-Elgar concert at the Queen's Hall. Alice Elgar wrote with enthusiasm about the reception of the symphony, but this was one of the last times she heard Elgar's music played in public. After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two.
Elgar was devastated by the loss of his wife. With no public demand for new works, and deprived of Alice's constant support and inspiration, he allowed himself to be deflected from composition. His daughter later wrote that Elgar inherited from his father a reluctance to "settle down to work on hand but could cheerfully spend hours over some perfectly unnecessary and entirely unremunerative undertaking", a trait that became stronger after Alice's death. For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies. Throughout his life he was a keen amateur chemist, sometimes using a laboratory in his back garden. He even patented the "Elgar Sulphuretted Hydrogen Apparatus" in 1908. He enjoyed football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., for whom he composed an anthem, "He Banged the Leather for Goal", and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protégés, the conductor Malcolm Sargent and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, both recalled rehearsals with Elgar at which he swiftly satisfied himself that all was well and then went off to the races. In his younger days, Elgar had been an enthusiastic cyclist, buying Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife in 1903 (he named his "Mr. Phoebus"). As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about the countryside by his chauffeur. In November and December 1923, he took a voyage to Brazil, journeying up the Amazon to Manaus, where he was impressed by its opera house, the Teatro Amazonas. Almost nothing is recorded about Elgar's activities or the events that he encountered during the trip, which gave the novelist James Hamilton-Paterson considerable latitude when writing Gerontius, a fictional account of the journey.
After Alice's death, Elgar sold the Hampstead house, and after living for a short time in a flat in St James's in the heart of London, he moved back to Worcestershire, to the village of Kempsey, where he lived from 1923 to 1927. He did not wholly abandon composition in these years. He made large-scale symphonic arrangements of works by Bach and Handel and wrote his Empire March and eight songs Pageant of Empire for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Shortly after these were published, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick on 13 May 1924, following the death of Sir Walter Parratt.
From 1926 onwards, Elgar made a series of recordings of his own works. Described by the music writer Robert Philip as "the first composer to take the gramophone seriously", he had already recorded much of his music by the early acoustic-recording process for His Master's Voice (HMV) from 1914 onwards, but the introduction of electrical microphones in 1925 transformed the gramophone from a novelty into a realistic medium for reproducing orchestral and choral music. Elgar was the first composer to take full advantage of this technological advance. Fred Gaisberg of HMV, who produced Elgar's recordings, set up a series of sessions to capture on disc the composer's interpretations of his major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations, Falstaff, the first and second symphonies, and the cello and violin concertos. For most of these, the orchestra was the LSO, but the Variations were played by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. Later in the series of recordings, Elgar also conducted two newly founded orchestras, Boult's BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elgar's recordings were released on 78-rpm discs by both HMV and RCA Victor. After World War II, the 1932 recording of the Violin Concerto with the teenage Menuhin as soloist remained available on 78 and later on LP, but the other recordings were out of the catalogues for some years. When they were reissued by EMI on LP in the 1970s, they caused surprise to many by their fast tempi, in contrast to the slower speeds adopted by many conductors in the years since Elgar's death. The recordings were reissued on CD in the 1990s.
In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Pathé for a newsreel depicting a recording session of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. It is believed to be the only surviving sound film of Elgar, who makes a brief remark before conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before." A memorial plaque to Elgar at Abbey Road was unveiled on 24 June 1993.
A late piece of Elgar's, the Nursery Suite, was an early example of a studio premiere: its first performance was in the Abbey Road studios. For this work, dedicated to the wife and daughters of the Duke of York, Elgar once again drew on his youthful sketch-books.
In his final years, Elgar experienced a musical revival. The BBC organised a festival of his works to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday, in 1932. He flew to Paris in 1933 to conduct the Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellow composer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing. He was sought out by younger musicians such as Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent and John Barbirolli, who championed his music when it was out of fashion. He began work on an opera, The Spanish Lady, and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony. His final illness prevented their completion. He fretted about the unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony, but at other times he said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it – or write a better one." After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young, in co-operation with the BBC and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady, which was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1997.
Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation on 8 October 1933. He told his consulting doctor, Arthur Thomson, that he had no faith in an afterlife: "I believe there is nothing but complete oblivion." Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and was buried next to his wife at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern.
Music
Influences, antecedents and early works
Elgar was contemptuous of folk music and had little interest in or respect for the early English composers, calling William Byrd and his contemporaries "museum pieces". Of later English composers, he regarded Purcell as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings. The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism, the influence of Wagner is apparent, but Elgar's individual style of orchestration owes much to the clarity of nineteenth-century French composers, Berlioz, Massenet, Saint-Saëns and, particularly, Delibes, whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired.
Elgar began composing when still a child, and all his life he drew on his early sketchbooks for themes and inspiration. The habit of assembling his compositions, even large-scale ones, from scraps of themes jotted down randomly remained throughout his life. His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 1878 and 1881, and music of many types for the Powick Asylum band. Diana McVeagh in Grove's Dictionary finds many embryonic Elgarian touches in these pieces, but few of them are regularly played, except Salut d'Amour and (as arranged decades later into The Wand of Youth Suites) some of the childhood sketches. Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 1889–91, the overture Froissart, was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner, but also showing further Elgarian characteristics. Orchestral works composed during the subsequent years in Worcestershire include the Serenade for Strings and Three Bavarian Dances. In this period and later, Elgar wrote songs and part songs. W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised the part song The Snow, for female voices, and Sea Pictures, a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra which remains in the repertory.
Elgar's principal large-scale early works were for chorus and orchestra for the Three Choirs and other festivals. These were The Black Knight, King Olaf, The Light of Life, The Banner of St George and Caractacus. He also wrote a Te Deum and Benedictus for the Hereford Festival. Of these, McVeagh comments favourably on his lavish orchestration and innovative use of leitmotifs, but less favourably on the qualities of his chosen texts and the patchiness of his inspiration. McVeagh makes the point that, because these works of the 1890s were for many years little known (and performances remain rare), the mastery of his first great success, the Enigma Variations, appeared to be a sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade.
Peak creative years
Elgar's best-known works were composed within the twenty-one years between 1899 and 1920. Most of them are orchestral. Reed wrote, "Elgar's genius rose to its greatest height in his orchestral works" and quoted the composer as saying that, even in his oratorios, the orchestral part is the most important. The Enigma Variations made Elgar's name nationally. The variation form was ideal for him at this stage of his career, when his comprehensive mastery of orchestration was still in contrast to his tendency to write his melodies in short, sometimes rigid, phrases. His next orchestral works, Cockaigne, a concert-overture (1900–1901), the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901), and the gentle Dream Children (1902), are all short: the longest of them, Cockaigne, lasting less than fifteen minutes. In the South (1903–1904), although designated by Elgar as a concert-overture, is, according to Kennedy, really a tone poem and the longest continuous piece of purely orchestral writing Elgar had essayed. He wrote it after setting aside an early attempt to compose a symphony. The work reveals his continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in the middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at less than its brightest." In 1905 Elgar completed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. This work is based, unlike much of Elgar's earlier writing, not on a profusion of themes but on only three. Kennedy called it a "masterly composition, equalled among English works for strings only by Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia."
During the next four years Elgar composed three major concert pieces, which, though shorter than comparable works by some of his European contemporaries, are among the most substantial such works by an English composer. These were his First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Second Symphony, which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour. McVeagh says of the symphonies that they "rank high not only in Elgar's output but in English musical history. Both are long and powerful, without published programmes, only hints and quotations to indicate some inward drama from which they derive their vitality and eloquence. Both are based on classical form but differ from it to the extent that ... they were considered prolix and slackly constructed by some critics. Certainly the invention in them is copious; each symphony would need several dozen music examples to chart its progress."
Elgar's Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, in the view of Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind". They are, however, very different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached the height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart, is lyrical throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns. The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to another age, another world ... the simplest of all Elgar's major works ... also the least grandiloquent." Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study Falstaff, which has divided opinion even among Elgar's strongest admirers. Donald Tovey viewed it as "one of the immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with Shakespeare's", while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters. Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works. Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work.
The major works for voices and orchestra of the twenty-one years of Elgar's middle period are three large-scale works for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and the oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); and two shorter odes, the Coronation Ode (1902) and The Music Makers (1912). The first of the odes, as a pièce d'occasion, has rarely been revived after its initial success, with the culminating "Land of Hope and Glory". The second is, for Elgar, unusual in that it contains several quotations from his earlier works, as Richard Strauss quoted himself in Ein Heldenleben. The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius, was and remains the best-loved and most performed. On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory." All three of the large-scale works follow the traditional model with sections for soloists, chorus and both together. Elgar's distinctive orchestration, as well as his melodic inspiration, lifts them to a higher level than most of their British predecessors.
Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid, a play by George Moore and W. B. Yeats (1901), and for The Starlight Express, a play based on a story by Algernon Blackwood (1916). Of the former, Yeats called Elgar's music "wonderful in its heroic melancholy". Elgar also wrote a number of songs during his peak period, of which Reed observes, "it cannot be said that he enriched the vocal repertory to the same extent as he did that of the orchestra."
Final years and posthumous completions
After the Cello Concerto, Elgar completed no more large-scale works. He made arrangements of works by Bach, Handel and Chopin, in distinctively Elgarian orchestration, and once again turned his youthful notebooks to use for the Nursery Suite (1931). His other compositions of this period have not held a place in the regular repertory. For most of the rest of the twentieth century, it was generally agreed that Elgar's creative impulse ceased after his wife's death. Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony led to a reconsideration of this supposition. Elgar left the opening of the symphony complete in full score, and those pages, along with others, show Elgar's orchestration changed markedly from the richness of his pre-war work. The Gramophone described the opening of the new work as something "thrilling ... unforgettably gaunt". Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, premiered at the Proms in August 2006. Elgar's sketches for a piano concerto dating from 1913 were elaborated by the composer Robert Walker and first performed in August 1997 by the pianist David Owen Norris. The realisation has since been extensively revised.
Reputation
Views of Elgar's stature have varied in the decades since his music came to prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century. Richard Strauss, as noted, hailed Elgar as a progressive composer; even the hostile reviewer in The Observer, unimpressed by the thematic material of the First Symphony in 1908, called the orchestration "magnificently modern". Hans Richter rated Elgar as "the greatest modern composer" in any country, and Richter's colleague Arthur Nikisch considered the First Symphony "a masterpiece of the first order" to be "justly ranked with the great symphonic models – Beethoven and Brahms." By contrast, the critic W. J. Turner, in the mid-twentieth century, wrote of Elgar's "Salvation Army symphonies," and Herbert von Karajan called the Enigma Variations "second-hand Brahms". Elgar's immense popularity was not long-lived. After the success of his First Symphony and Violin Concerto, his Second Symphony and Cello Concerto were politely received but without the earlier wild enthusiasm. His music was identified in the public mind with the Edwardian era, and after the First World War he no longer seemed a progressive or modern composer. In the early 1920s, even the First Symphony had only one London performance in more than three years. Wood and younger conductors such as Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli championed Elgar's music, but in the recording catalogues and the concert programmes of the middle of the century his works were not well represented.
In 1924, the music scholar Edward J. Dent wrote an article for a German music journal in which he identified four features of Elgar's style that gave offence to a section of English opinion (namely, Dent indicated, the academic and snobbish section): "too emotional", "not quite free from vulgarity", "pompous", and "too deliberately noble in expression". This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy. In the later years of the century there was, in Britain at least, a revival of interest in Elgar's music. The features that had offended austere taste in the inter-war years were seen from a different perspective. In 1955, the reference book The Record Guide wrote of the Edwardian background during the height of Elgar's career:
By the 1960s, a less severe view was being taken of the Edwardian era. In 1966 the critic Frank Howes wrote that Elgar reflected the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life, before World War I swept so much away. In Howes's view, there was a touch of vulgarity in both the era and Elgar's music, but "a composer is entitled to be judged by posterity for his best work. ... Elgar is historically important for giving to English music a sense of the orchestra, for expressing what it felt like to be alive in the Edwardian age, for conferring on the world at least four unqualified masterpieces, and for thereby restoring England to the comity of musical nations."
In 1967 the critic and analyst David Cox considered the question of the supposed Englishness of Elgar's music. Cox noted that Elgar disliked folk-songs and never used them in his works, opting for an idiom that was essentially German, leavened by a lightness derived from French composers including Berlioz and Gounod. How then, asked Cox, could Elgar be "the most English of composers"? Cox found the answer in Elgar's own personality, which "could use the alien idioms in such a way as to make of them a vital form of expression that was his and his alone. And the personality that comes through in the music is English." This point about Elgar's transmuting his influences had been touched on before. In 1930 The Times wrote, "When Elgar's first symphony came out, someone attempted to prove that its main tune on which all depends was like the Grail theme in Parsifal. ... but the attempt fell flat because everyone else, including those who disliked the tune, had instantly recognized it as typically 'Elgarian', while the Grail theme is as typically Wagnerian." As for Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and Stravinsky made particular reference to it, and Sibelius called him "the personification of the true English character in music ... a noble personality and a born aristocrat".
Among Elgar's admirers there is disagreement about which of his works are to be regarded as masterpieces. The Enigma Variations are generally counted among them. The Dream of Gerontius has also been given high praise by Elgarians, and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated. Many rate the Violin Concerto equally highly, but some do not. Sackville-West omitted it from the list of Elgar masterpieces in The Record Guide, and in a long analytical article in The Musical Quarterly, Daniel Gregory Mason criticised the first movement of the concerto for a "kind of sing-songiness ... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry." Falstaff also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite, and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it. In a Musical Times 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by contrast, several contributors share Eric Blom's view that Falstaff is the greatest of all Elgar's works.
The two symphonies divide opinion even more sharply. Mason rates the Second poorly for its "over-obvious rhythmic scheme", but calls the First "Elgar's masterpiece. ... It is hard to see how any candid student can deny the greatness of this symphony." However, in the 1957 centenary symposium, several leading admirers of Elgar express reservations about one or both symphonies. In the same year, Roger Fiske wrote in The Gramophone, "For some reason few people seem to like the two Elgar symphonies equally; each has its champions and often they are more than a little bored by the rival work." The critic John Warrack wrote, "There are no sadder pages in symphonic literature than the close of the First Symphony's Adagio, as horn and trombones twice softly intone a phrase of utter grief", whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and angst and is marked instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."
Despite the fluctuating critical assessment of the various works over the years, Elgar's major works taken as a whole have in the twenty-first century recovered strongly from their neglect in the 1950s. The Record Guide in 1955 could list only one currently available recording of the First Symphony, none of the Second, one of the Violin Concerto, two of the Cello Concerto, two of the Enigma Variations, one of Falstaff, and none of The Dream of Gerontius. Since then there have been multiple recordings of all the major works. More than thirty recordings have been made of the First Symphony since 1955, for example, and more than a dozen of The Dream of Gerontius. Similarly, in the concert hall, Elgar's works, after a period of neglect, are once again frequently programmed. The Elgar Society's website, in its diary of forthcoming performances, lists performances of Elgar's works by orchestras, soloists and conductors across Europe, North America and Australia.
Honours, awards and commemorations
Elgar was knighted in 1904, and in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. In 1920 he received the Cross of Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown; in 1924 he was made Master of the King's Musick; the following year he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; and in 1928 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). Between 1900 and 1931, Elgar received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Yale (USA), Aberdeen, Western Pennsylvania (USA), Birmingham and London. Foreign academies of which he was made a member were Regia Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; Accademia del Reale Istituto Musicale, Florence; Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris; Institut de France; and the American Academy. In 1931 he was created a Baronet, of Broadheath in the County of Worcester. In 1933 he was promoted within the Royal Victorian Order to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO). In Kennedy's words, he "shamelessly touted" for a peerage, but in vain. In Who's Who, post-First World War, he claimed to have been awarded "several Imperial Russian and German decorations (lapsed)". Elgar was offered, but declined, the office of Mayor of Hereford (despite not being a member of its city council) when he lived in the city in 1905. The same year he was made an honorary freeman of the city of Worcester.
The house in Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born is now the Elgar Birthplace Museum, devoted to his life and work. Elgar's daughter, Carice, helped to found the museum in 1936 and bequeathed to it much of her collection of Elgar's letters and documents on her death in 1970. Carice left Elgar manuscripts to musical colleges: The Black Knight to Trinity College of Music; King Olaf to the Royal Academy of Music; The Music Makers to Birmingham University; the Cello Concerto to the Royal College of Music; The Kingdom to the Bodleian Library; and other manuscripts to the British Museum. The Elgar Society dedicated to the composer and his works was formed in 1951.
Elgar's statue at the end of Worcester High Street stands facing the cathedral, only yards from where his father's shop once stood. Another statue of the composer by Rose Garrard is at the top of Church Street in Malvern, overlooking the town and giving visitors an opportunity to stand next to the composer in the shadow of the Hills that he so often regarded. In September 2005, a third statue sculpted by Jemma Pearson was unveiled near Hereford Cathedral in honour of his many musical and other associations with the city. It depicts Elgar with his bicycle. From 1999 until early 2007, new Bank of England twenty pound notes featured a portrait of Elgar. The change to remove his image generated controversy, particularly because 2007 was the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. From 2007 the Elgar notes were phased out, ceasing to be legal tender on 30 June 2010. There are around 65 roads in the UK named after Elgar, including six in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Elgar had three locomotives named in his honour.
Elgar's life and music have inspired works of literature including the novel Gerontius and several plays. Elgar's Rondo, a 1993 stage play by David Pownall depicts the dead Jaeger offering ghostly advice on Elgar's musical development. Pownall also wrote a radio play, Elgar's Third (1994); another Elgar-themed radio play is Alick Rowe's The Dorabella Variation (2003). David Rudkin's BBC television "Play for Today" Penda's Fen (1974) deals with themes including sex and adolescence, spying, and snobbery, with Elgar's music, chiefly The Dream of Gerontius, as its background. In one scene, a ghostly Elgar whispers the secret of the "Enigma" tune to the youthful central character, with an injunction not to reveal it. Elgar on the Journey to Hanley, a novel by Keith Alldritt (1979), tells of the composer's attachment to Dora Penny, later Mrs Powell, (depicted as "Dorabella" in the Enigma Variations), and covers the fifteen years from their first meeting in the mid-1890s to the genesis of the Violin Concerto when, in the novel, Dora has been supplanted in Elgar's affections by Alice Stuart-Wortley.
Perhaps the best-known work depicting Elgar is Ken Russell's 1962 BBC television film Elgar, made when the composer was still largely out of fashion. This hour-long film contradicted the view of Elgar as a jingoistic and bombastic composer, and evoked the more pastoral and melancholy side of his character and music.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
The Elgar Society, official site.
The Elgar Foundation and Birthplace Museum, official site.
"Elgar, Sir Edward William" at The National Archives
"The Growing Significance of Elgar", lecture by Simon Mundy, Gresham College, 29 June 2007
1857 births
1934 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century male conductors (music)
19th-century conductors (music)
19th-century English musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century British conductors (music)
20th-century English musicians
20th-century British male musicians
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Brass band composers
British ballet composers
British male conductors (music)
Burials in Worcestershire
Catholic liturgical composers
Classical composers of church music
Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Composers awarded knighthoods
Composers for carillon
Composers for pipe organ
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from colorectal cancer
English classical composers
English conductors (music)
English male classical composers
English Roman Catholics
English Romantic composers
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors
Masters of the King's Music
Members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Members of the Order of Merit
Metropolitan Special Constabulary officers
Musicians from Worcestershire
Oratorio composers
People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire
People from Worcester, England
People of the Victorian era
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
People from Fittleworth
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"The 23rd Fangoria Chainsaw Awards is an award ceremony presented for horror films that were released in 2020. The nominees were announced on January 20, 2021. The film The Invisible Man won five of its five nominations, including Best Wide Release, as well as the write-in poll of Best Kill. Color Out Of Space and Possessor each took two awards. His House did not win any of its seven nominations. The ceremony was exclusively livestreamed for the first time on the SHUDDER horror streaming service.\n\nWinners and nominees\n\nReferences\n\nFangoria Chainsaw Awards"
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"Edward Elgar",
"Growing reputation",
"did he have anyone influence his career?",
"I don't know.",
"did he win any awards?",
"I don't know."
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C_f146bd8d3ee34fc486d76f99e126e1d1_1
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did he work with anyone famous?
| 3 |
did Edward Elgar work with anyone famous?
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Edward Elgar
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During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come." In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written - if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation. The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple. CANNOTANSWER
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this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss.
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Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British Army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music continues to be played more in Britain than elsewhere.
Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the moving-coil microphone in 1923 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius.
Biography
Early years
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England on 2 June 1857. His father, William Henry Elgar (1821–1906), was raised in Dover and had been apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. In 1848 he married Ann Greening (1822–1902), daughter of a farm worker. Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.
Elgar's mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development. He inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. His friend and biographer W. H. "Billy" Reed wrote that Elgar's early surroundings had an influence that "permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality". He began composing at an early age; for a play written and acted by the Elgar children when he was about ten, he wrote music that forty years later he rearranged with only minor changes and orchestrated as the suites titled The Wand of Youth.
Until he was fifteen, Elgar received a general education at Littleton (now Lyttleton) House school, near Worcester. His only formal musical training beyond piano and violin lessons from local teachers consisted of more advanced violin studies with Adolf Pollitzer, during brief visits to London in 1877–78. Elgar said, "my first music was learnt in the Cathedral ... from books borrowed from the music library, when I was eight, nine or ten." He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music. He later said that he had been most helped by Hubert Parry's articles in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to the Leipzig Conservatory for further musical studies, but his father could not afford to send him. Years later, a profile in The Musical Times considered that his failure to get to Leipzig was fortunate for Elgar's musical development: "Thus the budding composer escaped the dogmatism of the schools." However, it was a disappointment to Elgar that on leaving school in 1872 he went not to Leipzig but to the office of a local solicitor as a clerk. He did not find an office career congenial, and for fulfilment he turned not only to music but to literature, becoming a voracious reader. Around this time, he made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist.
After a few months, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop. He was an active member of the Worcester Glee club, along with his father, and he accompanied singers, played the violin, composed and arranged works, and conducted for the first time. Pollitzer believed that, as a violinist, Elgar had the potential to be one of the leading soloists in the country, but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked a full enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist. At twenty-two he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at the Worcester and County Lunatic Asylum in Powick, from Worcester. The band consisted of: piccolo, flute, clarinet, two cornets, euphonium, three or four first and a similar number of second violins, occasional viola, cello, double bass and piano. Elgar coached the players and wrote and arranged their music, including quadrilles and polkas, for the unusual combination of instruments. The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments." He held the post for five years, from 1879, travelling to Powick once a week. Another post he held in his early days was professor of the violin at the Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen.
Although rather solitary and introspective by nature, Elgar thrived in Worcester's musical circles. He played in the violins at the Worcester and Birmingham Festivals, and one great experience was to play Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 and Stabat Mater under the composer's baton. Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band). Elgar arranged numerous pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and others for the quintet, honing his arranging and compositional skills.
In his first trips abroad, Elgar visited Paris in 1880 and Leipzig in 1882. He heard Saint-Saëns play the organ at the Madeleine and attended concerts by first-rate orchestras. In 1882 he wrote, "I got pretty well dosed with Schumann (my ideal!), Brahms, Rubinstein & Wagner, so had no cause to complain." In Leipzig he visited a friend, Helen Weaver, who was a student at the Conservatoire. They became engaged in the summer of 1883, but for unknown reasons the engagement was broken off the next year. Elgar was greatly distressed, and some of his later cryptic dedications of romantic music may have alluded to Helen and his feelings for her. Throughout his life, Elgar was often inspired by close women friends; Helen Weaver was succeeded by Mary Lygon, Dora Penny, Julia Worthington, Alice Stuart Wortley and finally Vera Hockman, who enlivened his old age.
In 1882, seeking more professional orchestral experience, Elgar was employed as a violinist in Birmingham in William Stockley's Orchestra, for whom he played every concert for the next seven years and where he later said he "learned all the music I know". On 13 December 1883 he took part with Stockley in a performance at Birmingham Town Hall of one of his first works for full orchestra, the Sérénade mauresque – the first time one of his compositions had been performed by a professional orchestra. Stockley had invited him to conduct the piece but later recalled "he declined, and, further, insisted upon playing in his place in the orchestra. The consequence was that he had to appear, fiddle in hand, to acknowledge the genuine and hearty applause of the audience." Elgar often went to London in an attempt to get his works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and low on money. He wrote to a friend in April 1884, "My prospects are about as hopeless as ever ... I am not wanting in energy I think, so sometimes I conclude that 'tis want of ability. ... I have no money – not a cent."
Marriage
When Elgar was 29, he took on a new pupil, Caroline Alice Roberts, known as Alice, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and published author of verse and prose fiction. Eight years older than Elgar, Alice became his wife three years later. Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "Alice's family was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic. She was disinherited." They were married on 8 May 1889, at Brompton Oratory. From then until her death, she acted as his business manager and social secretary, dealt with his mood swings, and was a perceptive musical critic. She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. In time, he would learn to accept the honours given him, realising that they mattered more to her and her social class and recognising what she had given up to further his career. In her diary, she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman." As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin-and-piano piece Salut d'Amour to her. With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, and Elgar started devoting his time to composition. Their only child, Carice Irene, was born at their home in West Kensington on 14 August 1890. Her name, revealed in Elgar's dedication of Salut d'Amour, was a contraction of her mother's names Caroline and Alice.
Elgar took full advantage of the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music. In the days before miniature scores and recordings were available, it was not easy for young composers to get to know new music. Elgar took every chance to do so at the Crystal Palace concerts. He and Alice attended day after day, hearing music by a wide range of composers. Among these were masters of orchestration from whom he learned much, such as Berlioz and Richard Wagner. His own compositions made little impact on London's musical scene. August Manns conducted Elgar's orchestral version of Salut d'amour and the Suite in D at the Crystal Palace, and two publishers accepted some of Elgar's violin pieces, organ voluntaries, and part songs. Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly. For example, an offer from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to run through some of his works was withdrawn at the last second when Sir Arthur Sullivan arrived unannounced to rehearse some of his own music. Sullivan was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened. Elgar's only important commission while in London came from his home city: the Worcester Festival Committee invited him to compose a short orchestral work for the 1890 Three Choirs Festival. The result is described by Diana McVeagh in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as "his first major work, the assured and uninhibited Froissart." Elgar conducted the first performance in Worcester in September 1890. For lack of other work, he was obliged to leave London in 1891 and return with his wife and child to Worcestershire, where he could earn a living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching. They settled in Alice's former home town, Great Malvern.
Growing reputation
During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."
In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.
The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.
National and international fame
Elgar's biographer Basil Maine commented, "When Sir Arthur Sullivan died in 1900 it became apparent to many that Elgar, although a composer of another build, was his true successor as first musician of the land." Elgar's next major work was eagerly awaited. For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1900, he set Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem The Dream of Gerontius for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Richter conducted the premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly. Critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance. It was performed in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1901 and again in 1902, conducted by Julius Buths, who also conducted the European premiere of the Enigma Variations in 1901. The German press was enthusiastic. The Cologne Gazette said, "In both parts we meet with beauties of imperishable value. ... Elgar stands on the shoulders of Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt, from whose influences he has freed himself until he has become an important individuality. He is one of the leaders of musical art of modern times." The Düsseldorfer Volksblatt wrote, "A memorable and epoch-making first performance! Since the days of Liszt nothing has been produced in the way of oratorio ... which reaches the greatness and importance of this sacred cantata." Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as the leading composer of his day, was so impressed that in Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar." Performances in Vienna, Paris and New York followed, and The Dream of Gerontius soon became equally admired in Britain. According to Kennedy, "It is unquestionably the greatest British work in the oratorio form ... [it] opened a new chapter in the English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation." Elgar, as a Roman Catholic, was much moved by Newman's poem about the death and redemption of a sinner, but some influential members of the Anglican establishment disagreed. His colleague, Charles Villiers Stanford complained that the work "stinks of incense". The Dean of Gloucester banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester the following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance.
Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which were composed between 1901 and 1930. It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms, where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called the "trio") of the first march came into his head, he told his friend Dora Penny, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em – will knock 'em flat". When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade Concert, it was conducted by Henry Wood, who later wrote that the audience "rose and yelled ... the one and only time in the history of the Promenade concerts that an orchestral item was accorded a double encore." To mark the coronation of Edward VII, Elgar was commissioned to set A. C. Benson's Coronation Ode for a gala concert at the Royal Opera House on 30 June 1902. The approval of the king was confirmed, and Elgar began work. The contralto Clara Butt had persuaded him that the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance march could have words fitted to it, and Elgar invited Benson to do so. Elgar incorporated the new vocal version into the Ode. The publishers of the score recognised the potential of the vocal piece, "Land of Hope and Glory", and asked Benson and Elgar to make a further revision for publication as a separate song. It was immensely popular and is now considered an unofficial British national anthem. In the United States, the trio, known simply as "Pomp and Circumstance" or "The Graduation March", has been adopted since 1905 for virtually all high school and university graduations.
In March 1904 a three-day festival of Elgar's works was presented at Covent Garden, an honour never before given to any English composer. The Times commented, "Four or five years ago if any one had predicted that the Opera-house would be full from floor to ceiling for the performance of an oratorio by an English composer he would probably have been supposed to be out of his mind." The king and queen attended the first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius, and returned the next evening for the second, the London premiere of The Apostles (first heard the previous year at the Birmingham Festival). The final concert of the festival, conducted by Elgar, was primarily orchestral, apart for an excerpt from Caractacus and the complete Sea Pictures (sung by Clara Butt). The orchestral items were Froissart, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a new orchestral work, In the South, inspired by a holiday in Italy.
Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904. The following month, he and his family moved to Plâs Gwyn, a large house on the outskirts of Hereford, overlooking the River Wye, where they lived until 1911. Between 1902 and 1914, Elgar was, in Kennedy's words, at the zenith of popularity. He made four visits to the US, including one conducting tour, and earned considerable fees from the performance of his music. Between 1905 and 1908, he held the post of Peyton Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. He had accepted the post reluctantly, feeling that a composer should not head a school of music. He was not at ease in the role, and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on the critics and on English music in general: "Vulgarity in the course of time may be refined. Vulgarity often goes with inventiveness ... but the commonplace mind can never be anything but commonplace. An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and will point out to you that it is white – all over white – and somebody will say, 'What exquisite taste'. You know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all, that it is the want of taste, that is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything." He regretted the controversy and was glad to hand on the post to his friend Granville Bantock in 1908. His new life as a celebrity was a mixed blessing to the highly strung Elgar, as it interrupted his privacy, and he often was in ill-health. He complained to Jaeger in 1903, "My life is one continual giving up of little things which I love." Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would have collaborated with Bernard Shaw had Shaw been willing.
Elgar paid three visits to the USA between 1905 and 1911. His first was to conduct his music and to accept a doctorate from Yale University. His principal composition in 1905 was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, dedicated to Samuel Sanford. It was well received but did not catch the public imagination as The Dream of Gerontius had done and continued to do. Among keen Elgarians, however, The Kingdom was sometimes preferred to the earlier work: Elgar's friend Frank Schuster told the young Adrian Boult: "compared with The Kingdom, Gerontius is the work of a raw amateur." As Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his first symphony, a project that had been in his mind in various forms for nearly ten years. His First Symphony (1908) was a national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch. There were performances in Rome, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and fifteen British towns and cities. In just over a year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe.
The Violin Concerto (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists of the time. Elgar wrote it during the summer of 1910, with occasional help from W. H. Reed, the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed a firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I Knew Him (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition. The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with Kreisler and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion." So great was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugène Ysaÿe spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented Ysaÿe from playing it in London.
The Violin Concerto was Elgar's last popular triumph. The following year he presented his Second Symphony in London, but was disappointed at its reception. Unlike the First Symphony, it ends not in a blaze of orchestral splendour but quietly and contemplatively. Reed, who played at the premiere, later wrote that Elgar was recalled to the platform several times to acknowledge the applause, "but missed that unmistakable note perceived when an audience, even an English audience, is thoroughly roused or worked up, as it was after the Violin Concerto or the First Symphony." Elgar asked Reed, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." The work was, by normal standards, a success, with twenty-seven performances within three years of its premiere, but it did not achieve the international furore of the First Symphony.
Last major works
In June 1911, as part of the celebrations surrounding the coronation of King George V, Elgar was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour limited to twenty-four holders at any time. The following year, the Elgars moved back to London, to a large house in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, designed by Norman Shaw. There Elgar composed his last two large-scale works of the pre-war era, the choral ode, The Music Makers (for the Birmingham Festival, 1912) and the symphonic study Falstaff (for the Leeds Festival, 1913). Both were received politely but without enthusiasm. Even the dedicatee of Falstaff, the conductor Landon Ronald, confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece," while the musical scholar Percy Scholes wrote of Falstaff that it was a "great work" but, "so far as public appreciation goes, a comparative failure."
When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused. He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later withdrew. He signed up as a special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army. He composed patriotic works, Carillon, a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, and Polonia, an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune.
Elgar's other compositions during the war included incidental music for a children's play, The Starlight Express (1915); a ballet, The Sanguine Fan (1917); and The Spirit of England (1915–17, to poems by Laurence Binyon), three choral settings very different in character from the romantic patriotism of his earlier years. His last large-scale composition of the war years was The Fringes of the Fleet, settings of verses by Rudyard Kipling, performed with great popular success around the country, until Kipling for unexplained reasons objected to their performance in theatres. Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company.
Towards the end of the war, Elgar was in poor health. His wife thought it best for him to move to the countryside, and she rented "Brinkwells", a house near Fittleworth in Sussex, from the painter Rex Vicat Cole. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced four large-scale works. The first three of these were chamber pieces: the Violin Sonata in E minor, the Piano Quintet in A minor, and the String Quartet in E minor. On hearing the work in progress, Alice Elgar wrote in her diary, "E. writing wonderful new music". All three works were well received. The Times wrote, "Elgar's sonata contains much that we have heard before in other forms, but as we do not at all want him to change and be somebody else, that is as it should be." The quartet and quintet were premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May 1919. The Manchester Guardian wrote, "This quartet, with its tremendous climaxes, curious refinements of dance-rhythms, and its perfect symmetry, and the quintet, more lyrical and passionate, are as perfect examples of chamber music as the great oratorios were of their type."
By contrast, the remaining work, the Cello Concerto in E minor, had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season in October 1919. Apart from the Elgar work, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity." Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played the work for him again later. In contrast with the First Symphony and its hundred performances in just over a year, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.
Last years
Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion, his admirers continued to present his works when possible. Reed singles out a performance of the Second Symphony in March 1920 conducted by "a young man almost unknown to the public", Adrian Boult, for bringing "the grandeur and nobility of the work" to a wider public. Also in 1920, Landon Ronald presented an all-Elgar concert at the Queen's Hall. Alice Elgar wrote with enthusiasm about the reception of the symphony, but this was one of the last times she heard Elgar's music played in public. After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two.
Elgar was devastated by the loss of his wife. With no public demand for new works, and deprived of Alice's constant support and inspiration, he allowed himself to be deflected from composition. His daughter later wrote that Elgar inherited from his father a reluctance to "settle down to work on hand but could cheerfully spend hours over some perfectly unnecessary and entirely unremunerative undertaking", a trait that became stronger after Alice's death. For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies. Throughout his life he was a keen amateur chemist, sometimes using a laboratory in his back garden. He even patented the "Elgar Sulphuretted Hydrogen Apparatus" in 1908. He enjoyed football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., for whom he composed an anthem, "He Banged the Leather for Goal", and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protégés, the conductor Malcolm Sargent and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, both recalled rehearsals with Elgar at which he swiftly satisfied himself that all was well and then went off to the races. In his younger days, Elgar had been an enthusiastic cyclist, buying Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife in 1903 (he named his "Mr. Phoebus"). As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about the countryside by his chauffeur. In November and December 1923, he took a voyage to Brazil, journeying up the Amazon to Manaus, where he was impressed by its opera house, the Teatro Amazonas. Almost nothing is recorded about Elgar's activities or the events that he encountered during the trip, which gave the novelist James Hamilton-Paterson considerable latitude when writing Gerontius, a fictional account of the journey.
After Alice's death, Elgar sold the Hampstead house, and after living for a short time in a flat in St James's in the heart of London, he moved back to Worcestershire, to the village of Kempsey, where he lived from 1923 to 1927. He did not wholly abandon composition in these years. He made large-scale symphonic arrangements of works by Bach and Handel and wrote his Empire March and eight songs Pageant of Empire for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Shortly after these were published, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick on 13 May 1924, following the death of Sir Walter Parratt.
From 1926 onwards, Elgar made a series of recordings of his own works. Described by the music writer Robert Philip as "the first composer to take the gramophone seriously", he had already recorded much of his music by the early acoustic-recording process for His Master's Voice (HMV) from 1914 onwards, but the introduction of electrical microphones in 1925 transformed the gramophone from a novelty into a realistic medium for reproducing orchestral and choral music. Elgar was the first composer to take full advantage of this technological advance. Fred Gaisberg of HMV, who produced Elgar's recordings, set up a series of sessions to capture on disc the composer's interpretations of his major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations, Falstaff, the first and second symphonies, and the cello and violin concertos. For most of these, the orchestra was the LSO, but the Variations were played by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. Later in the series of recordings, Elgar also conducted two newly founded orchestras, Boult's BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elgar's recordings were released on 78-rpm discs by both HMV and RCA Victor. After World War II, the 1932 recording of the Violin Concerto with the teenage Menuhin as soloist remained available on 78 and later on LP, but the other recordings were out of the catalogues for some years. When they were reissued by EMI on LP in the 1970s, they caused surprise to many by their fast tempi, in contrast to the slower speeds adopted by many conductors in the years since Elgar's death. The recordings were reissued on CD in the 1990s.
In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Pathé for a newsreel depicting a recording session of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. It is believed to be the only surviving sound film of Elgar, who makes a brief remark before conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before." A memorial plaque to Elgar at Abbey Road was unveiled on 24 June 1993.
A late piece of Elgar's, the Nursery Suite, was an early example of a studio premiere: its first performance was in the Abbey Road studios. For this work, dedicated to the wife and daughters of the Duke of York, Elgar once again drew on his youthful sketch-books.
In his final years, Elgar experienced a musical revival. The BBC organised a festival of his works to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday, in 1932. He flew to Paris in 1933 to conduct the Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellow composer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing. He was sought out by younger musicians such as Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent and John Barbirolli, who championed his music when it was out of fashion. He began work on an opera, The Spanish Lady, and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony. His final illness prevented their completion. He fretted about the unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony, but at other times he said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it – or write a better one." After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young, in co-operation with the BBC and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady, which was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1997.
Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation on 8 October 1933. He told his consulting doctor, Arthur Thomson, that he had no faith in an afterlife: "I believe there is nothing but complete oblivion." Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and was buried next to his wife at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern.
Music
Influences, antecedents and early works
Elgar was contemptuous of folk music and had little interest in or respect for the early English composers, calling William Byrd and his contemporaries "museum pieces". Of later English composers, he regarded Purcell as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings. The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism, the influence of Wagner is apparent, but Elgar's individual style of orchestration owes much to the clarity of nineteenth-century French composers, Berlioz, Massenet, Saint-Saëns and, particularly, Delibes, whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired.
Elgar began composing when still a child, and all his life he drew on his early sketchbooks for themes and inspiration. The habit of assembling his compositions, even large-scale ones, from scraps of themes jotted down randomly remained throughout his life. His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 1878 and 1881, and music of many types for the Powick Asylum band. Diana McVeagh in Grove's Dictionary finds many embryonic Elgarian touches in these pieces, but few of them are regularly played, except Salut d'Amour and (as arranged decades later into The Wand of Youth Suites) some of the childhood sketches. Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 1889–91, the overture Froissart, was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner, but also showing further Elgarian characteristics. Orchestral works composed during the subsequent years in Worcestershire include the Serenade for Strings and Three Bavarian Dances. In this period and later, Elgar wrote songs and part songs. W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised the part song The Snow, for female voices, and Sea Pictures, a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra which remains in the repertory.
Elgar's principal large-scale early works were for chorus and orchestra for the Three Choirs and other festivals. These were The Black Knight, King Olaf, The Light of Life, The Banner of St George and Caractacus. He also wrote a Te Deum and Benedictus for the Hereford Festival. Of these, McVeagh comments favourably on his lavish orchestration and innovative use of leitmotifs, but less favourably on the qualities of his chosen texts and the patchiness of his inspiration. McVeagh makes the point that, because these works of the 1890s were for many years little known (and performances remain rare), the mastery of his first great success, the Enigma Variations, appeared to be a sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade.
Peak creative years
Elgar's best-known works were composed within the twenty-one years between 1899 and 1920. Most of them are orchestral. Reed wrote, "Elgar's genius rose to its greatest height in his orchestral works" and quoted the composer as saying that, even in his oratorios, the orchestral part is the most important. The Enigma Variations made Elgar's name nationally. The variation form was ideal for him at this stage of his career, when his comprehensive mastery of orchestration was still in contrast to his tendency to write his melodies in short, sometimes rigid, phrases. His next orchestral works, Cockaigne, a concert-overture (1900–1901), the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901), and the gentle Dream Children (1902), are all short: the longest of them, Cockaigne, lasting less than fifteen minutes. In the South (1903–1904), although designated by Elgar as a concert-overture, is, according to Kennedy, really a tone poem and the longest continuous piece of purely orchestral writing Elgar had essayed. He wrote it after setting aside an early attempt to compose a symphony. The work reveals his continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in the middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at less than its brightest." In 1905 Elgar completed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. This work is based, unlike much of Elgar's earlier writing, not on a profusion of themes but on only three. Kennedy called it a "masterly composition, equalled among English works for strings only by Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia."
During the next four years Elgar composed three major concert pieces, which, though shorter than comparable works by some of his European contemporaries, are among the most substantial such works by an English composer. These were his First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Second Symphony, which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour. McVeagh says of the symphonies that they "rank high not only in Elgar's output but in English musical history. Both are long and powerful, without published programmes, only hints and quotations to indicate some inward drama from which they derive their vitality and eloquence. Both are based on classical form but differ from it to the extent that ... they were considered prolix and slackly constructed by some critics. Certainly the invention in them is copious; each symphony would need several dozen music examples to chart its progress."
Elgar's Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, in the view of Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind". They are, however, very different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached the height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart, is lyrical throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns. The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to another age, another world ... the simplest of all Elgar's major works ... also the least grandiloquent." Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study Falstaff, which has divided opinion even among Elgar's strongest admirers. Donald Tovey viewed it as "one of the immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with Shakespeare's", while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters. Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works. Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work.
The major works for voices and orchestra of the twenty-one years of Elgar's middle period are three large-scale works for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and the oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); and two shorter odes, the Coronation Ode (1902) and The Music Makers (1912). The first of the odes, as a pièce d'occasion, has rarely been revived after its initial success, with the culminating "Land of Hope and Glory". The second is, for Elgar, unusual in that it contains several quotations from his earlier works, as Richard Strauss quoted himself in Ein Heldenleben. The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius, was and remains the best-loved and most performed. On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory." All three of the large-scale works follow the traditional model with sections for soloists, chorus and both together. Elgar's distinctive orchestration, as well as his melodic inspiration, lifts them to a higher level than most of their British predecessors.
Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid, a play by George Moore and W. B. Yeats (1901), and for The Starlight Express, a play based on a story by Algernon Blackwood (1916). Of the former, Yeats called Elgar's music "wonderful in its heroic melancholy". Elgar also wrote a number of songs during his peak period, of which Reed observes, "it cannot be said that he enriched the vocal repertory to the same extent as he did that of the orchestra."
Final years and posthumous completions
After the Cello Concerto, Elgar completed no more large-scale works. He made arrangements of works by Bach, Handel and Chopin, in distinctively Elgarian orchestration, and once again turned his youthful notebooks to use for the Nursery Suite (1931). His other compositions of this period have not held a place in the regular repertory. For most of the rest of the twentieth century, it was generally agreed that Elgar's creative impulse ceased after his wife's death. Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony led to a reconsideration of this supposition. Elgar left the opening of the symphony complete in full score, and those pages, along with others, show Elgar's orchestration changed markedly from the richness of his pre-war work. The Gramophone described the opening of the new work as something "thrilling ... unforgettably gaunt". Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, premiered at the Proms in August 2006. Elgar's sketches for a piano concerto dating from 1913 were elaborated by the composer Robert Walker and first performed in August 1997 by the pianist David Owen Norris. The realisation has since been extensively revised.
Reputation
Views of Elgar's stature have varied in the decades since his music came to prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century. Richard Strauss, as noted, hailed Elgar as a progressive composer; even the hostile reviewer in The Observer, unimpressed by the thematic material of the First Symphony in 1908, called the orchestration "magnificently modern". Hans Richter rated Elgar as "the greatest modern composer" in any country, and Richter's colleague Arthur Nikisch considered the First Symphony "a masterpiece of the first order" to be "justly ranked with the great symphonic models – Beethoven and Brahms." By contrast, the critic W. J. Turner, in the mid-twentieth century, wrote of Elgar's "Salvation Army symphonies," and Herbert von Karajan called the Enigma Variations "second-hand Brahms". Elgar's immense popularity was not long-lived. After the success of his First Symphony and Violin Concerto, his Second Symphony and Cello Concerto were politely received but without the earlier wild enthusiasm. His music was identified in the public mind with the Edwardian era, and after the First World War he no longer seemed a progressive or modern composer. In the early 1920s, even the First Symphony had only one London performance in more than three years. Wood and younger conductors such as Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli championed Elgar's music, but in the recording catalogues and the concert programmes of the middle of the century his works were not well represented.
In 1924, the music scholar Edward J. Dent wrote an article for a German music journal in which he identified four features of Elgar's style that gave offence to a section of English opinion (namely, Dent indicated, the academic and snobbish section): "too emotional", "not quite free from vulgarity", "pompous", and "too deliberately noble in expression". This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy. In the later years of the century there was, in Britain at least, a revival of interest in Elgar's music. The features that had offended austere taste in the inter-war years were seen from a different perspective. In 1955, the reference book The Record Guide wrote of the Edwardian background during the height of Elgar's career:
By the 1960s, a less severe view was being taken of the Edwardian era. In 1966 the critic Frank Howes wrote that Elgar reflected the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life, before World War I swept so much away. In Howes's view, there was a touch of vulgarity in both the era and Elgar's music, but "a composer is entitled to be judged by posterity for his best work. ... Elgar is historically important for giving to English music a sense of the orchestra, for expressing what it felt like to be alive in the Edwardian age, for conferring on the world at least four unqualified masterpieces, and for thereby restoring England to the comity of musical nations."
In 1967 the critic and analyst David Cox considered the question of the supposed Englishness of Elgar's music. Cox noted that Elgar disliked folk-songs and never used them in his works, opting for an idiom that was essentially German, leavened by a lightness derived from French composers including Berlioz and Gounod. How then, asked Cox, could Elgar be "the most English of composers"? Cox found the answer in Elgar's own personality, which "could use the alien idioms in such a way as to make of them a vital form of expression that was his and his alone. And the personality that comes through in the music is English." This point about Elgar's transmuting his influences had been touched on before. In 1930 The Times wrote, "When Elgar's first symphony came out, someone attempted to prove that its main tune on which all depends was like the Grail theme in Parsifal. ... but the attempt fell flat because everyone else, including those who disliked the tune, had instantly recognized it as typically 'Elgarian', while the Grail theme is as typically Wagnerian." As for Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and Stravinsky made particular reference to it, and Sibelius called him "the personification of the true English character in music ... a noble personality and a born aristocrat".
Among Elgar's admirers there is disagreement about which of his works are to be regarded as masterpieces. The Enigma Variations are generally counted among them. The Dream of Gerontius has also been given high praise by Elgarians, and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated. Many rate the Violin Concerto equally highly, but some do not. Sackville-West omitted it from the list of Elgar masterpieces in The Record Guide, and in a long analytical article in The Musical Quarterly, Daniel Gregory Mason criticised the first movement of the concerto for a "kind of sing-songiness ... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry." Falstaff also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite, and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it. In a Musical Times 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by contrast, several contributors share Eric Blom's view that Falstaff is the greatest of all Elgar's works.
The two symphonies divide opinion even more sharply. Mason rates the Second poorly for its "over-obvious rhythmic scheme", but calls the First "Elgar's masterpiece. ... It is hard to see how any candid student can deny the greatness of this symphony." However, in the 1957 centenary symposium, several leading admirers of Elgar express reservations about one or both symphonies. In the same year, Roger Fiske wrote in The Gramophone, "For some reason few people seem to like the two Elgar symphonies equally; each has its champions and often they are more than a little bored by the rival work." The critic John Warrack wrote, "There are no sadder pages in symphonic literature than the close of the First Symphony's Adagio, as horn and trombones twice softly intone a phrase of utter grief", whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and angst and is marked instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."
Despite the fluctuating critical assessment of the various works over the years, Elgar's major works taken as a whole have in the twenty-first century recovered strongly from their neglect in the 1950s. The Record Guide in 1955 could list only one currently available recording of the First Symphony, none of the Second, one of the Violin Concerto, two of the Cello Concerto, two of the Enigma Variations, one of Falstaff, and none of The Dream of Gerontius. Since then there have been multiple recordings of all the major works. More than thirty recordings have been made of the First Symphony since 1955, for example, and more than a dozen of The Dream of Gerontius. Similarly, in the concert hall, Elgar's works, after a period of neglect, are once again frequently programmed. The Elgar Society's website, in its diary of forthcoming performances, lists performances of Elgar's works by orchestras, soloists and conductors across Europe, North America and Australia.
Honours, awards and commemorations
Elgar was knighted in 1904, and in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. In 1920 he received the Cross of Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown; in 1924 he was made Master of the King's Musick; the following year he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; and in 1928 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). Between 1900 and 1931, Elgar received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Yale (USA), Aberdeen, Western Pennsylvania (USA), Birmingham and London. Foreign academies of which he was made a member were Regia Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; Accademia del Reale Istituto Musicale, Florence; Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris; Institut de France; and the American Academy. In 1931 he was created a Baronet, of Broadheath in the County of Worcester. In 1933 he was promoted within the Royal Victorian Order to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO). In Kennedy's words, he "shamelessly touted" for a peerage, but in vain. In Who's Who, post-First World War, he claimed to have been awarded "several Imperial Russian and German decorations (lapsed)". Elgar was offered, but declined, the office of Mayor of Hereford (despite not being a member of its city council) when he lived in the city in 1905. The same year he was made an honorary freeman of the city of Worcester.
The house in Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born is now the Elgar Birthplace Museum, devoted to his life and work. Elgar's daughter, Carice, helped to found the museum in 1936 and bequeathed to it much of her collection of Elgar's letters and documents on her death in 1970. Carice left Elgar manuscripts to musical colleges: The Black Knight to Trinity College of Music; King Olaf to the Royal Academy of Music; The Music Makers to Birmingham University; the Cello Concerto to the Royal College of Music; The Kingdom to the Bodleian Library; and other manuscripts to the British Museum. The Elgar Society dedicated to the composer and his works was formed in 1951.
Elgar's statue at the end of Worcester High Street stands facing the cathedral, only yards from where his father's shop once stood. Another statue of the composer by Rose Garrard is at the top of Church Street in Malvern, overlooking the town and giving visitors an opportunity to stand next to the composer in the shadow of the Hills that he so often regarded. In September 2005, a third statue sculpted by Jemma Pearson was unveiled near Hereford Cathedral in honour of his many musical and other associations with the city. It depicts Elgar with his bicycle. From 1999 until early 2007, new Bank of England twenty pound notes featured a portrait of Elgar. The change to remove his image generated controversy, particularly because 2007 was the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. From 2007 the Elgar notes were phased out, ceasing to be legal tender on 30 June 2010. There are around 65 roads in the UK named after Elgar, including six in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Elgar had three locomotives named in his honour.
Elgar's life and music have inspired works of literature including the novel Gerontius and several plays. Elgar's Rondo, a 1993 stage play by David Pownall depicts the dead Jaeger offering ghostly advice on Elgar's musical development. Pownall also wrote a radio play, Elgar's Third (1994); another Elgar-themed radio play is Alick Rowe's The Dorabella Variation (2003). David Rudkin's BBC television "Play for Today" Penda's Fen (1974) deals with themes including sex and adolescence, spying, and snobbery, with Elgar's music, chiefly The Dream of Gerontius, as its background. In one scene, a ghostly Elgar whispers the secret of the "Enigma" tune to the youthful central character, with an injunction not to reveal it. Elgar on the Journey to Hanley, a novel by Keith Alldritt (1979), tells of the composer's attachment to Dora Penny, later Mrs Powell, (depicted as "Dorabella" in the Enigma Variations), and covers the fifteen years from their first meeting in the mid-1890s to the genesis of the Violin Concerto when, in the novel, Dora has been supplanted in Elgar's affections by Alice Stuart-Wortley.
Perhaps the best-known work depicting Elgar is Ken Russell's 1962 BBC television film Elgar, made when the composer was still largely out of fashion. This hour-long film contradicted the view of Elgar as a jingoistic and bombastic composer, and evoked the more pastoral and melancholy side of his character and music.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
The Elgar Society, official site.
The Elgar Foundation and Birthplace Museum, official site.
"Elgar, Sir Edward William" at The National Archives
"The Growing Significance of Elgar", lecture by Simon Mundy, Gresham College, 29 June 2007
1857 births
1934 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century male conductors (music)
19th-century conductors (music)
19th-century English musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century British conductors (music)
20th-century English musicians
20th-century British male musicians
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Brass band composers
British ballet composers
British male conductors (music)
Burials in Worcestershire
Catholic liturgical composers
Classical composers of church music
Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Composers awarded knighthoods
Composers for carillon
Composers for pipe organ
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from colorectal cancer
English classical composers
English conductors (music)
English male classical composers
English Roman Catholics
English Romantic composers
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors
Masters of the King's Music
Members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Members of the Order of Merit
Metropolitan Special Constabulary officers
Musicians from Worcestershire
Oratorio composers
People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire
People from Worcester, England
People of the Victorian era
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
People from Fittleworth
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[
"The phrase \"Anyone for tennis?\" (also given as \"Tennis, anyone?\") is an English language idiom primarily of the 20th century. The phrase is used to invoke a stereotype of shallow, leisured, upper-class toffs (tennis was, particularly before the widespread advent of public courts in the later 20th century, seen as a posh game for the rich, with courts popular at country clubs and private estates). It's a stereotypical entrance or exit line given to a young man of this class in a superficial drawing-room comedy.\n\nA close paraphase of the saying, was used in George Bernard Shaw's 1914 drawing-room comedy Misalliance, in which Johnny Tarleton asks \"Anybody on for a game of tennis?\" (An 1891 story in the satirical magazine Punch put a generally similar notion in the mouth of a similar type of character: \"I’m going to see if there’s anyone on the tennis-court, and get a game if I can. Ta-ta!\".)\n\n\"Anyone for tennis?\" is particularly associated with the early career of Hollywood star Humphrey Bogart, and he is cited as the first person to use the phrase on stage. At the start of his career, in the 1920s and early 1930s, Bogart appeared in many Broadway plays in what Jeffrey Meyers characterized as \"charming and fatuous roles – in [one of] which he is supposed to have said 'Tennis, anyone?'\".\n\nIf Bogart ever did speak the line, it would have presumably been in the 1925 play Hell's Bells, set at the Tanglewood Lodge in New Dauville, Connecticut. Bogart claimed that his line in the play was \"It's forty-love outside. Anyone care to watch?\", and that indeed is what is printed in the script. However, according to Darwin Porter, director John Hayden crossed out that line and replaced it with \"Tennis anyone?\" before opening night. And several observers have asserted that he did say it, reportedly including Louella Parsons and Richard Watts Jr. Erskine Johnson, in a 1948 interview, reports Bogart as saying \"I used to play juveniles on Broadway and came bouncing into drawing rooms with a tennis racket under my arm and the line: 'Tennis anybody?' It was a stage trick to get some of the characters off the set so the plot could continue.\" But Bogart's usual stance was denial of using that precise phrase (\"The lines I had were corny enough, but I swear to you, never once did I have to say 'Tennis, anyone?'\"), although averring that it did characterize generally some of his early roles.\n\nThe phrase continued to drift through media in the 20th century and, to a diminished extent, into the 21st, often at random or just because tennis generally is the subject, rather than specifically to invoke or mock vapid toffs. It appears in the lyric of the \"Beautiful Girl Montage\" in the classic 1952 musical movie Singin' in the Rain,, in the Daffy Duck cartoons Rabbit Fire, Drip-Along Daffy and The Ducksters (1950-1951),, and in the lyric and title of the 1968 song \"Anyone for Tennis\" by the British rock band Cream, which was the theme song of the film The Savage Seven. William Holden's shallow rich playboy character jokes \"tennis, anyone?\" when flirting with Joan Vohs's in the 1954 film Sabrina (in which Bogart plays another character). The television series Anyone for Tennyson? (1976–1978) riffs on the name, as does the 1981 stage play Anyone for Denis? \"Anyone for Tennis\" is the title of the B-side instrumental for Men at Work's 1981 single Who Can It Be Now?. And so forth.\n\nThe phrase also occurs in Monty Python's spoof sketch Sam Peckinpah's \"Salad Days\".\n\nReferences \n\nEnglish phrases\nTennis culture\nQuotations from literature\nMetaphors referring to sport",
"Panos Kallitsis (born February 23, 1974) is a Greek hairstylist and make-up artist.\n\nEarly life\nPanos Kallitsis was born in Athens and raised in Piraeus. The first stimulants into the fashion industry and styling came from his father, also a hair stylist at the time.\n\nFrom a very young age he realizes that styling was what he wanted to do. He starts by working in Athens, but very soon in the age of 20, he moves to London where he studies make up and hair styling. In parallel he works part-time for shows and fashion events. In 1998 he moves to Brussels where he studies in the Vidal Sassoon school with a scholarship.\n\nIn 2000 he returns to Greece, where very quickly he achieves acknowledgement as one of the most influential Greek makeup artists.\n\nCareer\nDuring the last decade Panos Kallitsis has worked in practically all aspects of the Greek show business, from creating hairstyles for models on catwalks, magazine covers and beauty contests to make up and makeovers for famous actors, TV hosts and journalists.\n\nHe has worked exclusively with almost all prominent Greek designers, major magazines such as Celebrity, Woman, Madame Figaro, Elle, Esquire, Nitro, Status and many of the most famous names in the Greek fashion, TV and music industry such as singers Haris Alexiou, Giannis Kotsiras and Despina Vandi, TV hosts Eleonora Meleti, Eleni Menegaki, Elena Katritsi and Sakis Rouvas.\n\nHis work has been featured many times on some of the most popular Greek fashion magazines and fashion shows.\n\nAlthough he is regarded by many as a celebrity makeup artist and hairstylist, he says that his work does not have to do with someone being famous or not, but with trying to create for anyone a “unique style”.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official Website\n Official Page in Facebook\n Official WebTV Channel in Youtube\n\n1975 births\nLiving people\nGreek make-up artists\nGreek hairdressers"
] |
[
"Edward Elgar",
"Growing reputation",
"did he have anyone influence his career?",
"I don't know.",
"did he win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"did he work with anyone famous?",
"this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss."
] |
C_f146bd8d3ee34fc486d76f99e126e1d1_1
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where was he born?
| 4 |
where was Edward Elgar born?
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Edward Elgar
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During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come." In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written - if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation. The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British Army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar's music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music continues to be played more in Britain than elsewhere.
Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the moving-coil microphone in 1923 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works and excerpts from The Dream of Gerontius.
Biography
Early years
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England on 2 June 1857. His father, William Henry Elgar (1821–1906), was raised in Dover and had been apprenticed to a London music publisher. In 1841 William moved to Worcester, where he worked as a piano tuner and set up a shop selling sheet music and musical instruments. In 1848 he married Ann Greening (1822–1902), daughter of a farm worker. Edward was the fourth of their seven children. Ann Elgar had converted to Roman Catholicism shortly before Edward's birth, and he was baptised and brought up as a Roman Catholic, to the disapproval of his father. William Elgar was a violinist of professional standard and held the post of organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester, from 1846 to 1885. At his instigation, masses by Cherubini and Hummel were first heard at the Three Choirs Festival by the orchestra in which he played the violin. All the Elgar children received a musical upbringing. By the age of eight, Elgar was taking piano and violin lessons, and his father, who tuned the pianos at many grand houses in Worcestershire, would sometimes take him along, giving him the chance to display his skill to important local figures.
Elgar's mother was interested in the arts and encouraged his musical development. He inherited from her a discerning taste for literature and a passionate love of the countryside. His friend and biographer W. H. "Billy" Reed wrote that Elgar's early surroundings had an influence that "permeated all his work and gave to his whole life that subtle but none the less true and sturdy English quality". He began composing at an early age; for a play written and acted by the Elgar children when he was about ten, he wrote music that forty years later he rearranged with only minor changes and orchestrated as the suites titled The Wand of Youth.
Until he was fifteen, Elgar received a general education at Littleton (now Lyttleton) House school, near Worcester. His only formal musical training beyond piano and violin lessons from local teachers consisted of more advanced violin studies with Adolf Pollitzer, during brief visits to London in 1877–78. Elgar said, "my first music was learnt in the Cathedral ... from books borrowed from the music library, when I was eight, nine or ten." He worked through manuals of instruction on organ playing and read every book he could find on the theory of music. He later said that he had been most helped by Hubert Parry's articles in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Elgar began to learn German, in the hope of going to the Leipzig Conservatory for further musical studies, but his father could not afford to send him. Years later, a profile in The Musical Times considered that his failure to get to Leipzig was fortunate for Elgar's musical development: "Thus the budding composer escaped the dogmatism of the schools." However, it was a disappointment to Elgar that on leaving school in 1872 he went not to Leipzig but to the office of a local solicitor as a clerk. He did not find an office career congenial, and for fulfilment he turned not only to music but to literature, becoming a voracious reader. Around this time, he made his first public appearances as a violinist and organist.
After a few months, Elgar left the solicitor to embark on a musical career, giving piano and violin lessons and working occasionally in his father's shop. He was an active member of the Worcester Glee club, along with his father, and he accompanied singers, played the violin, composed and arranged works, and conducted for the first time. Pollitzer believed that, as a violinist, Elgar had the potential to be one of the leading soloists in the country, but Elgar himself, having heard leading virtuosi at London concerts, felt his own violin playing lacked a full enough tone, and he abandoned his ambitions to be a soloist. At twenty-two he took up the post of conductor of the attendants' band at the Worcester and County Lunatic Asylum in Powick, from Worcester. The band consisted of: piccolo, flute, clarinet, two cornets, euphonium, three or four first and a similar number of second violins, occasional viola, cello, double bass and piano. Elgar coached the players and wrote and arranged their music, including quadrilles and polkas, for the unusual combination of instruments. The Musical Times wrote, "This practical experience proved to be of the greatest value to the young musician. ... He acquired a practical knowledge of the capabilities of these different instruments. ... He thereby got to know intimately the tone colour, the ins and outs of these and many other instruments." He held the post for five years, from 1879, travelling to Powick once a week. Another post he held in his early days was professor of the violin at the Worcester College for the Blind Sons of Gentlemen.
Although rather solitary and introspective by nature, Elgar thrived in Worcester's musical circles. He played in the violins at the Worcester and Birmingham Festivals, and one great experience was to play Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 and Stabat Mater under the composer's baton. Elgar regularly played the bassoon in a wind quintet, alongside his brother Frank, an oboist (and conductor who ran his own wind band). Elgar arranged numerous pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and others for the quintet, honing his arranging and compositional skills.
In his first trips abroad, Elgar visited Paris in 1880 and Leipzig in 1882. He heard Saint-Saëns play the organ at the Madeleine and attended concerts by first-rate orchestras. In 1882 he wrote, "I got pretty well dosed with Schumann (my ideal!), Brahms, Rubinstein & Wagner, so had no cause to complain." In Leipzig he visited a friend, Helen Weaver, who was a student at the Conservatoire. They became engaged in the summer of 1883, but for unknown reasons the engagement was broken off the next year. Elgar was greatly distressed, and some of his later cryptic dedications of romantic music may have alluded to Helen and his feelings for her. Throughout his life, Elgar was often inspired by close women friends; Helen Weaver was succeeded by Mary Lygon, Dora Penny, Julia Worthington, Alice Stuart Wortley and finally Vera Hockman, who enlivened his old age.
In 1882, seeking more professional orchestral experience, Elgar was employed as a violinist in Birmingham in William Stockley's Orchestra, for whom he played every concert for the next seven years and where he later said he "learned all the music I know". On 13 December 1883 he took part with Stockley in a performance at Birmingham Town Hall of one of his first works for full orchestra, the Sérénade mauresque – the first time one of his compositions had been performed by a professional orchestra. Stockley had invited him to conduct the piece but later recalled "he declined, and, further, insisted upon playing in his place in the orchestra. The consequence was that he had to appear, fiddle in hand, to acknowledge the genuine and hearty applause of the audience." Elgar often went to London in an attempt to get his works published, but this period in his life found him frequently despondent and low on money. He wrote to a friend in April 1884, "My prospects are about as hopeless as ever ... I am not wanting in energy I think, so sometimes I conclude that 'tis want of ability. ... I have no money – not a cent."
Marriage
When Elgar was 29, he took on a new pupil, Caroline Alice Roberts, known as Alice, daughter of the late Major-General Sir Henry Roberts, and published author of verse and prose fiction. Eight years older than Elgar, Alice became his wife three years later. Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy writes, "Alice's family was horrified by her intention to marry an unknown musician who worked in a shop and was a Roman Catholic. She was disinherited." They were married on 8 May 1889, at Brompton Oratory. From then until her death, she acted as his business manager and social secretary, dealt with his mood swings, and was a perceptive musical critic. She did her best to gain him the attention of influential society, though with limited success. In time, he would learn to accept the honours given him, realising that they mattered more to her and her social class and recognising what she had given up to further his career. In her diary, she wrote, "The care of a genius is enough of a life work for any woman." As an engagement present, Elgar dedicated his short violin-and-piano piece Salut d'Amour to her. With Alice's encouragement, the Elgars moved to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life, and Elgar started devoting his time to composition. Their only child, Carice Irene, was born at their home in West Kensington on 14 August 1890. Her name, revealed in Elgar's dedication of Salut d'Amour, was a contraction of her mother's names Caroline and Alice.
Elgar took full advantage of the opportunity to hear unfamiliar music. In the days before miniature scores and recordings were available, it was not easy for young composers to get to know new music. Elgar took every chance to do so at the Crystal Palace concerts. He and Alice attended day after day, hearing music by a wide range of composers. Among these were masters of orchestration from whom he learned much, such as Berlioz and Richard Wagner. His own compositions made little impact on London's musical scene. August Manns conducted Elgar's orchestral version of Salut d'amour and the Suite in D at the Crystal Palace, and two publishers accepted some of Elgar's violin pieces, organ voluntaries, and part songs. Some tantalising opportunities seemed to be within reach but vanished unexpectedly. For example, an offer from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to run through some of his works was withdrawn at the last second when Sir Arthur Sullivan arrived unannounced to rehearse some of his own music. Sullivan was horrified when Elgar later told him what had happened. Elgar's only important commission while in London came from his home city: the Worcester Festival Committee invited him to compose a short orchestral work for the 1890 Three Choirs Festival. The result is described by Diana McVeagh in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, as "his first major work, the assured and uninhibited Froissart." Elgar conducted the first performance in Worcester in September 1890. For lack of other work, he was obliged to leave London in 1891 and return with his wife and child to Worcestershire, where he could earn a living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching. They settled in Alice's former home town, Great Malvern.
Growing reputation
During the 1890s, Elgar gradually built up a reputation as a composer, chiefly of works for the great choral festivals of the English Midlands. The Black Knight (1892) and King Olaf (1896), both inspired by Longfellow, The Light of Life (1896) and Caractacus (1898) were all modestly successful, and he obtained a long-standing publisher in Novello and Co. Other works of this decade included the Serenade for Strings (1892) and Three Bavarian Dances (1897). Elgar was of enough consequence locally to recommend the young composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to the Three Choirs Festival for a concert piece, which helped establish the younger man's career. Elgar was catching the attention of prominent critics, but their reviews were polite rather than enthusiastic. Although he was in demand as a festival composer, he was only just getting by financially and felt unappreciated. In 1898, he said he was "very sick at heart over music" and hoped to find a way to succeed with a larger work. His friend August Jaeger tried to lift his spirits: "A day's attack of the blues ... will not drive away your desire, your necessity, which is to exercise those creative faculties which a kind providence has given you. Your time of universal recognition will come."
In 1899, that prediction suddenly came true. At the age of forty-two, Elgar produced the Enigma Variations, which were premiered in London under the baton of the eminent German conductor Hans Richter. In Elgar's own words, "I have sketched a set of Variations on an original theme. The Variations have amused me because I've labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends ... that is to say I've written the variations each one to represent the mood of the 'party' (the person) ... and have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose". He dedicated the work "To my friends pictured within". Probably the best known variation is "Nimrod", depicting Jaeger. Purely musical considerations led Elgar to omit variations depicting Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry, whose styles he tried but failed to incorporate in the variations. The large-scale work was received with general acclaim for its originality, charm and craftsmanship, and it established Elgar as the pre-eminent British composer of his generation.
The work is formally titled Variations on an Original Theme; the word "Enigma" appears over the first six bars of music, which led to the familiar version of the title. The enigma is that, although there are fourteen variations on the "original theme", there is another overarching theme, never identified by Elgar, which he said "runs through and over the whole set" but is never heard. Later commentators have observed that although Elgar is today regarded as a characteristically English composer, his orchestral music and this work in particular share much with the Central European tradition typified at the time by the work of Richard Strauss. The Enigma Variations were well received in Germany and Italy, and remain to the present day a worldwide concert staple.
National and international fame
Elgar's biographer Basil Maine commented, "When Sir Arthur Sullivan died in 1900 it became apparent to many that Elgar, although a composer of another build, was his true successor as first musician of the land." Elgar's next major work was eagerly awaited. For the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1900, he set Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem The Dream of Gerontius for soloists, chorus and orchestra. Richter conducted the premiere, which was marred by a poorly prepared chorus, which sang badly. Critics recognised the mastery of the piece despite the defects in performance. It was performed in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1901 and again in 1902, conducted by Julius Buths, who also conducted the European premiere of the Enigma Variations in 1901. The German press was enthusiastic. The Cologne Gazette said, "In both parts we meet with beauties of imperishable value. ... Elgar stands on the shoulders of Berlioz, Wagner, and Liszt, from whose influences he has freed himself until he has become an important individuality. He is one of the leaders of musical art of modern times." The Düsseldorfer Volksblatt wrote, "A memorable and epoch-making first performance! Since the days of Liszt nothing has been produced in the way of oratorio ... which reaches the greatness and importance of this sacred cantata." Richard Strauss, then widely viewed as the leading composer of his day, was so impressed that in Elgar's presence he proposed a toast to the success of "the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar." Performances in Vienna, Paris and New York followed, and The Dream of Gerontius soon became equally admired in Britain. According to Kennedy, "It is unquestionably the greatest British work in the oratorio form ... [it] opened a new chapter in the English choral tradition and liberated it from its Handelian preoccupation." Elgar, as a Roman Catholic, was much moved by Newman's poem about the death and redemption of a sinner, but some influential members of the Anglican establishment disagreed. His colleague, Charles Villiers Stanford complained that the work "stinks of incense". The Dean of Gloucester banned Gerontius from his cathedral in 1901, and at Worcester the following year, the Dean insisted on expurgations before allowing a performance.
Elgar is probably best known for the first of the five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which were composed between 1901 and 1930. It is familiar to millions of television viewers all over the world every year who watch the Last Night of the Proms, where it is traditionally performed. When the theme of the slower middle section (technically called the "trio") of the first march came into his head, he told his friend Dora Penny, "I've got a tune that will knock 'em – will knock 'em flat". When the first march was played in 1901 at a London Promenade Concert, it was conducted by Henry Wood, who later wrote that the audience "rose and yelled ... the one and only time in the history of the Promenade concerts that an orchestral item was accorded a double encore." To mark the coronation of Edward VII, Elgar was commissioned to set A. C. Benson's Coronation Ode for a gala concert at the Royal Opera House on 30 June 1902. The approval of the king was confirmed, and Elgar began work. The contralto Clara Butt had persuaded him that the trio of the first Pomp and Circumstance march could have words fitted to it, and Elgar invited Benson to do so. Elgar incorporated the new vocal version into the Ode. The publishers of the score recognised the potential of the vocal piece, "Land of Hope and Glory", and asked Benson and Elgar to make a further revision for publication as a separate song. It was immensely popular and is now considered an unofficial British national anthem. In the United States, the trio, known simply as "Pomp and Circumstance" or "The Graduation March", has been adopted since 1905 for virtually all high school and university graduations.
In March 1904 a three-day festival of Elgar's works was presented at Covent Garden, an honour never before given to any English composer. The Times commented, "Four or five years ago if any one had predicted that the Opera-house would be full from floor to ceiling for the performance of an oratorio by an English composer he would probably have been supposed to be out of his mind." The king and queen attended the first concert, at which Richter conducted The Dream of Gerontius, and returned the next evening for the second, the London premiere of The Apostles (first heard the previous year at the Birmingham Festival). The final concert of the festival, conducted by Elgar, was primarily orchestral, apart for an excerpt from Caractacus and the complete Sea Pictures (sung by Clara Butt). The orchestral items were Froissart, the Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, the first two (at that time the only two) Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the premiere of a new orchestral work, In the South, inspired by a holiday in Italy.
Elgar was knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July 1904. The following month, he and his family moved to Plâs Gwyn, a large house on the outskirts of Hereford, overlooking the River Wye, where they lived until 1911. Between 1902 and 1914, Elgar was, in Kennedy's words, at the zenith of popularity. He made four visits to the US, including one conducting tour, and earned considerable fees from the performance of his music. Between 1905 and 1908, he held the post of Peyton Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. He had accepted the post reluctantly, feeling that a composer should not head a school of music. He was not at ease in the role, and his lectures caused controversy, with his attacks on the critics and on English music in general: "Vulgarity in the course of time may be refined. Vulgarity often goes with inventiveness ... but the commonplace mind can never be anything but commonplace. An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and will point out to you that it is white – all over white – and somebody will say, 'What exquisite taste'. You know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all, that it is the want of taste, that is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything." He regretted the controversy and was glad to hand on the post to his friend Granville Bantock in 1908. His new life as a celebrity was a mixed blessing to the highly strung Elgar, as it interrupted his privacy, and he often was in ill-health. He complained to Jaeger in 1903, "My life is one continual giving up of little things which I love." Both W. S. Gilbert and Thomas Hardy sought to collaborate with Elgar in this decade. Elgar refused, but would have collaborated with Bernard Shaw had Shaw been willing.
Elgar paid three visits to the USA between 1905 and 1911. His first was to conduct his music and to accept a doctorate from Yale University. His principal composition in 1905 was the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, dedicated to Samuel Sanford. It was well received but did not catch the public imagination as The Dream of Gerontius had done and continued to do. Among keen Elgarians, however, The Kingdom was sometimes preferred to the earlier work: Elgar's friend Frank Schuster told the young Adrian Boult: "compared with The Kingdom, Gerontius is the work of a raw amateur." As Elgar approached his fiftieth birthday, he began work on his first symphony, a project that had been in his mind in various forms for nearly ten years. His First Symphony (1908) was a national and international triumph. Within weeks of the premiere it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch. There were performances in Rome, Chicago, Boston, Toronto and fifteen British towns and cities. In just over a year, it received a hundred performances in Britain, America and continental Europe.
The Violin Concerto (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists of the time. Elgar wrote it during the summer of 1910, with occasional help from W. H. Reed, the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, who helped the composer with advice on technical points. Elgar and Reed formed a firm friendship, which lasted for the rest of Elgar's life. Reed's biography, Elgar As I Knew Him (1936), records many details of Elgar's methods of composition. The work was presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society, with Kreisler and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Reed recalled, "the Concerto proved to be a complete triumph, the concert a brilliant and unforgettable occasion." So great was the impact of the concerto that Kreisler's rival Eugène Ysaÿe spent much time with Elgar going through the work. There was great disappointment when contractual difficulties prevented Ysaÿe from playing it in London.
The Violin Concerto was Elgar's last popular triumph. The following year he presented his Second Symphony in London, but was disappointed at its reception. Unlike the First Symphony, it ends not in a blaze of orchestral splendour but quietly and contemplatively. Reed, who played at the premiere, later wrote that Elgar was recalled to the platform several times to acknowledge the applause, "but missed that unmistakable note perceived when an audience, even an English audience, is thoroughly roused or worked up, as it was after the Violin Concerto or the First Symphony." Elgar asked Reed, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." The work was, by normal standards, a success, with twenty-seven performances within three years of its premiere, but it did not achieve the international furore of the First Symphony.
Last major works
In June 1911, as part of the celebrations surrounding the coronation of King George V, Elgar was appointed to the Order of Merit, an honour limited to twenty-four holders at any time. The following year, the Elgars moved back to London, to a large house in Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead, designed by Norman Shaw. There Elgar composed his last two large-scale works of the pre-war era, the choral ode, The Music Makers (for the Birmingham Festival, 1912) and the symphonic study Falstaff (for the Leeds Festival, 1913). Both were received politely but without enthusiasm. Even the dedicatee of Falstaff, the conductor Landon Ronald, confessed privately that he could not "make head or tail of the piece," while the musical scholar Percy Scholes wrote of Falstaff that it was a "great work" but, "so far as public appreciation goes, a comparative failure."
When World War I broke out, Elgar was horrified at the prospect of the carnage, but his patriotic feelings were nonetheless aroused. He composed "A Song for Soldiers", which he later withdrew. He signed up as a special constable in the local police and later joined the Hampstead Volunteer Reserve of the army. He composed patriotic works, Carillon, a recitation for speaker and orchestra in honour of Belgium, and Polonia, an orchestral piece in honour of Poland. Land of Hope and Glory, already popular, became still more so, and Elgar wished in vain to have new, less nationalistic, words sung to the tune.
Elgar's other compositions during the war included incidental music for a children's play, The Starlight Express (1915); a ballet, The Sanguine Fan (1917); and The Spirit of England (1915–17, to poems by Laurence Binyon), three choral settings very different in character from the romantic patriotism of his earlier years. His last large-scale composition of the war years was The Fringes of the Fleet, settings of verses by Rudyard Kipling, performed with great popular success around the country, until Kipling for unexplained reasons objected to their performance in theatres. Elgar conducted a recording of the work for the Gramophone Company.
Towards the end of the war, Elgar was in poor health. His wife thought it best for him to move to the countryside, and she rented "Brinkwells", a house near Fittleworth in Sussex, from the painter Rex Vicat Cole. There Elgar recovered his strength and, in 1918 and 1919, he produced four large-scale works. The first three of these were chamber pieces: the Violin Sonata in E minor, the Piano Quintet in A minor, and the String Quartet in E minor. On hearing the work in progress, Alice Elgar wrote in her diary, "E. writing wonderful new music". All three works were well received. The Times wrote, "Elgar's sonata contains much that we have heard before in other forms, but as we do not at all want him to change and be somebody else, that is as it should be." The quartet and quintet were premiered at the Wigmore Hall on 21 May 1919. The Manchester Guardian wrote, "This quartet, with its tremendous climaxes, curious refinements of dance-rhythms, and its perfect symmetry, and the quintet, more lyrical and passionate, are as perfect examples of chamber music as the great oratorios were of their type."
By contrast, the remaining work, the Cello Concerto in E minor, had a disastrous premiere, at the opening concert of the London Symphony Orchestra's 1919–20 season in October 1919. Apart from the Elgar work, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Albert Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." The critic of The Observer, Ernest Newman, wrote, "There have been rumours about during the week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself. ... The work itself is lovely stuff, very simple – that pregnant simplicity that has come upon Elgar's music in the last couple of years – but with a profound wisdom and beauty underlying its simplicity." Elgar attached no blame to his soloist, Felix Salmond, who played the work for him again later. In contrast with the First Symphony and its hundred performances in just over a year, the Cello Concerto did not have a second performance in London for more than a year.
Last years
Although in the 1920s Elgar's music was no longer in fashion, his admirers continued to present his works when possible. Reed singles out a performance of the Second Symphony in March 1920 conducted by "a young man almost unknown to the public", Adrian Boult, for bringing "the grandeur and nobility of the work" to a wider public. Also in 1920, Landon Ronald presented an all-Elgar concert at the Queen's Hall. Alice Elgar wrote with enthusiasm about the reception of the symphony, but this was one of the last times she heard Elgar's music played in public. After a short illness, she died of lung cancer on 7 April 1920, at the age of seventy-two.
Elgar was devastated by the loss of his wife. With no public demand for new works, and deprived of Alice's constant support and inspiration, he allowed himself to be deflected from composition. His daughter later wrote that Elgar inherited from his father a reluctance to "settle down to work on hand but could cheerfully spend hours over some perfectly unnecessary and entirely unremunerative undertaking", a trait that became stronger after Alice's death. For much of the rest of his life, Elgar indulged himself in his several hobbies. Throughout his life he was a keen amateur chemist, sometimes using a laboratory in his back garden. He even patented the "Elgar Sulphuretted Hydrogen Apparatus" in 1908. He enjoyed football, supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., for whom he composed an anthem, "He Banged the Leather for Goal", and in his later years he frequently attended horseraces. His protégés, the conductor Malcolm Sargent and violinist Yehudi Menuhin, both recalled rehearsals with Elgar at which he swiftly satisfied himself that all was well and then went off to the races. In his younger days, Elgar had been an enthusiastic cyclist, buying Royal Sunbeam bicycles for himself and his wife in 1903 (he named his "Mr. Phoebus"). As an elderly widower, he enjoyed being driven about the countryside by his chauffeur. In November and December 1923, he took a voyage to Brazil, journeying up the Amazon to Manaus, where he was impressed by its opera house, the Teatro Amazonas. Almost nothing is recorded about Elgar's activities or the events that he encountered during the trip, which gave the novelist James Hamilton-Paterson considerable latitude when writing Gerontius, a fictional account of the journey.
After Alice's death, Elgar sold the Hampstead house, and after living for a short time in a flat in St James's in the heart of London, he moved back to Worcestershire, to the village of Kempsey, where he lived from 1923 to 1927. He did not wholly abandon composition in these years. He made large-scale symphonic arrangements of works by Bach and Handel and wrote his Empire March and eight songs Pageant of Empire for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Shortly after these were published, he was appointed Master of the King's Musick on 13 May 1924, following the death of Sir Walter Parratt.
From 1926 onwards, Elgar made a series of recordings of his own works. Described by the music writer Robert Philip as "the first composer to take the gramophone seriously", he had already recorded much of his music by the early acoustic-recording process for His Master's Voice (HMV) from 1914 onwards, but the introduction of electrical microphones in 1925 transformed the gramophone from a novelty into a realistic medium for reproducing orchestral and choral music. Elgar was the first composer to take full advantage of this technological advance. Fred Gaisberg of HMV, who produced Elgar's recordings, set up a series of sessions to capture on disc the composer's interpretations of his major orchestral works, including the Enigma Variations, Falstaff, the first and second symphonies, and the cello and violin concertos. For most of these, the orchestra was the LSO, but the Variations were played by the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra. Later in the series of recordings, Elgar also conducted two newly founded orchestras, Boult's BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elgar's recordings were released on 78-rpm discs by both HMV and RCA Victor. After World War II, the 1932 recording of the Violin Concerto with the teenage Menuhin as soloist remained available on 78 and later on LP, but the other recordings were out of the catalogues for some years. When they were reissued by EMI on LP in the 1970s, they caused surprise to many by their fast tempi, in contrast to the slower speeds adopted by many conductors in the years since Elgar's death. The recordings were reissued on CD in the 1990s.
In November 1931, Elgar was filmed by Pathé for a newsreel depicting a recording session of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 at the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. It is believed to be the only surviving sound film of Elgar, who makes a brief remark before conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, asking the musicians to "play this tune as though you've never heard it before." A memorial plaque to Elgar at Abbey Road was unveiled on 24 June 1993.
A late piece of Elgar's, the Nursery Suite, was an early example of a studio premiere: its first performance was in the Abbey Road studios. For this work, dedicated to the wife and daughters of the Duke of York, Elgar once again drew on his youthful sketch-books.
In his final years, Elgar experienced a musical revival. The BBC organised a festival of his works to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday, in 1932. He flew to Paris in 1933 to conduct the Violin Concerto for Menuhin. While in France, he visited his fellow composer Frederick Delius at his house at Grez-sur-Loing. He was sought out by younger musicians such as Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent and John Barbirolli, who championed his music when it was out of fashion. He began work on an opera, The Spanish Lady, and accepted a commission from the BBC to compose a Third Symphony. His final illness prevented their completion. He fretted about the unfinished works. He asked Reed to ensure that nobody would "tinker" with the sketches and attempt a completion of the symphony, but at other times he said, "If I can't complete the Third Symphony, somebody will complete it – or write a better one." After Elgar's death, Percy M. Young, in co-operation with the BBC and Elgar's daughter Carice, produced a version of The Spanish Lady, which was issued on CD. The Third Symphony sketches were elaborated by the composer Anthony Payne into a complete score in 1997.
Inoperable colorectal cancer was discovered during an operation on 8 October 1933. He told his consulting doctor, Arthur Thomson, that he had no faith in an afterlife: "I believe there is nothing but complete oblivion." Elgar died on 23 February 1934 at the age of seventy-six and was buried next to his wife at St Wulstan's Roman Catholic Church in Little Malvern.
Music
Influences, antecedents and early works
Elgar was contemptuous of folk music and had little interest in or respect for the early English composers, calling William Byrd and his contemporaries "museum pieces". Of later English composers, he regarded Purcell as the greatest, and he said that he had learned much of his own technique from studying Hubert Parry's writings. The continental composers who most influenced Elgar were Handel, Dvořák and, to some degree, Brahms. In Elgar's chromaticism, the influence of Wagner is apparent, but Elgar's individual style of orchestration owes much to the clarity of nineteenth-century French composers, Berlioz, Massenet, Saint-Saëns and, particularly, Delibes, whose music Elgar played and conducted at Worcester and greatly admired.
Elgar began composing when still a child, and all his life he drew on his early sketchbooks for themes and inspiration. The habit of assembling his compositions, even large-scale ones, from scraps of themes jotted down randomly remained throughout his life. His early adult works included violin and piano pieces, music for the wind quintet in which he and his brother played between 1878 and 1881, and music of many types for the Powick Asylum band. Diana McVeagh in Grove's Dictionary finds many embryonic Elgarian touches in these pieces, but few of them are regularly played, except Salut d'Amour and (as arranged decades later into The Wand of Youth Suites) some of the childhood sketches. Elgar's sole work of note during his first spell in London in 1889–91, the overture Froissart, was a romantic-bravura piece, influenced by Mendelssohn and Wagner, but also showing further Elgarian characteristics. Orchestral works composed during the subsequent years in Worcestershire include the Serenade for Strings and Three Bavarian Dances. In this period and later, Elgar wrote songs and part songs. W. H. Reed expressed reservations about these pieces, but praised the part song The Snow, for female voices, and Sea Pictures, a cycle of five songs for contralto and orchestra which remains in the repertory.
Elgar's principal large-scale early works were for chorus and orchestra for the Three Choirs and other festivals. These were The Black Knight, King Olaf, The Light of Life, The Banner of St George and Caractacus. He also wrote a Te Deum and Benedictus for the Hereford Festival. Of these, McVeagh comments favourably on his lavish orchestration and innovative use of leitmotifs, but less favourably on the qualities of his chosen texts and the patchiness of his inspiration. McVeagh makes the point that, because these works of the 1890s were for many years little known (and performances remain rare), the mastery of his first great success, the Enigma Variations, appeared to be a sudden transformation from mediocrity to genius, but in fact his orchestral skills had been building up throughout the decade.
Peak creative years
Elgar's best-known works were composed within the twenty-one years between 1899 and 1920. Most of them are orchestral. Reed wrote, "Elgar's genius rose to its greatest height in his orchestral works" and quoted the composer as saying that, even in his oratorios, the orchestral part is the most important. The Enigma Variations made Elgar's name nationally. The variation form was ideal for him at this stage of his career, when his comprehensive mastery of orchestration was still in contrast to his tendency to write his melodies in short, sometimes rigid, phrases. His next orchestral works, Cockaigne, a concert-overture (1900–1901), the first two Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901), and the gentle Dream Children (1902), are all short: the longest of them, Cockaigne, lasting less than fifteen minutes. In the South (1903–1904), although designated by Elgar as a concert-overture, is, according to Kennedy, really a tone poem and the longest continuous piece of purely orchestral writing Elgar had essayed. He wrote it after setting aside an early attempt to compose a symphony. The work reveals his continuing progress in writing sustained themes and orchestral lines, although some critics, including Kennedy, find that in the middle part "Elgar's inspiration burns at less than its brightest." In 1905 Elgar completed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings. This work is based, unlike much of Elgar's earlier writing, not on a profusion of themes but on only three. Kennedy called it a "masterly composition, equalled among English works for strings only by Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia."
During the next four years Elgar composed three major concert pieces, which, though shorter than comparable works by some of his European contemporaries, are among the most substantial such works by an English composer. These were his First Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Second Symphony, which all play for between forty-five minutes and an hour. McVeagh says of the symphonies that they "rank high not only in Elgar's output but in English musical history. Both are long and powerful, without published programmes, only hints and quotations to indicate some inward drama from which they derive their vitality and eloquence. Both are based on classical form but differ from it to the extent that ... they were considered prolix and slackly constructed by some critics. Certainly the invention in them is copious; each symphony would need several dozen music examples to chart its progress."
Elgar's Violin Concerto and Cello Concerto, in the view of Kennedy, "rank not only among his finest works, but among the greatest of their kind". They are, however, very different from each other. The Violin Concerto, composed in 1909 as Elgar reached the height of his popularity, and written for the instrument dearest to his heart, is lyrical throughout and rhapsodical and brilliant by turns. The Cello Concerto, composed a decade later, immediately after World War I, seems, in Kennedy's words, "to belong to another age, another world ... the simplest of all Elgar's major works ... also the least grandiloquent." Between the two concertos came Elgar's symphonic study Falstaff, which has divided opinion even among Elgar's strongest admirers. Donald Tovey viewed it as "one of the immeasurably great things in music", with power "identical with Shakespeare's", while Kennedy criticises the work for "too frequent reliance on sequences" and an over-idealised depiction of the female characters. Reed thought that the principal themes show less distinction than some of Elgar's earlier works. Elgar himself thought Falstaff the highest point of his purely orchestral work.
The major works for voices and orchestra of the twenty-one years of Elgar's middle period are three large-scale works for soloists, chorus and orchestra: The Dream of Gerontius (1900), and the oratorios The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906); and two shorter odes, the Coronation Ode (1902) and The Music Makers (1912). The first of the odes, as a pièce d'occasion, has rarely been revived after its initial success, with the culminating "Land of Hope and Glory". The second is, for Elgar, unusual in that it contains several quotations from his earlier works, as Richard Strauss quoted himself in Ein Heldenleben. The choral works were all successful, although the first, Gerontius, was and remains the best-loved and most performed. On the manuscript Elgar wrote, quoting John Ruskin, "This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another. My life was as the vapour, and is not; but this I saw, and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory." All three of the large-scale works follow the traditional model with sections for soloists, chorus and both together. Elgar's distinctive orchestration, as well as his melodic inspiration, lifts them to a higher level than most of their British predecessors.
Elgar's other works of his middle period include incidental music for Grania and Diarmid, a play by George Moore and W. B. Yeats (1901), and for The Starlight Express, a play based on a story by Algernon Blackwood (1916). Of the former, Yeats called Elgar's music "wonderful in its heroic melancholy". Elgar also wrote a number of songs during his peak period, of which Reed observes, "it cannot be said that he enriched the vocal repertory to the same extent as he did that of the orchestra."
Final years and posthumous completions
After the Cello Concerto, Elgar completed no more large-scale works. He made arrangements of works by Bach, Handel and Chopin, in distinctively Elgarian orchestration, and once again turned his youthful notebooks to use for the Nursery Suite (1931). His other compositions of this period have not held a place in the regular repertory. For most of the rest of the twentieth century, it was generally agreed that Elgar's creative impulse ceased after his wife's death. Anthony Payne's elaboration of the sketches for Elgar's Third Symphony led to a reconsideration of this supposition. Elgar left the opening of the symphony complete in full score, and those pages, along with others, show Elgar's orchestration changed markedly from the richness of his pre-war work. The Gramophone described the opening of the new work as something "thrilling ... unforgettably gaunt". Payne also subsequently produced a performing version of the sketches for a sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, premiered at the Proms in August 2006. Elgar's sketches for a piano concerto dating from 1913 were elaborated by the composer Robert Walker and first performed in August 1997 by the pianist David Owen Norris. The realisation has since been extensively revised.
Reputation
Views of Elgar's stature have varied in the decades since his music came to prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century. Richard Strauss, as noted, hailed Elgar as a progressive composer; even the hostile reviewer in The Observer, unimpressed by the thematic material of the First Symphony in 1908, called the orchestration "magnificently modern". Hans Richter rated Elgar as "the greatest modern composer" in any country, and Richter's colleague Arthur Nikisch considered the First Symphony "a masterpiece of the first order" to be "justly ranked with the great symphonic models – Beethoven and Brahms." By contrast, the critic W. J. Turner, in the mid-twentieth century, wrote of Elgar's "Salvation Army symphonies," and Herbert von Karajan called the Enigma Variations "second-hand Brahms". Elgar's immense popularity was not long-lived. After the success of his First Symphony and Violin Concerto, his Second Symphony and Cello Concerto were politely received but without the earlier wild enthusiasm. His music was identified in the public mind with the Edwardian era, and after the First World War he no longer seemed a progressive or modern composer. In the early 1920s, even the First Symphony had only one London performance in more than three years. Wood and younger conductors such as Boult, Sargent and Barbirolli championed Elgar's music, but in the recording catalogues and the concert programmes of the middle of the century his works were not well represented.
In 1924, the music scholar Edward J. Dent wrote an article for a German music journal in which he identified four features of Elgar's style that gave offence to a section of English opinion (namely, Dent indicated, the academic and snobbish section): "too emotional", "not quite free from vulgarity", "pompous", and "too deliberately noble in expression". This article was reprinted in 1930 and caused controversy. In the later years of the century there was, in Britain at least, a revival of interest in Elgar's music. The features that had offended austere taste in the inter-war years were seen from a different perspective. In 1955, the reference book The Record Guide wrote of the Edwardian background during the height of Elgar's career:
By the 1960s, a less severe view was being taken of the Edwardian era. In 1966 the critic Frank Howes wrote that Elgar reflected the last blaze of opulence, expansiveness and full-blooded life, before World War I swept so much away. In Howes's view, there was a touch of vulgarity in both the era and Elgar's music, but "a composer is entitled to be judged by posterity for his best work. ... Elgar is historically important for giving to English music a sense of the orchestra, for expressing what it felt like to be alive in the Edwardian age, for conferring on the world at least four unqualified masterpieces, and for thereby restoring England to the comity of musical nations."
In 1967 the critic and analyst David Cox considered the question of the supposed Englishness of Elgar's music. Cox noted that Elgar disliked folk-songs and never used them in his works, opting for an idiom that was essentially German, leavened by a lightness derived from French composers including Berlioz and Gounod. How then, asked Cox, could Elgar be "the most English of composers"? Cox found the answer in Elgar's own personality, which "could use the alien idioms in such a way as to make of them a vital form of expression that was his and his alone. And the personality that comes through in the music is English." This point about Elgar's transmuting his influences had been touched on before. In 1930 The Times wrote, "When Elgar's first symphony came out, someone attempted to prove that its main tune on which all depends was like the Grail theme in Parsifal. ... but the attempt fell flat because everyone else, including those who disliked the tune, had instantly recognized it as typically 'Elgarian', while the Grail theme is as typically Wagnerian." As for Elgar's "Englishness", his fellow-composers recognised it: Richard Strauss and Stravinsky made particular reference to it, and Sibelius called him "the personification of the true English character in music ... a noble personality and a born aristocrat".
Among Elgar's admirers there is disagreement about which of his works are to be regarded as masterpieces. The Enigma Variations are generally counted among them. The Dream of Gerontius has also been given high praise by Elgarians, and the Cello Concerto is similarly rated. Many rate the Violin Concerto equally highly, but some do not. Sackville-West omitted it from the list of Elgar masterpieces in The Record Guide, and in a long analytical article in The Musical Quarterly, Daniel Gregory Mason criticised the first movement of the concerto for a "kind of sing-songiness ... as fatal to noble rhythm in music as it is in poetry." Falstaff also divides opinion. It has never been a great popular favourite, and Kennedy and Reed identify shortcomings in it. In a Musical Times 1957 centenary symposium on Elgar led by Vaughan Williams, by contrast, several contributors share Eric Blom's view that Falstaff is the greatest of all Elgar's works.
The two symphonies divide opinion even more sharply. Mason rates the Second poorly for its "over-obvious rhythmic scheme", but calls the First "Elgar's masterpiece. ... It is hard to see how any candid student can deny the greatness of this symphony." However, in the 1957 centenary symposium, several leading admirers of Elgar express reservations about one or both symphonies. In the same year, Roger Fiske wrote in The Gramophone, "For some reason few people seem to like the two Elgar symphonies equally; each has its champions and often they are more than a little bored by the rival work." The critic John Warrack wrote, "There are no sadder pages in symphonic literature than the close of the First Symphony's Adagio, as horn and trombones twice softly intone a phrase of utter grief", whereas to Michael Kennedy, the movement is notable for its lack of anguished yearning and angst and is marked instead by a "benevolent tranquillity."
Despite the fluctuating critical assessment of the various works over the years, Elgar's major works taken as a whole have in the twenty-first century recovered strongly from their neglect in the 1950s. The Record Guide in 1955 could list only one currently available recording of the First Symphony, none of the Second, one of the Violin Concerto, two of the Cello Concerto, two of the Enigma Variations, one of Falstaff, and none of The Dream of Gerontius. Since then there have been multiple recordings of all the major works. More than thirty recordings have been made of the First Symphony since 1955, for example, and more than a dozen of The Dream of Gerontius. Similarly, in the concert hall, Elgar's works, after a period of neglect, are once again frequently programmed. The Elgar Society's website, in its diary of forthcoming performances, lists performances of Elgar's works by orchestras, soloists and conductors across Europe, North America and Australia.
Honours, awards and commemorations
Elgar was knighted in 1904, and in 1911 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. In 1920 he received the Cross of Commander of the Belgian Order of the Crown; in 1924 he was made Master of the King's Musick; the following year he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society; and in 1928 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO). Between 1900 and 1931, Elgar received honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Yale (USA), Aberdeen, Western Pennsylvania (USA), Birmingham and London. Foreign academies of which he was made a member were Regia Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; Accademia del Reale Istituto Musicale, Florence; Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris; Institut de France; and the American Academy. In 1931 he was created a Baronet, of Broadheath in the County of Worcester. In 1933 he was promoted within the Royal Victorian Order to Knight Grand Cross (GCVO). In Kennedy's words, he "shamelessly touted" for a peerage, but in vain. In Who's Who, post-First World War, he claimed to have been awarded "several Imperial Russian and German decorations (lapsed)". Elgar was offered, but declined, the office of Mayor of Hereford (despite not being a member of its city council) when he lived in the city in 1905. The same year he was made an honorary freeman of the city of Worcester.
The house in Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born is now the Elgar Birthplace Museum, devoted to his life and work. Elgar's daughter, Carice, helped to found the museum in 1936 and bequeathed to it much of her collection of Elgar's letters and documents on her death in 1970. Carice left Elgar manuscripts to musical colleges: The Black Knight to Trinity College of Music; King Olaf to the Royal Academy of Music; The Music Makers to Birmingham University; the Cello Concerto to the Royal College of Music; The Kingdom to the Bodleian Library; and other manuscripts to the British Museum. The Elgar Society dedicated to the composer and his works was formed in 1951.
Elgar's statue at the end of Worcester High Street stands facing the cathedral, only yards from where his father's shop once stood. Another statue of the composer by Rose Garrard is at the top of Church Street in Malvern, overlooking the town and giving visitors an opportunity to stand next to the composer in the shadow of the Hills that he so often regarded. In September 2005, a third statue sculpted by Jemma Pearson was unveiled near Hereford Cathedral in honour of his many musical and other associations with the city. It depicts Elgar with his bicycle. From 1999 until early 2007, new Bank of England twenty pound notes featured a portrait of Elgar. The change to remove his image generated controversy, particularly because 2007 was the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth. From 2007 the Elgar notes were phased out, ceasing to be legal tender on 30 June 2010. There are around 65 roads in the UK named after Elgar, including six in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Elgar had three locomotives named in his honour.
Elgar's life and music have inspired works of literature including the novel Gerontius and several plays. Elgar's Rondo, a 1993 stage play by David Pownall depicts the dead Jaeger offering ghostly advice on Elgar's musical development. Pownall also wrote a radio play, Elgar's Third (1994); another Elgar-themed radio play is Alick Rowe's The Dorabella Variation (2003). David Rudkin's BBC television "Play for Today" Penda's Fen (1974) deals with themes including sex and adolescence, spying, and snobbery, with Elgar's music, chiefly The Dream of Gerontius, as its background. In one scene, a ghostly Elgar whispers the secret of the "Enigma" tune to the youthful central character, with an injunction not to reveal it. Elgar on the Journey to Hanley, a novel by Keith Alldritt (1979), tells of the composer's attachment to Dora Penny, later Mrs Powell, (depicted as "Dorabella" in the Enigma Variations), and covers the fifteen years from their first meeting in the mid-1890s to the genesis of the Violin Concerto when, in the novel, Dora has been supplanted in Elgar's affections by Alice Stuart-Wortley.
Perhaps the best-known work depicting Elgar is Ken Russell's 1962 BBC television film Elgar, made when the composer was still largely out of fashion. This hour-long film contradicted the view of Elgar as a jingoistic and bombastic composer, and evoked the more pastoral and melancholy side of his character and music.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links
The Elgar Society, official site.
The Elgar Foundation and Birthplace Museum, official site.
"Elgar, Sir Edward William" at The National Archives
"The Growing Significance of Elgar", lecture by Simon Mundy, Gresham College, 29 June 2007
1857 births
1934 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century male conductors (music)
19th-century conductors (music)
19th-century English musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century British conductors (music)
20th-century English musicians
20th-century British male musicians
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Brass band composers
British ballet composers
British male conductors (music)
Burials in Worcestershire
Catholic liturgical composers
Classical composers of church music
Commanders of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Composers awarded knighthoods
Composers for carillon
Composers for pipe organ
Deaths from cancer in England
Deaths from colorectal cancer
English classical composers
English conductors (music)
English male classical composers
English Roman Catholics
English Romantic composers
Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors
Masters of the King's Music
Members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Members of the Order of Merit
Metropolitan Special Constabulary officers
Musicians from Worcestershire
Oratorio composers
People associated with Malvern, Worcestershire
People from Worcester, England
People of the Victorian era
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
People from Fittleworth
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"Miguel Skrobot (Warsaw, 1873 – Curitiba, February 20, 1912) was a businessman Brazilian of Polish origin.\n\nMiguel Skrobot was born in 1873, in Warsaw, Poland, to José Skrobot and Rosa Skrobot. When he was 18 he migrated to Brazil and settled in Curitiba as a merchant.\n\nHe married Maria Pansardi, who was born in Tibagi, Paraná, to Italian immigrants, and she bore him three children. He kept a steam-powered factory where he worked on grinding and toasting coffee beans under the \"Rio Branco\" brand, located on the spot where today stands the square called Praça Zacarias (square located in the center of Curitiba). He also owned a grocery store near Praça Tiradentes (also a square in the center of Curitiba, where the city was born). He died an early death, when he was 39, on February 20, 1912.\n\nReferences\n\n1873 births\n1912 deaths\nBrazilian businesspeople\nPeople from Curitiba\nPolish emigrants to Brazil",
"Adolf von Rauch (22 April 1798 - 12 December 1882) was a German paper manufacturer in Heilbronn, where he was born and died and where he was a major builder of social housing.\n\nPapermakers\n1798 births\n1882 deaths\nPeople from Heilbronn"
] |
[
"Hattie McDaniel",
"Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar"
] |
C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
|
What are the whereabouts of Hattie's oscar?
| 1 |
What are the whereabouts of Hattie McDaniel's oscar?
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Hattie McDaniel
|
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
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The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown.
|
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
| true |
[
"In a 2008 meta-study, John Hattie popularized the concept of visible learning.\n\nHattie compared the effect size of many aspects that influence learning outcomes in schools and points out that in education most things work. The question is which strategies and innovations work best and where to concentrate efforts in order to improve student achievement. The Times Educational Supplement described Hattie's meta-study as \"teaching's holy grail\".\n\nAccording to Hattie's findings, visible learning occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of students and help them become their own teachers. Hattie found that the ten most effective influences relating to student achievement are:\n\n Student self-reporting grades (d= 1.44)\n formative evaluation (d=0.9)\n teacher clarity (d=0.75)\n reciprocal teaching (d=0.74)\n feedback (d=0.73)\n teacher-student relationships (d=0.72)\n meta-cognitive strategies (d=0.69)\n self-verbalisation / questioning (d=0.64)\n teacher professional development (d=0.62)\n problem-solving teaching (d= 0.61).\n\nSome of the statistical methods used by Hattie have been criticised. Hattie himself admitted that half of the statistics in Visible Learning were calculated incorrectly throughout the book.\n\nThe phrase \"visible learning\" was used previously by Howard Gardner in his 2001 study \"Making Learning Visible\" as Inez De Florio argued in 2016.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Education: What works and what does not, with Professor John Hattie, Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds\nLearning",
"John Allan Clinton Hattie (born 1950) was born in Timaru, New Zealand, and has been a professor of education and director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, since March 2011. He was previously professor of education at the University of Auckland, the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and the University of Western Australia.\n\nHis research interests include performance indicators and evaluation in education, as well as creativity measurement and models of teaching and learning. He is a proponent of evidence based quantitative research methodologies on the influences on student achievement. He led the team that created the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning research and development contract and which is currently deployed by the New Zealand Ministry of Education for use in schools. Prior to his move to the University of Melbourne, Hattie was a member of the independent advisory group reporting to the New Zealand's Minister of Education on the national standards in reading, writing and maths for all primary school children in New Zealand.\n\nHattie undertook the largest ever synthesis of meta-analyses of quantitative measures of the effect of different factors on educational outcomes leading to his book Visible Learning. His PhD thesis at the University of Toronto in 1981 was about the detection of unidimensionality.\n\nVisible Learning has come under criticism for mathematical flaws in the calculation of effect sizes and misleading presentation of meta-analyses in the book.\n\nIn the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hattie was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to education.\n\nHe is married to Professor Janet Clinton, also at the University of Melbourne.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links \n Bio page at auckland.ac.nz\n Hattie's CV\n Information about John Hattie's \"Visible Learning\" www.visible-learning.org\n John Hattie's professional development program \"Visible Learning Plus\" www.visiblelearningplus.com\n Education: What works and what does not, with Professor John Hattie, Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds\n\n1950 births \nLiving people\nOfficers of the New Zealand Order of Merit\nUniversity of Auckland faculty\nUniversity of Otago alumni"
] |
[
"Hattie McDaniel",
"Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar",
"What are the whereabouts of Hattie's oscar?",
"The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown."
] |
C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
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Was it stolen?
| 2 |
Was Hattie McDaniel's Oscar stolen?
|
Hattie McDaniel
|
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
|
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate.
|
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
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"Stolen bases were not officially noted in a baseball game's summary until 1886, and it was not until 1888 that it officially earned a place in the box score. The modern rule for stolen bases was adopted in 1898. While some sources do not include stolen base records before 1898 because they are difficult to compare to the era after 1898, as the sourcing on the below list indicates, Major League Baseball continues to recognize them.\n\nSource:\n\nNotes:\n Historical totals reported by other sources may vary—for example, Baseball-Reference.com ranks Arlie Latham ahead of Eddie Collins, with totals of 742 and 741, respectively.\n As of the 2019 MLB season, only one currently active player, Rajai Davis, has more than 400.\n\nTop 10 career stolen bases by league\n\n100 stolen bases, one season\n\nThe pre-modern single-season mark for stolen bases is 138 by Hugh Nicol of the Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA) in 1887\n. In the modern era, Ty Cobb set a single-season mark of 96 stolen bases in 1915 that lasted until it was broken by Maury Wills with 104 in 1962. A new modern mark was set by Lou Brock with 118 in 1974, and again by Rickey Henderson with 130 in 1982. Henderson and Vince Coleman are the only players to record three 100-steal seasons in the modern era. Coleman is the only player to do it three seasons in a row, much less in the first three season of his career, as well as the only player to record 100 steals as a rookie.\n\nNote: \"(r)\" designates a player's rookie season\n\n5 stolen bases, one game\n\nUnder the pre-modern rule, George Gore stole 7 bases in a game in 1881, a mark that was tied by \"Sliding Billy\" Hamilton in 1894. In the modern era, Eddie Collins stole 6 bases in a game on two occasions, both in September 1912, a mark that stood alone for nearly eight decades before being tied by Otis Nixon (1991), Eric Young (1996), and Carl Crawford (2009).\n\n35 consecutive stolen bases\n\nRecords for consecutive successful stolen base attempts are limited by the available data, as times caught stealing has been recorded officially only since 1920. Max Carey established a mark in 1922-23 of 36 consecutive stolen bases without being caught, which stood until it was broken by Davey Lopes with 38 consecutive steals in 1975. Lopes's record was broken by Vince Coleman with 50 consecutive stolen bases in 1988–89.\n\nThree or more seasons with 70 stolen bases\nUnder pre-modern rules, \"Sliding Billy\" Hamilton amassed six separate seasons of 70-plus stolen bases over his career. In the modern era, Ty Cobb established a mark of three such seasons that stood (though tied by Lou Brock and Omar Moreno) until it was broken by Tim Raines in 1984. In 1986, Raines reached six seasons of 70-plus steals, all consecutive (a record), but Rickey Henderson notched his seventh such season in 1989.\n\nTen or more seasons with 40 stolen bases\nIn 1924, Eddie Collins tied Billy Hamilton's pre-modern mark of ten seasons with 40-plus stolen bases. A year later, Max Carey also tied the record. The record was broken by Lou Brock in 1974. Brock eventually recorded a thirteenth 40-steal season, but was in turn surpassed by Rickey Henderson in 1993. Henderson eventually stole 40 bases in sixteen separate seasons.\n\nEight or more consecutive seasons with 40 stolen bases\n\nFifteen or more seasons with 20 stolen bases\n\nLeague leader in stolen bases, 5 or more seasons\n\nLeague leader in stolen bases, 4 or more consecutive seasons\n\nLeague leader in stolen bases, two leagues\n\nLeague leader in stolen bases, three different teams\n\nEighty percent stolen base percentage (400+ attempts), career\nThose marked in bold have at least 600 career stolen base attempts. Of those, Joe Morgan (in 1984) was the first to retire with a career stolen base percentage of at least 80%. His mark was successively surpassed by Davey Lopes (retired 1987), Willie Wilson (retired 1994), and Tim Raines (retired 2002).\n\nNinety-five percent stolen base percentage, season, 30+ stolen bases\nsee notes2 3\n\n350 stolen bases by a team in one season\n\n290 stolen bases by a team in one season, 1901 or later\n\nSee also\n\n Stolen base\n Stolen base percentage\n 30–30 club – players who have hit 30 home runs and stolen 30 bases in the same season\n\nNotes\n Game 2 of a doubleheader.\n Minimum 20 stolen base attempts.\n The Major League Baseball (MLB) reference for this statistic lists Carlos Beltrán as having a 100% stolen base percentage in 2004. However, examination of the statistics shows that Beltrán was 28/28 in stolen bases with the Houston Astros, but went 14/17 after being traded from the Kansas City Royals mid-season. While 28/28 is the National League leader for that season, the combined 42/45 (93.3%) does not make Beltrán eligible for this list. Similarly, Dave Roberts is listed by MLB as having a 97.1% stolen base percentage in 2004. Roberts was 33/34 in stolen bases with the Los Angeles Dodgers before being traded mid-season to the Boston Red Sox where he was 5/7 in stolen bases. Roberts' combined 38/41 (92.7%) does not make him eligible for this list.\n\nReferences\n\nMajor League Baseball records\nMajor League Baseball lists",
"Stolen Picture is a British film production company founded by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in 2016, with Miles Ketley joining in July 2017.\n\nOverview\nOn 16 May 2017, it was announced that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost had launched a film and television production banner called Stolen Picture. The first production by the company was Slaughterhouse Rulez, a horror-comedy film. Crispian Mills directed the project, based on a script he co-wrote with Henry Fitzherbert. Sony Pictures backed the film, which Pegg and Frost executive-produced.\n\nOn 20 September 2017, it was announced that Sony Pictures Television had taken a minority stake in the production company. In addition, Stolen Picture entered into an exclusive television distribution deal with Sony. Concurrently with the Sony Pictures Television announcement, it was announced that Miles Ketley has been appointed CEO of Stolen Picture, joining from Bad Wolf. Wayne Garvie, president of international production for Sony Pictures Television, was subsequently hired as the company's chief creative officer.\n\nOn 19 January 2018, it was announced that Stolen Picture was developing their first television project Truth Seekers, a half-hour comedy-horror series about a three-person paranormal investigation team. On 1 May 2019, it was announced that Stolen Picture would develop a television adaptation of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London novel series. On 19 October 2020, it was announced that Miles Ketley died unexpectedly, only days before the premiere of the TV comedy Truth Seekers, debuting 30 October.\n\nFeature films\n\nTelevision series\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Website\nUK Companies Website Profile\n\nBritish companies established in 2016\nBritish subsidiaries of foreign companies\nSony Pictures Entertainment\nSony Pictures Television production companies\nSony Pictures Television\nMass media companies established in 2016\nFilm production companies of the United Kingdom\n2017 mergers and acquisitions"
] |
[
"Hattie McDaniel",
"Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar",
"What are the whereabouts of Hattie's oscar?",
"The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown.",
"Was it stolen?",
"In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate."
] |
C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
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What was the Oscar for?
| 3 |
What was the Oscar given to Hattie McDaniel for?
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Hattie McDaniel
|
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
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"Norma Koch (March 27, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was an American costume designer, usually credited as Norma, who won the Oscar for the film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in the category Best Costume design-Black and White during the 1962 Academy Awards. \n\nShe received two more Oscar nominations, her second nomination was during the 1964 Academy Awards for the film Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, also for Best Costume design-Black and White. Her third nomination was at the 1972 Academy Awards for the film Lady Sings the Blues in the category of Best Costumes.\n\nSelected filmography\nLady Sings the Blues (1972)\nThe Flight of the Phoenix (1965)\nHush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)\nTaras Bulba (1962)\nWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)\nSayonara (1957)\nMarty (1955)\nVera Cruz (1954)\nInvaders From Mars (1953)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1898 births\n1979 deaths\nBest Costume Design Academy Award winners\nAmerican costume designers\nWomen costume designers\nPeople from Jamaica, Queens",
"The 2013 Campeonato Sudamericano de GT season (Southamerican GT Championship) was the final season of Campeonato Sudamericano de GT replacing the Campeonato Brasileiro de GT. The season began on May 4 at Anhembi Circuit and ended on November 3 at Juan y Oscar Gálvez. This year the series has a class for a mixed team of professional and amateur (GT3 Pro-Am), and a class for gentleman drivers (GT3 GTR). The Brazilian Auto Racing Confederation ranking system for drivers was utilized in determining what class each entry was eligible for. The GT4 category remained its own class.\n\nEntry list\nAll drivers were Brazilian-registered.\n\nRace calendar and results\nAll races were held in Brazil, excepting the round at Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez, that was held in Argentina\n\nChampionship standings\nPoints were awarded as follows:\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nCampeonato Brasileiro de GT"
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"What are the whereabouts of Hattie's oscar?",
"The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown.",
"Was it stolen?",
"In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate.",
"What was the Oscar for?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
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What did the article say about the investigation?
| 4 |
What did the article say about the Hattie McDaniel investigation?
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Hattie McDaniel
|
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
|
the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973
|
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
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[
"Mohammed Zia Salehi is the chief of administration for the National Security Council in Afghanistan.\n\nA New York Times article in 2010, citing \"officials in Kabul and Washington,\" reported that Salehi was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency. The article stated that it is not clear what Salehi did for the CIA.\n\nIn July, Salehi was arrested by Afghan police after he was wiretapped soliciting a car for his son as a bribe, in exchange for impeding an American-backed investigation into a company suspected of smuggling dollars out of the country. He was released seven hours later after Hamid Karzai intervened on his behalf.\n\nReferences\n\nAfghan politicians\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Four-year-old Kevin Hjalmarsson was found dead in Arvika, Sweden on 16 August 1998. Two brothers, then five and seven years old, were accused of murdering him and were claimed to have confessed. They were never convicted of a crime and from a judicial point of view are innocent.\n\nAlmost twenty years later, on 27 March 2018, all suspicions against both brothers were dismissed by Swedish police after a lengthy second investigation of the case.\n\nCase \n\nThe theory that police were working from in 1998, was that Kevin Hjalmarsson had been murdered with a stick which had been pressed against his throat ending in his suffocation, and that his body had then been left on the shore of Kyrkviken, part of Glafsfjorden lake in Arvika, from the presumed murder site. How his body was transported there has not been ascertained. There were no drag marks on the ground or on Kevin's body. First responders were called about a drowning at Glafsfjorden; an ambulance was dispatched at 21:22 and took the boy to hospital, where the police first inspected the body. It was initially speculated that a pedophile was the perpetrator. Police at Länskriminalen in Värmland made an analysis of the victim and his life up to his death. Two brothers, five and seven years old, were accused of the murder and allegedly confessed. During further investigations, psychologist Sven Å. Christianson, professor at the psychological institute in Stockholm, was called in. He was later criticized for his handling of the Thomas Quick case which he had also been involved in.\n\nTreatment of the children \nIn May 2017, the children came forward and stated that the police threatened and misled them into \"confessing\" the crime. \"They almost threw it at me and would say 'yes this has happened'. It was a lot of pressure that was the thing that made it so scary.\" and \"I remember that I was afraid of the police [but] if I did what they wanted, they would be happy and satisfied\", said Robin, who wants an apology.\n\nThe police had no recording of any confession, despite producing video and audio recordings of several other interrogations, which display serious pressure put on the boys to confess.\n\nThe boys were never convicted of the murder, so they were legally only regarded as suspects. Both boys were taken by social services for treatment and psychological help at a children's institution. The state imprisoned the children away from their parents and their friends and community for years, and tried several times to make the separation permanent. Years later, because all the state efforts failed, and no foster parents could be found, the children were returned to their parents.\n\nCriticism of the investigation and media reports \nIn Linda Kidane's documentary Mordet på Kevin, broadcast on Sveriges Radio on 2 October 2015, the investigation was presented as a complete success and Kidane confirmed that the two brothers had murdered Kevin Hjalmarsson. After Janne Josefsson and other journalists started to look into the case, the documentary was removed from Sveriges Radio's official website.\n\nIn April 2017, Dagens Nyheter published an article that analysed the investigation of Kevin Hjalmarsson's death. The article highlighted several faults in the initial investigation, such as how interrogations of the two boys were conducted and how the boys were led through the crime scene. The two boys were subjected to extensive interrogations; this was deemed counterproductive by experts on children since it could lead to false confessions. Among those with a critical view were psychology professor Ann-Christin Cederborg, who said that the interrogations of the two boys were conducted against all rules concerning how an interrogation should be conducted. According to Cederborg, the methods used on the boys produced false confessions. The two children were subjected to threats and rewards depending on what they answered during interrogations. Neither the boys nor their parents had any legal representation during the entire investigation and interrogations. The alleged confessions that led to the closing of the investigation were never recorded on audio or video.\n\nAt the same time that Dagens Nyheter was investigating the case, a documentary by Dan Josefsson, Fallet Kevin, was in production. The documentary showed parts of the video interrogations with the boys. The first episode of the three-part documentary was broadcast on Sveriges Television on the Dokument inifrån show in 2017, a few weeks after Dagens Nyheter published their first article about the case.\n\nOn 8 May, 2017, the district attorney decided to re-open the investigation into the case.\n\nOn 27 March, 2018, all suspicions against the two brothers were completely dismissed. Police also indicated that they now believed Kevin died of an accident.\n\nSee also\nList of solved missing person cases\nList of unsolved deaths\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nSVTplay – Dokument inifrån: Fallet Kevin Documentary about the case (can only be viewed in Sweden)\n\n1990s missing person cases\n1998 in Sweden\nCriminal trials that ended in acquittal\nDeaths by person in Sweden\nFormerly missing people\nLegal history of Sweden\nMissing person cases in Sweden\nMurder investigation\nUnsolved deaths"
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"The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown.",
"Was it stolen?",
"In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate.",
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"the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973"
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C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
| 5 |
Besides the wherabout's of Hattie McDaniel's Oscar being currently unknown, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Hattie McDaniel
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The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
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inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed.
|
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
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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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[
"Hattie McDaniel",
"Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar",
"What are the whereabouts of Hattie's oscar?",
"The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown.",
"Was it stolen?",
"In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate.",
"What was the Oscar for?",
"I don't know.",
"What did the article say about the investigation?",
"the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed."
] |
C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
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When was it noticed missing?
| 6 |
When was Hattie McDaniel's Oscar noticed to be missing?
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Hattie McDaniel
|
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
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In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s.
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Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
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"The Columbia Elizabeth is a barge designed to carry shipping containers.\nShe was launched in 1999, for Columbia Coastal Transport. The vessel's IMO number is 8639132.\nHer capacity is 912 TEU standard containers. When she was built she was one of the largest container barges ever built. Workboat magazine described her deck area as \"the size of a football field\".\n\nForty-foot containers are stacked in seven rows, up to six containers high, and eleven containers across.\n\nOn December 6, 2015, the Columbia Elizabeth was being towed south, by the Capt. Latham, near Port Canaveral, Florida, when crew members noticed she was missing some shipping containers.\nShe was diverted to the Port of Palm Beach where it was determined 25 shipping containers were missing. The Margaret Norvell, and other elements of the Coast Guard, were assigned to look for the missing containers.\nOne container washed ashore near Port Canaveral. Some of the missing containers contained electric batteries, a cargo that is considered toxic.\n\nReferences\n\nBarges\n1999 ships\nShips built in Portland, Oregon",
"Marilen Espino won Binibining Pilipinas World in 1992. At 6'0, she holds the record as the tallest Filipina candidate to ever represent the country in an international competition to date. Marilen's first taste of the limelight came in 1988 when she won the right to represent the Philippines in the Supermodel of the World competition. She modeled for top fashion designers and was noticed, and eventually wooed to join Binibining Pilipinas. She was an instant favorite in from the press presentation to the finals. A few days before her departure for the Miss World competition, she fell sick and was replaced by Marina Pura Benipayo.\n\nReferences\n\nBinibining Pilipinas winners\nFilipino female models\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
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[
"Hattie McDaniel",
"Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar",
"What are the whereabouts of Hattie's oscar?",
"The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown.",
"Was it stolen?",
"In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate.",
"What was the Oscar for?",
"I don't know.",
"What did the article say about the investigation?",
"the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed.",
"When was it noticed missing?",
"In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s."
] |
C_019be95dedba4bffbf97f51e4bc25130_0
|
Is it on display somewhere today?
| 7 |
Is Hattie McDaniel's Oscar on display somewhere today?
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Hattie McDaniel
|
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in the Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in the Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009. In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's plaque. In 2011, J. Freedom duLac reported in the Washington Post that the plaque had disappeared in the 1960s. In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of the Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar was likely returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the 5 1/2" x 6" plaque. CANNOTANSWER
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the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today,
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Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 she became the first black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. In addition to acting, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926 and 1929 and was a radio performer and television personality; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States. Although she appeared in over 300 films, she received screen credits for only 83.
McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and notably was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater. At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room. In 1952, McDaniel died due to breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied due to the graveyard being restricted to whites only at the time.
Early life
McDaniel, the youngest of 13 children, was born in 1893 to formerly-enslaved parents in Wichita, Kansas. Her mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music, and her father, Henry McDaniel, fought in the Civil War with the 122nd United States Colored Troops. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver, where Hattie attended Denver East High School (1908-1910) and in 1908 entered a contest sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, reciting "Convict Joe", later claiming she had won first place. Her brother, Sam McDaniel, played the butler in the 1948 Three Stooges' short film Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta McDaniel was also an actress.
Career
Early work and acting beginnings
McDaniel was a songwriter as well as a performer. She honed her songwriting skills while working with her brother Otis McDaniel's carnival company, a minstrel show. McDaniel and her sister Etta Goff launched an all-female minstrel show in 1914 called the McDaniel Sisters Company. After the death of her brother Otis in 1916, the troupe began to lose money, and Hattie did not get her next big break until 1920. From 1920 to 1925, she appeared with Professor George Morrison's Melody Hounds, a black touring ensemble. In the mid-1920s, she embarked on a radio career, singing with the Melody Hounds on station KOA in Denver. From 1926 to 1929, she recorded many of her songs for Okeh Records and Paramount Records in Chicago. McDaniel recorded seven sessions: one in the summer of 1926 on the rare Kansas City label Meritt; four sessions in Chicago for Okeh from late 1926 to late 1927 (of the 10 sides recorded, only four were issued), and two sessions in Chicago for Paramount in March 1929.
After the stock market crashed in 1929, McDaniel could only find work as a washroom attendant at Sam Pick's Club Madrid near Milwaukee. Despite the owner's reluctance to let her perform, she was eventually allowed to take the stage and soon became a regular performer.
In 1931, McDaniel moved to Los Angeles to join her brother Sam, and sisters Etta and Orlena. When she could not get film work, she took jobs as a maid or cook. Sam was working on a KNX radio program, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour, and was able to get his sister a spot. She performed on radio as "Hi-Hat Hattie", a bossy maid who often "forgets her place". Her show became popular, but her salary was so low that she had to keep working as a maid. She made her first film appearance in The Golden West (1932), in which she played a maid. Her second appearance came in the highly successful Mae West film I'm No Angel (1933), in which she played one of the maids with whom West camped it up backstage. She received several other uncredited film roles in the early 1930s, often singing in choruses. In 1934, McDaniel joined the Screen Actors Guild. She began to attract attention and landed larger film roles, which began to win her screen credits. Fox Film Corporation put her under contract to appear in The Little Colonel (1935), with Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Lionel Barrymore.
Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers, was the first film in which she played a major role. She had a leading part in the film and demonstrated her singing talent, including a duet with Rogers. McDaniel and Rogers became friends during filming. In 1935, McDaniel had prominent roles, as a slovenly maid in Alice Adams (RKO Pictures); a comic part as Jean Harlow's maid and traveling companion in China Seas (MGM) (McDaniels's first film with Clark Gable); and as the maid Isabella in Murder by Television, with Béla Lugosi. She appeared in the 1938 film Vivacious Lady, starring James Stewart and Ginger Rogers. McDaniel had a featured role as Queenie in the 1936 film Show Boat (Universal Pictures), starring Allan Jones and Irene Dunne, in which she sang a verse of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Dunne, Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, and a black chorus. She and Robeson sang "I Still Suits Me", written for the film by Kern and Hammerstein. After Show Boat, she had major roles in MGM's Saratoga (1937), starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable; The Shopworn Angel (1938), with Margaret Sullavan; and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She had a minor role in the Carole Lombard–Frederic March film Nothing Sacred (1937), in which she played the wife of a shoeshine man (Troy Brown) masquerading as a sultan.
McDaniel was a friend of many of Hollywood's most popular stars, including Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, and Clark Gable. She starred with de Havilland and Gable in Gone with the Wind (1939). Around this time, she was criticized by members of the black community for the roles she accepted and for pursuing roles aggressively rather than rocking the Hollywood boat. For example, in The Little Colonel (1935), she played one of the servants longing to return to the Old South, but her portrayal of Malena in RKO Pictures's Alice Adams angered white Southern audiences, because she stole several scenes from the film's white star, Katharine Hepburn. McDaniel ultimately became best known for playing a sassy, opinionated maid.
Gone with the Wind
The competition to win the part of Mammy in Gone with the Wind was almost as fierce as that for Scarlett O'Hara. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to film producer David O. Selznick to ask that her own maid, Elizabeth McDuffie, be given the part. McDaniel did not think she would be chosen because she had earned her reputation as a comic actress. One source claimed that Clark Gable recommended that the role be given to McDaniel; in any case, she went to her audition dressed in an authentic maid's uniform and won the part.
Upon hearing of the planned film adaptation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought hard to require the film's producer and director to delete racial epithets from the movie (in particular the offensive slur "nigger") and to alter scenes that might be incendiary and that, in their view, were historically inaccurate. Of particular concern was a scene from the novel in which black men attack Scarlett O'Hara, after which the Ku Klux Klan, with its long history of provoking terror on black communities, is presented as a savior. Throughout the South, black men were being lynched based upon false allegations they had harmed white women. That attack scene was altered, and some offensive language was modified, but another epithet, "darkie", remained in the film, and the film's message with respect to slavery remained essentially the same. Consistent with the book, the film's screenplay also referred to poor whites as "white trash", and it ascribed these words equally to characters black and white.
Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia was selected by the studio as the site for the Friday, December 15, 1939, premiere of Gone with the Wind. Studio head David O. Selznick asked that McDaniel be permitted to attend, but MGM advised him not to, because of Georgia's segregation laws. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the Atlanta premiere unless McDaniel were allowed to attend, but McDaniel convinced him to attend anyway.
Most of Atlanta's 300,000 citizens crowded the route of the seven-mile (11 km) motorcade that carried the film's other stars and executives from the airport to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where they stayed. While Jim Crow laws kept McDaniel from the Atlanta premiere, she did attend the film's Hollywood debut on December 28, 1939. Upon Selznick's insistence, her picture was also featured prominently in the program.
Reception and 1939 Academy Awards
For her performance as the house servant who repeatedly scolds her owner's daughter, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and scoffs at Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), McDaniel won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first black actor to have been nominated and win an Oscar. "I loved Mammy," McDaniel said when speaking to the white press about the character. "I think I understood her because my own grandmother worked on a plantation not unlike Tara." Her role in Gone with the Wind had alarmed some whites in the South; there were complaints that in the film she had been too "familiar" with her white owners. At least one writer pointed out that McDaniel's character did not significantly depart from Mammy's persona in Margaret Mitchell's novel, and that in both the film and the book, the much younger Scarlett speaks to Mammy in ways that would be deemed inappropriate for a Southern teenager of that era to speak to a much older white person, and that neither the book nor the film hints of the existence of Mammy's own children (dead or alive), her own family (dead or alive), a real name, or her desires to have anything other than a life at Tara, serving on a slave plantation. Moreover, while Mammy scolds the younger Scarlett, she never crosses Mrs. O'Hara, the more senior white woman in the household. Some critics felt that McDaniel not only accepted the roles but also in her statements to the press acquiesced in Hollywood's stereotypes, providing fuel for critics of those who were fighting for black civil rights. Later, when McDaniel tried to take her "Mammy" character on a road show, black audiences did not prove receptive.
While many black people were happy over McDaniel's personal victory, they also viewed it as bittersweet. They believed Gone With the Wind celebrated the slave system and condemned the forces that destroyed it. For them, the unique accolade McDaniel had won suggested that only those who did not protest Hollywood's systemic use of racial stereotypes could find work and success there.
The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Coconut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was preceded by a banquet in the same room. Louella Parsons, an American gossip columnist, wrote about Oscar night, February 29, 1940:
McDaniel received a plaque-style Oscar, approximately by , the type awarded to all Best Supporting Actors and Actresses at that time. She and her escort were required to sit at a segregated table for two at the far wall of the room; her white agent, William Meiklejohn, sat at the same table. The hotel had a strict no-blacks policy, but allowed McDaniel in as a favor. The discrimination continued after the award ceremony as well as her white co-stars went to a "no-blacks" club, where McDaniel was also denied entry. Another black woman did not win an Oscar again for 50 years, with Whoopi Goldberg winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Ghost. Weeks prior to McDaniel winning her Oscar, there was even more controversy. David Selznick, the producer of Gone With the Wind, omitted the faces of all the black actors on the posters advertising the movie in the South. None of the black cast members were allowed to attend the premiere for the movie.
Gone with the Wind won eight Academy Awards. It was later named by the American Film Institute (AFI) as number four among the top 100 American films of all time in the 1998 ranking and number six in the 2007 ranking.
Final works
In the Warner Bros. film In This Our Life (1942), starring Bette Davis and directed by John Huston, McDaniel once again played a domestic, but one who confronts racial issues when her son, a law student, is wrongly accused of manslaughter. McDaniel was in the same studio's Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), with Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. In its review of the film, Time wrote that McDaniel was comic relief in an otherwise "grim study," writing, "Hattie McDaniel, whose bubbling, blaring good humor more than redeems the roaring bad taste of a Harlem number called Ice Cold Katie". McDaniel continued to play maids during the war years for Warners in The Male Animal (1942) and United Artists' Since You Went Away (1944), but her feistiness was toned down to reflect the era's somber news. She also played the maid in Song of the South (1946) for Disney.
She made her last film appearances in Mickey (1948) and Family Honeymoon (1949), where that same year, she appeared on the live CBS television program The Ed Wynn Show. She remained active on radio and television in her final years, becoming the first black actor to star in her own radio show with the comedy series Beulah. She also starred in the television version of the show, replacing Ethel Waters after the first season. (Waters had apparently expressed concerns over stereotypes in the role.) Beulah was a hit, however, and earned McDaniel $2,000 per week; however, the show was controversial. In 1951, the United States Army ceased broadcasting Beulah in Asia because troops complained that the show perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men as shiftless and lazy and interfered with the ability of black troops to perform their mission. After filming a handful of episodes, however, McDaniel learned she had breast cancer. By the spring of 1952, she was too ill to work and was replaced by Louise Beavers.
Personal life
Marriages
McDaniel married Howard Hickman on January 19, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He died in 1915. Her second husband, George Langford, died of a gunshot wound in January 1925, soon after she married him and while her career was on the rise.
She married James Lloyd Crawford, a real estate salesman, on March 21, 1941, in Tucson, Arizona. According to Donald Bogle, in his book Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, McDaniel happily confided to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1945 that she was pregnant. McDaniel began buying baby clothes and set up a nursery in her house. Her plans were shattered when she suffered a false pregnancy and fell into a depression. She never had any children. She divorced Crawford in 1945, after four and a half years of marriage. Crawford had been jealous of her career success, she said.
She married Larry Williams, an interior decorator, on June 11, 1949, in Yuma, Arizona, but divorced him in 1950 after testifying that their five months together had been marred by "arguing and fussing." McDaniel broke down in tears when she testified that her husband tried to provoke dissension in the cast of her radio show and otherwise interfered with her work. "I haven't gotten over it yet," she said. "I got so I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate on my lines."
Community service
During World War II, she served as chairman of the Negro Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, providing entertainment for soldiers stationed at military bases. (The US military was segregated, and black entertainers were not allowed to serve on white entertainment committees.) She elicited the help of a friend, the actor Leigh Whipper, and other black entertainers for her committee. She made numerous personal appearances at military hospitals, threw parties, and performed at United Service Organizations (USO) shows and war bond rallies to raise funds to support the war on behalf of the Victory Committee. Bette Davis was the only white member of McDaniel's acting troupe to perform for black regiments; Lena Horne and Ethel Waters also participated. McDaniel was also a member of American Women's Voluntary Services.
She joined the actor Clarence Muse, one of the first black members of the Screen Actors Guild, in an NBC radio broadcast to raise funds for Red Cross relief programs for Americans that had been displaced by devastating floods, and she gained a reputation for generosity, lending money to friends and strangers alike.
Death
In August 1950, McDaniel suffered a heart ailment and entered Temple Hospital in semi-critical condition. She was released in October to recuperate at home, and she was cited by United Press on January 3, 1951, as showing "slight improvement in her recovery from a mild stroke."
McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 59 on October 26, 1952, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, California. She was survived by her brother Sam McDaniel. Thousands of mourners turned out to celebrate her life and achievements. In her will, McDaniel wrote,
Hollywood Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, is the resting place of movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino. Its owner at the time, Jules Roth, refused to allow her to be buried there, because, at the time of McDaniel's death, the cemetery practiced racial segregation and would not accept the remains of black people for burial. Her second choice was Rosedale Cemetery (now known as Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery), where she lies today.
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake. It is one of Hollywood's most popular tourist attractions.
McDaniel's last will and testament of December 1951 bequeathed her Oscar to Howard University, where she had been honored by the students with a luncheon after she had won her Oscar. At the time of her death, McDaniel would have had few options. Very few white institutions in that day preserved black history. Historically, black colleges had been where such artifacts were placed. Despite evidence McDaniel had earned an excellent income as an actress, her final estate was less than $10,000. The IRS claimed the estate owed more than $11,000 in taxes. In the end, the probate court ordered all of her property, including her Oscar, sold to pay off creditors. Years later, the Oscar turned up where McDaniel wanted it to be: Howard University, where, according to reports, it was displayed in a glass case in the university's drama department. However, it appears to have gone missing from Howard in the 60's or 70's and has never been recovered.
Reception and impact
Initial controversies
As her fame grew, McDaniel faced growing criticism from some members of the black community. Groups such as the NAACP complained that Hollywood stereotypes not only restricted black actors to servant roles but often portrayed them as lazy, dim-witted, satisfied with lowly positions, or violent. In addition to addressing the studios, they called upon actors, and especially leading black actors, to pressure studios to offer more substantive roles and at least not pander to stereotypes. They also argued that these portrayals were unfair as well as inaccurate and that, coupled with segregation and other forms of discrimination, such stereotypes were making it difficult for all black people, not only actors, to overcome racism and succeed in the entertainment industry. Some attacked McDaniel for being an "Uncle Tom"—a person willing to advance personally by perpetuating racial stereotypes or being an agreeable agent of offensive racial restrictions. McDaniel characterized these challenges as class-based biases against domestics, a claim that white columnists seemed to accept. She reportedly said, "Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one."
McDaniel may also have been criticized because, unlike many other black entertainers, she was not associated with civil rights protests and was largely absent from efforts to establish a commercial base for independent black films. She did not join the Negro Actors Guild of America until 1947, late in her career. McDaniel hired one of the few white agents who would represent black actors at the time, William Meiklejohn, to advance her career. Evidence suggests her avoidance of political controversy was deliberate. When columnist Hedda Hopper sent her Richard Nixon placards and asked McDaniel to distribute them, McDaniel declined, replying she had long ago decided to stay out of politics. "Beulah is everybody's friend," she said. Since she was earning a living honestly, she added, she should not be criticized for accepting such work as was offered. Her critics, especially Walter White of the NAACP, claimed that she and other actors who agreed to portray stereotypes were not a neutral force but rather willing agents of black oppression.
McDaniel and other black actresses and actors feared that their roles would evaporate if the NAACP and other Hollywood critics complained too loudly. She blamed these critics for hindering her career and sought the help of allies of doubtful reputation. After speaking with McDaniel, Hopper claimed that McDaniel's career troubles were not the result of racism but had been caused by McDaniel's "own people".
Achievements and legacy
McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the actress and singer Karla Burns, notably the first black performer to win a Laurence Olivier Award, launched her one-woman show Hi-Hat-Hattie (written by Larry Parr), about McDaniel's life. Burns went on to perform the role in several other cities through 2018, including Off-Broadway and the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre in California.
In 2002, McDaniel's legacy was celebrated in American Movie Classics's (AMC) film Beyond Tara, The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), produced and directed by Madison D. Lacy and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. This one-hour special depicted McDaniel's struggles and triumphs in the presence of rampant racism and brutal adversity. The film won the 2001–2002 Daytime Emmy Award, presented on May 17, 2002, for Outstanding Special Class Special.
McDaniel was the 29th inductee in the Black Heritage Series by the United States Postal Service. Her 39-cent stamp was released on January 29, 2006, featuring a 1941 photograph of McDaniel in the dress she wore to accept the Academy Award in 1940. The ceremony took place at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the Hattie McDaniel collection includes photographs of McDaniel and other family members as well as scripts and other documents.
In 2004 Rita Dove, the first black U.S. poet laureate, published her poem "Hattie McDaniel Arrives at the Coconut Grove" in The New Yorker and has since presented it frequently during her poetry readings as well as on YouTube.
In the 2020 Netflix mini-series Hollywood a fictionalised Hattie McDaniel is played by Queen Latifah.
Whereabouts of the McDaniel Oscar
The whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar are currently unknown. In 1992, Jet magazine reported that Howard University could not find it and alleged that it had disappeared during protests in the 1960s. In 1998, Howard University stated that it could find no written record of the Oscar having arrived at Howard. In 2007, an article in The Huffington Post repeated rumors that the Oscar had been cast into the Potomac River by angry civil rights protesters in the 1960s. The assertion reappeared in The Huffington Post under the same byline in 2009.
In 2010, Mo'Nique, the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Precious, wearing a blue dress and gardenias in her hair, as McDaniel had at the ceremony in 1940, in her acceptance speech thanked McDaniel "for enduring all that she had to so that I would not have to". Her speech revived interest in the whereabouts of McDaniel's Oscar.
In November 2011, W. B. Carter, of the George Washington University Law School, published the results of her year-and-a-half-long investigation into the Oscar's fate. Carter rejected claims that students had stolen the Oscar (and thrown it in the Potomac River) as wild speculation or fabrication that traded on long-perpetuated stereotypes of blacks. She questioned the sourcing of The Huffington Post stories. Instead, she argued that the Oscar had likely been returned to Howard University's Channing Pollack Theater Collection between the spring of 1971 and the summer of 1973 or had possibly been boxed and stored in the drama department at that time. The reason for its removal, she argued, was not civil rights unrest but rather efforts to make room for a new generation of black performers. If neither the Oscar nor any paper trail of its ultimate destiny can be found at Howard today, she suggested, inadequate storage or record-keeping in a time of financial constraints and national turbulence may be blamed. She also suggested that a new generation of caretakers may have failed to realize the historic significance of the award.
West Adams Heights homeowners' covenant case victory
McDaniel was the most famous of the black homeowners who helped to organize the black Historic West Adams neighborhood residents who saved their homes. Loren Miller, an attorney and the owner and publisher of the California Eagle newspaper, represented the minority homeowners in their restrictive covenant case. In 1944, Miller won the case Fairchild v Rainers, a decision in favor of a black family in Pasadena, California, which had bought a nonrestricted lot but was still sued by white neighbors.
Time magazine, in its issue of December 17, 1945, reported:
McDaniel had purchased her white, two-story, seventeen-room house in 1942. The house included a large living room, dining room, drawing room, den, butler's pantry, kitchen, service porch, library, four bedrooms and a basement. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, could always be found at McDaniel's parties.
Filmography
Film
Features
Short films
Mickey's Rescue (1934) as Maid (uncredited)
Fate's Fathead (1934) as Mandy - the Maid (uncredited)
The Chases of Pimple Street (1934) as Hattie, Gertrude's Maid (uncredited)
Anniversary Trouble (1935) as Mandy, the Maid
Okay Toots! (1935) as Hattie - the Maid (uncredited)
Wig-Wag (1935) as Cook (uncredited)
The Four Star Boarder (1935) as Maid (uncredited)
Arbor Day (1936) as Buckwheat's Mother
Termites of 1938 (Three Stooges) (1938)
Radio
Station KOA, Denver, Melony Hounds (1926)
Station KNX, Los Angeles, The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour (1931)
CBS Network, The Beulah Show (1947)
McDaniel was a semi-regular on the radio program Amos 'n' Andy, first as Andy's demanding landlady. In one episode they nearly marry. Andy was out for her money, aided and abetted by the Kingfish, who gives his wife's diamond ring to present to McDaniel as an engagement ring. The scheme blows up in their faces when Sapphire decides to throw a party to celebrate. Andy desperately tries to conceal the ring from Sapphire. In frustration and growing anger, McDaniel says to Andy, "Andy, sweetheart, darlin'. Is you gonna let go of my hand or does I have to pop you??!!" This episode aired on NBC in June 1944. She played a similar character, "Sadie Simpson", in several later episodes.
Discography
Hattie McDaniel recorded infrequently as a singer. In addition to the musical numbers over her long career in films, she recorded for Okeh Records, Paramount, and the small Kansas City, Missouri label Merrit. All of her known recordings (some of which were never issued) were recorded in the 1920s.
See also
List of African-American firsts
List of black Academy Award winners and nominees
List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
References
Bibliography
Hopper, Hedda. "Hattie Hates Nobody". Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1947.
Jackson, Carlton. Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990.
Mitchell, Lisa. "More Than a Mammy". Hollywood Studio Magazine, April 1979.
Salamon, Julie. "The Courage to Rise Above Mammyness". New York Times, August 6, 2001.
Watts, Jill. Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Talk of the Nation. Jill Watts, interview, audio
Young, Al. "I'd Rather Play a Maid Than Be One". New York Times, October 15, 1989.
Zeigler, Ronny. "Hattie McDaniel: '(I'd) ... rather play a maid.'" N.Y. Amsterdam News, April 28, 1979.
Further reading
Carter, W. Burlette, [ Finding the Oscar] (January 6, 2012). Howard Law Journal, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2011; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2012-2; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2012-2.
HISTORY This Week. The Legacy of an Oscar 02/10/2020 W. Burlette Carter and Jill Watts
External links
Hattie and Sam McDaniel papers at Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1893 births
1952 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American comedians
Actors from Wichita, Kansas
Actresses from Kansas
African-American actresses
African-American female comedians
African-American women singer-songwriters
African-American radio personalities
American film actresses
American radio actresses
American television actresses
American women comedians
American blues singer-songwriters
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in California
Musicians from Wichita, Kansas
Okeh Records artists
Paramount Pictures contract players
People from South Los Angeles
People from West Adams, Los Angeles
RKO Pictures contract players
20th-century African-American women singers
Singer-songwriters from Kansas
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"STAP (Simple Task-Actor Protocol) is a machine-readable format for specifying user-interface changes. \nSTAP enables symmetric user-interface access for AI and human users.\nSTAP spec and sample task-side and user-side scripts: https://vdv7.github.io/stap/\n\nDescription\nMain focus of STAP is in providing a functionally-equivalent task experience for human and computational users alike.\nIn its focus to make human software usable by machine agents, STAP aims to eliminate non-task-essential design choices (e.g. font type/size may be irrelevant for many task types), leaving those to be optionally specified via customizable templates (e.g. CSS).\nSTAP messages adhere to JSON formatting, and can be deserialized with any standard JSON library.\n\nDeployment\nDeploying a STAP application is similar to deploying a web application, where STAP takes place of HTML as the language for UI description.\nMuch like HTML, STAP is a means for serializing task interface display and interactions.\nUnlike HTML documents, STAP messages are incremental updates to the display.\nWhereas HTML is focused on hypertext look and feel, STAP is focused on function, structure, and affordances of task display.\n\nBenefits\nBenefits of task development with STAP:\n less code, more GUI\n cross-platform, web-friendly\n precision timing\n consistent cross-task API, allowing computational agents to interact with the same sw that that human users interact with\n\nBenefits of agent development for STAP-compliant tasks:\n consistent cross-task API, allowing computational agents to interact with the same sw that that human users interact with\n precise user-time [with faster-than-real-time and slower-than-real-time capabilities]\n cross-platform, web-friendly\n scalable (i.e., core API is minimal, additional UI feature handlers can be added to agent framework on a per-task basis)\n\nSample interactions\n\n -> Message sent from task software to participant software\n <- Message sent to task software from participant software\n\n Sample Interaction 1:\n // user software ready\n <- [0,[0]]\n // display \"Hello World\"\n -> [\"Hello World\"]\n // display a \"Click Me\" button\n -> \"Click Me\"\n // user clicks the button after 30.8s\n <- [30800,\"Click Me\",true]\n\n Sample Interaction 2:\n // user software ready\n <- [0,[0]]\n // let client know that \"S\" (start time) and \"eT\" (editable-text field) are required directives for this task\n -> {\"require\":{\"options\":[\"S\",\"eT\"]}}\n // let client know that a goal in this task is to maximize coins earned\n -> {\"task\":{\"good\":[[\"Coins Earned\",\">\"]]}}\n // display a text prompt to get participant's name (eT:1 turns text editable)\n -> [[\"What is your name?\",\"\",{\"eT\":1}]]\n // participant types in \"Bob\" and hits enter (9.876sec after task display first loaded)\n <- [9876,\"What is your name?\",\"Bob\"]\n // clear display\n -> null\n // display two buttons\n -> [[\"choose a button\",[[\"Button 1\"],[\"Button 2\"]]]]\n // first button was clicked after 12.307sec\n <- [12307,\"Button 1\",true]\n // give client reward, \"Coins Earned\"=7\n -> \"Coins Earned\",7\n // wait 2 seconds and remove the Coins Earned display\n -> [[\"Coins Earned\",null,{\"S\":14307}]]\n // second button was clicked\n <- [15422,\"Button 2\",true]\n // give reward\n -> \"Coins Earned\",3\n ...\n\n Sample Interaction 3:\n // user software ready\n <- [0,[0]]\n // let client know that options \"w\" (width) and \"h\" (height), type \"path\", and event 40 (mouse-click) are required for this task\n -> {\"require\":{\"types\":[\"path\"],\"events\":[40],\"options\":[\"w\",\"h\"]}}\n // display a 100x100 box that will display red lines; \"e\":[40] signifies that click events should be captured (see <<eventType>> 40 below)\n -> [[\"click somewhere\",{\"type\":\"path\",\"w\":100,\"h\":100,\"e\":[40]}]]\n // user clicked in location 24,60 relative to top-left corner of the box\n <- [1570,\"click somewhere\",[40,24,60]]\n // draw a line from middle of the box to where user clicked\n -> [[\"click somewhere\",[50,50,24,60]]]\n // user clicked in location 91,10 relative to top-left corner of the box\n <- [2307,\"click somewhere\",[40,91,10]]\n // draw a line from middle of the box to where user clicked\n -> [[\"click somewhere\",[50,50,91,10]]]\n // user clicked in location 31,33 relative to top-left corner of the box\n <- [2555,\"click somewhere\",[40,31,33]]\n // draw a line from middle of the box to where user clicked\n -> [[\"click somewhere\",[50,50,31,33]]]\n ...\n\nReferences\n\n \nHuman communication\nHuman–machine interaction\nUser interfaces\nUser interface techniques\nVirtual reality",
"Inbetween is the second studio album by Swedish girlband Bubbles, released on 4 November 2002. It produced two hit singles on the Swedish charts. The song \"Somewhere\" entered into the charts on 26 April 2002. It peaked at number 10 and remained on the charts for 12 weeks, and it was also included on the Ice Age film. Then on 24 October 2002, \"Round 'N' Round\" entered into the charts and peaked at number 30, where it stayed for 20 weeks.\n\nTrack listing\nCD 1\nExcited – 3:02\nWhat's Done Is Done – 2:58\nRound n Round – 3:36\nCrazy – 3:40\nSomewhere – 3:45\nFall in Love – 3:39\nRock The World (2002 Reggae Version) – 2:50\nThe Only Way Is Up – 2:51\nGet Down – 2:59\nYou – 3:26\nSave Me – 3:09\n\nCD 2\nVideo CD-ROM\nRound n Round\nSomewhere\nKaraoke CD-ROM\nRound n Round\nWhat's Done Is Done\nYou\nThe Only Way Is Up\nExcited\nFall in Love\nRock The World (2002 Reggae Version)\nCrazy\nBonus Mixes AUDIO\nRock The World (Bonus 2002 Dance Version) – 3:35\nSomewhere (Bonus Radio Version) – 3:38\nWhat's Done Is Done (Bonus Remix) – 3:05\nFall in Love (Bonus Remix) – 3:18\nExcited (Bonus Remix) – 3:22\nCrazy (Bonus Extended Version) – 5:06\n\nPersonnel\nCaroline Ljungström\nSandra Joxelius\nPatricia Joxelius\nHannah Steffenburg\nJenny Andersén (Yenny)\n\nReferences\n\n2002 albums\nBubbles (band) albums"
] |
[
"Alexander Litvinenko",
"Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB"
] |
C_b8883b97a81b45b78198b0134887ad83_1
|
Did Litvinenko support terrorism?
| 1 |
Did Litvinenko support terrorism?
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Alexander Litvinenko
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Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramirez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Ocalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin". When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services." Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him. CANNOTANSWER
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He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide
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Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin he advised British intelligence and coined the term "Mafia state" to describe the Russian regime before he was murdered by radiation poisoning in 2006. Although Russia has refused to cooperate with investigations, it is considered extremely likely Putin personally ordered his assassination, as heard by a 2015 British inquiry into his death.
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services. During his time in Boston, Lincolnshire, Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, wherein he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings in 1999 and other acts of terrorism in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised after poisoning by polonium-210; he died from the poisoning on 23 November. The events leading up to this are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation pointed to Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), as the main suspect. Dmitry Kovtun was later named as a second suspect. The United Kingdom demanded that Lugovoy be extradited, however Russia denied the extradition as the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, leading to a straining of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom.
After Litvinenko's death, his wife Marina, aided by biologist Alexander Goldfarb, pursued a vigorous campaign through the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. In October 2011, she won the right for an inquest into her husband's death to be conducted by a coroner in London; the inquest was repeatedly set back by issues relating to examinable evidence. A public inquiry began on 27 January 2015, and concluded in January 2016 that Litvinenko's murder was carried out by the two suspects and that they were "probably" acting under the direction of the FSB and with the approval of president Vladimir Putin and then FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. In the 2021 case Carter v Russia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for his death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages.
Early life and career
Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh in 1962. After he graduated from a Nalchik secondary school in 1980, he was drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage ended in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company of 4th Regiment, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit. In 1986, he became an informant when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB counterintelligence section and in 1988, he was officially transferred to the Third Chief Directorate of the KGB, Military Counter Intelligence. Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.
Career in Russian security services
In 1991, Litvinenko was promoted to the Central Staff of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organised crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with the Moscow criminal investigation department, the MUR. Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia. During the First Chechen War, Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. Although he was often called a "Russian spy" by western press, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch. He later was responsible for the oligarch's security. Litvinenko's employment under Berezovsky and other security services created a conflict of interest, but such practice is usually tolerated by the Russian state.
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.
Conflict with FSB leadership
During his work in the FSB, Litvinenko discovered numerous connections between top leadership of Russian law enforcement agencies and Russian mafia groups, such as the Solntsevo gang. He wrote a memorandum about this issue for Boris Yeltsin. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB director Mikhail Barsukov and deputy director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the corruption problems; however, this had no effect. Litvinenko gradually realized that the entire system was corrupted from the top to the bottom. He explained: "If your partner bilked you, or a creditor did not pay, or a supplier did not deliver - where did you turn to complain? ...When force became a commodity, there was always demand for it. "Roofs" (krysha) appeared, people who sheltered and protected your business. First it was provided by the mob, then by police, and soon even our own guys realized what was what, and then the rivalry began among gangsters, cops, and the Agency for market share. As the police and the FSB became more competitive, they squeezed the gangs out of the market. However, in many cases competition gave way to cooperation, and the services became gangsters themselves."
On 25 July 1998, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Vladimir Putin. He said: "Go see Putin. Make yourself known. See what a great guy we have installed, with your help." On the same day, Putin replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, with help from Berezovsky. Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. Litvinenko said to his wife after the meeting: "I could see in his eyes that he hated me." Litvinenko said that he was doing an investigation of Uzbek drug barons who received protection from the FSB, and Putin tried to stall the investigation to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998, Berezovsky wrote an open letter to Putin in Kommersant. He accused four senior officers of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups of ordering his assassination: Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov, N. Stepanov, A. Kamyshnikov, and N. Yenin.
Four days later, on 17 November, Litvinenko and four other officers appeared together in a press conference at the Russian news agency Interfax. All officers worked for both FSB in the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups. They repeated the allegation made by Berezovsky. The officers also said they were ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin who was also present at the press conference, and to kidnap a brother of the businessman Umar Dzhabrailov. In 2007, Sergey Dorenko provided the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with a complete copy of an interview he conducted in April 1998 for ORT, a television station, with Litvinenko and his fellow employees. The interview, of which only excerpts were broadcast in 1998, shows the FSB officers, who were disguised in masks or dark glasses, claim that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame prominent Russian politicians and business people.
After holding the press conference, Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB. Later, in an interview with Yelena Tregubova, Putin said that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating, "I fired Litvinenko and disbanded his unit ...because FSB officers should not stage press conferences. This is not their job. And they should not make internal scandals public." Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said, "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."
Flight from Russia and asylum in the United Kingdom
In October 2000, in violation of an order not to leave Moscow, Litvinenko and his family travelled to Turkey, possibly via Ukraine. While in Turkey, Litvinenko applied for asylum at the United States Embassy in Ankara, but his application was denied. With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul-London-Moscow flight, and asked for political asylum at Heathrow Airport during the transit stop on 1 November 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001, not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, according to Litvinenko, but rather on humanitarian grounds. While in London he became a journalist for Chechenpress and an author. He also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government. In October 2006, he became a naturalised British citizen with residence in Whitehaven.
In 2002, Litvinenko was convicted in absentia in Russia and given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for charges of corruption. According to Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, her husband cooperated with the British security services, working as a consultant and helping the agencies to combat Russian organised crime in Europe. During the public inquiry started in January 2015, it was confirmed that Litvinenko was recruited by MI6 to provide "useful information about senior Kremlin figures and their links with Russian organised crime", primarily related to Russian mafia activities in Spain.
Shortly before his death, Litvinenko tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain. During a meeting in May 2006 he allegedly provided security officials with information on the locations, roles, and activities of several "Russian" mafia figures with ties to Spain, including Zahkar Kalashov, Izguilov and Tariel Oniani.
Litvinenko allegedly converted to Islam in Britain and was rumoured to have told his father he had converted to Islam on his death bed. Litvinenko said his father commented about it: "It doesn't matter. At least you're not a communist."
This account has been strongly denied by close family and friends. Visitors to Litvinenko's death bed included Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko's father, Walter, who flew in from Moscow.
Mikhail Trepashkin said that in 2002 he had warned Litvinenko that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate him. In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom, and often received journalists at his home.
Allegations
Litvinenko published a number of allegations about the Russian government, most of which are related to conducting or sponsoring domestic and foreign terrorism.
Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB
Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."
Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.
Armenian parliament shooting
Litvinenko accused the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces of having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting that killed the Prime Minister of Armenia, Vazgen Sargsyan, and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation. The Russian embassy in Armenia denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.
Russian apartment bombings
Litvinenko wrote two books, Lubyanka Criminal Group and Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within (in co-authorship with historian Yuri Felshtinsky), where he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power.
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
In a 2003 interview with the Australian SBS TV network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege—whom he named "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar"—were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack. Litvinenko said, "[W]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin. The leading role of an FSB agent, Khanpasha Terkibaev ("Abu Bakar"), was also described by Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Rybkin and Alexander Khinshtein. In the beginning of April 2003, Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya. A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to Ivan Rybkin, a speaker of the Russian State Duma, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."
Beslan school siege
In September 2004, Alexander Litvinenko suggested that the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand and probably had organised the attack themselves in order to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law enforcement agencies. His conclusion was based on the fact that several Beslan hostage takers had been released from FSB custody just before the attack in Beslan. He said that they would have been freed only if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under strict surveillance that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed.
Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan, supported Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion.
Alleged Russia–al-Qaeda connection
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1997. Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda." Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB officer and writer, supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996–1997." He said: "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of highly placed police officers to notify them in advance." According to Sergei Ignatchenko, an FSB spokesman, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that a former presidential candidate, Irina Hakamada, warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year earlier. It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky, who claimed that Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, received word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin stated that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings.
Allegations concerning Romano Prodi
According to Litvinenko, the FSB deputy chief General Anatoly Trofimov said to him, "Don't go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there," meaning Romano Prodi, the Italian centre-left leader, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi-KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin.
In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament for London, Gerard Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), demanded an inquiry into the allegations. On 26 April 2006, Batten repeated his call for a parliamentary inquiry, revealing that "former senior members of the KGB are willing to testify in such an investigation, under the right conditions." He added, "It is not acceptable that this situation is unresolved, given the importance of Russia's relations with the European Union." On 22 January 2007, the BBC and ITV News released documents and video footage from February 2006, in which Litvinenko repeated his statements about Prodi.
Connections between FSB and mafia
In his book Gang from Lubyanka, Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organised by Abdul Rashid Dostum. In December 2003, Russian authorities confiscated over 4,000 copies of the book. Shortly before his death, Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin had cultivated a "good relationship" with Semion Mogilevich (head of the Russia mafia) since 1993 or 1994.
Others
In an article written by Litvinenko in July 2006, and published online on Zakayev's Chechenpress website, he claimed that Vladimir Putin is a paedophile and KGB possessed the video footage which allegedly documented the unlawful carnal knowledge of Putin, Red Banner Institute's graduate, and minor boys and which subsequently was destroyed when Putin was the FSB director. Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov and Artyom Borovik knew of the alleged paedophilia. Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his stomach while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast organised by the BBC and Yandex, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice. ... There is nothing behind it."
According to Litvinenko, the 2005 controversy over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists.
Poisoning and death
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. On 3 November, he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital in London. He was then moved to University College Hospital for intensive care. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body.
Litvinenko met with two former agents early on the day he fell ill – Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy. Though both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that Kovtun had left polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg. The men also introduced Litvinenko to a tall, thin man of central Asian appearance called 'Vladislav Sokolenko' whom Lugovoy said was a business partner. Lugovoy is also a former bodyguard of Russian ex-Acting Prime minister Yegor Gaidar (who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, Litvinenko had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant in Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance and nuclear waste expert, Mario Scaramella, with whom he discussed alleged allegations regarding Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating alleged KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, forty-eight, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
Marina Litvinenko, his widow, accused Moscow of orchestrating the murder. Though she believes the order did not come from Putin himself, she does believe it was done at the behest of the authorities, and announced that she will refuse to provide evidence to any Russian investigation out of fear that it would be misused or misrepresented. In a court hearing in London in 2015, a Scotland Yard lawyer concluded that "the evidence suggests that the only credible explanation is in one way or another the Russian state is involved in Litvinenko's murder".
Death and final statement
Before his death, Litvinenko said: "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world, Mr. Putin, will reverberate in your ears for the rest of your life." On 22 November 2006, Litvinenko's medical staff at University College Hospital reported Litvinenko had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack. He died on 23 November. The following day, Putin publicly stated: “Mr Litvinenko is, unfortunately, not Lazarus”.
Scotland Yard stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.
On 24 November 2006, a statement was released posthumously, in which Litvinenko named Putin as the man behind his poisoning. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who was also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund, claimed Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer had composed the statement in Russian on 21 November's and translated it to English.
Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki and claimed it was being used for political purposes. Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko, on his deathbed, had instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian and Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.
His autopsy took place on 1 December at the Royal London Hospital's institute of pathology. It was attended by three physicians, including one chosen by the family and one from the Foreign Office. Litvinenko was buried at Highgate Cemetery (West side) in north London on 7 December. The police treated his death as a murder, although the London coroner's inquest was yet to be completed.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence' report investigating the activities of an unnamed senior Kremlin official on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia, and that the dossier contained damaging information about the senior Kremlin official. He said he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder. British media reported that the poisoning and consequent death of Litvinenko was not widely covered in the Russian news media.
Funeral
On 7 December 2006, Litvinenko was buried within a lead-lined casket at Highgate Cemetery with Christian, Jewish and Muslim rites, including a Christian and Muslim prayer being said by an imam and Orthodox priest in line with Litvinenko's wishes of a non-denominational service at the grave. The funeral ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts.
Investigations into death
UK criminal investigation
On 20 January 2007, British police announced that they had "identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder." The man in question was introduced to Litvinenko as "Vladislav".
As of 26 January 2007, British officials said police had solved the murder of Litvinenko. They discovered "a 'hot' teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing." In addition, a senior official said investigators had concluded the murder of Litvinenko was "a 'state-sponsored' assassination orchestrated by Russian security services." The police want to charge former Russian spy Andrei Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day officials believe the lethal dose of polonium-210 was administered.
On the same day, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoy be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder. On 22 May 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service called for the extradition of Russian citizen Andrei Lugovoy to the UK on charges of murder. Lugovoy dismissed the claims against him as "politically motivated" and said he did not kill Litvinenko.
A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect in the case, from Russia. On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia for the extradition of Lugovoy to face criminal charges in the UK.
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added.
In January 2015, it was reported in the British media that the National Security Agency had intercepted communications between Russian government agents in Moscow and those who carried out what was called a "state execution" in London: the recorded conversations allegedly proved that the Russian government was involved in Litvinenko's murder, and suggested that the motive was Litvinenko's revelations about Vladimir Putin's links with the criminal underworld. On 21 January 2016, the Home Office published The Litvinenko Inquiry: Report into Litvinenko's death.
Russian criminal investigation
Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Alexander Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky. Former FSB chief Nikolay Kovalyov, for whom Litvinenko worked, said that the incident "looks like the hand of Boris Berezovsky. I am sure that no kind of intelligence services participated." This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear the Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210 were found in an office of Berezovsky. Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning. The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning, were not at risk.
Russian authorities were unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.
On 5 July 2007, Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing Article 61 of the Constitution of Russia that prohibits extradition of citizens. Russia has said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoy but Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoy. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoy's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions. However, the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle, claimed that London has already submitted sufficient evidence to extradite him to Britain.
Judicial inquiries
Inquest in London
On 13 October 2011, Dr. Andrew Reid, the Coroner of St. Pancras, announced that he would hold an inquest into Litvinenko's death, which would include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of the Russian government. The inquest, held by Sir Robert Owen, a High Court judge acting as the coroner, originally scheduled to start on 1 May 2013, was subject to a series of pre-hearings: firstly, the coroner agreed that a group representing Russian state prosecutors could be accepted as a party to the inquest process; secondly, the British Government submitted a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate. Under Public Interest Immunity (PII) claims, the information at the disposal of the British government relating to Russian state involvement, as well as how much British intelligence services could have done to prevent the death, would be excluded from the inquest.
On 12 July 2013, Sir Robert, who had previously agreed to exclude certain material from the inquest on the grounds its disclosure could be damaging to national security, announced that the British Government refused the request he had made earlier in June to replace the inquest with a public inquiry, which would have powers to consider secret evidence. After the hearing, Alex Goldfarb said: "There's some sort of collusion behind the scenes with Her Majesty's government and the Kremlin to obstruct justice"; Elena Tsirlina, Mrs Litvinenko's solicitor, concurred with him.
On 22 July 2014, the British Home Secretary Theresa May, who had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the country's relations with Moscow, announced a public inquiry into Litvinenko's death. The inquiry was chaired by Sir Robert Owen who was the Coroner in the inquest into Litvinenko's death; its remit stipulated that "the inquiry will not address the question of whether the UK authorities could or should have taken steps which would have prevented the death". The inquiry started on 27 January 2015. New evidence emerged at first hearings held at the end of January 2015. The last day of hearings was on 31 July 2015.
The inquiry report was released on 21 January 2016. The report found that Litvinenko was killed by two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and that there was a "strong probability" they were acting on behalf of the Russian FSB secret service. Paragraph 10.6 of the report stated: "The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."
The Report outlined five possible motives for the murder: a belief Litvinenko had betrayed the FSB through public disclosures about its work; a belief that he was working for British intelligence; because he was a prominent associate of leading opponents of Mr Putin and his regime, including Mr Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev; because his claims about the FSB were "areas of particular sensitivity to the Putin administration", including a plot to murder dissident Boris Berezovsky; and because there was “undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Litvinenko and Putin, culminating in his allegation that Putin was a paedophile.
On the release of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Putin for presiding over "state sponsored murder". British Labour MP Ian Austin said: "Putin is an unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster who murders his opponents in Russia and, as we know, on the streets of London—and nothing announced today is going to make the blindest bit of difference." The Kremlin dismissed the Inquiry as "a joke" and "whitewash".
The same day, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced that assets belonging to both Lugovoi and Kovtun would be immediately frozen and that the Metropolitan Police were seeking their extradition. The Russian Ambassador was also summoned by the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and demands were made that Russia cooperate with the investigation into Mr Litvinenko's murder with Foreign Office minister David Liddington asserting that Russia had demonstrated "a flagrant disregard for UK law, international law and standards of conduct, and the safety of UK citizens" However, the government's response to the inquiry's results has been described by The Economist as consisting of "tough talk and little action".
Carter v Russia
In May 2007 Marina Litvinenko registered a complaint against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, accusing the Russian state of violating her husband's right to life, and failing to conduct a full investigation. On 21 September 2021, a chamber of the court found Russia responsible for Litvinenko's death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages. Russia can still appeal the decision to the Grand Chamber. Commenting on the case, law professor Marko Milanovic thought it was unlikely that Russia would pay the damages.
In popular culture
Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case is a documentary about Litvinenko's activities and death.
The Litvinenko Project is a live-performance devised by 2Magpies Theatre (Nottingham, UK) exploring the possibilities which lead to Litvinenko's poisoning
A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West is a nonfiction book by Luke Harding published in 2016 by Guardian Faber Publishing.
An episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved about his death aired in August 2018.
A Very Expensive Poison is a play by Lucy Prebble based on the book by Luke Harding and having its world premiere at The Old Vic Theatre in London in 2019.
An opera The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko by Anthony Bolton, libretto Kit Hesketh-Harvey. World premiere 15 July 2021 at Grange Park Opera.
See also
Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Roman Tsepov
List of journalists killed in Russia
Anna Politkovskaya
Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
Boris Berezovsky (businessman)
Badri Patarkatsishvili
Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova
Sergei Magnitsky
Natalya Estemirova
Sergei Yushenkov
Yuri Shchekochikhin
References
His books
Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, "Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror" Encounter Books, New York, 2007
Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia: Terror from within Gibson Square Books, London, 2007,
Alexander Litvinenko: "Allegations – Selected Works by Alexander Litvinenko", translated from Russian and edited by Pavel Stroilov, introduction by Vladimir Bukovsky, Publisher: Aquilion (12 November 2007),
A. Litvinenko and A. Goldfarb. Criminal gang from Lubyanka GRANI, New York, 2002,
А. Литвиненко Лубянская преступная группировка GRANI, New York, 2002,
A documentary film, Assassination of Russia was made by French producers based on books by Litvinenko. He was a consultant for the movie.
Books and films about him
Boris Volodarsky. The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, Pen & Sword/Frontline Books, 2009.
Alan Cowell. The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder, Random House, 2008.
William Dunkerley. The Phony Litvinenko Murder, Omnicom Press, 2011.
Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. Free Press, New York, 2007. .
Luke Harding. A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West, Vintage Books, 2017.
Martin Sixsmith. The Litvinenko File: the True Story of a Death Foretold, Publisher: Macmillan (2 April 2007)
Andrei Nekrasov. Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case, 2007, Dreamscanner. Banned in Russia. Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/20080415151727/http://www.dreamscanner-productions.com/litvinenko/index.html
External links
Litvinenko Justice Foundation
Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club accusing Vladimir Putin of the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya (In Russian and English)
Litvinenko Inquest (official site)
1962 births
2006 deaths
Assassinated British people
Assassinated Russian people
British Muslims
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
Converts to Islam
Deaths by poisoning
Espionage scandals and incidents
Federal Security Service officers
KGB officers
Male murder victims
Nuclear terrorism
People attacked in FSB or SVR operations
Writers from Voronezh
People murdered in London
People of the Chechen wars
Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Russian murder victims
Russian Muslims
Russian people murdered abroad
Russian political activists
Russian political writers
Secret Intelligence Service
Unsolved murders in London
Victims of radiological poisoning
| true |
[
"Vladimir Stefanovich Litvinenko (, born 14 August 1955) is a Russian academic, businessman and Vladimir Putin's campaign manager. He is also rector of Saint Petersburg Mining University in St. Petersburg.\n\nCareer\nLitvinenko has been the rector of Saint Petersburg Mining University since the 1990s. He oversaw Vladimir Putin's dissertation work in 1996, which is alleged to include significant amounts of plagiarism and is speculated perhaps to have not even been written by Putin. Litvinenko has been criticised for not spotting the alleged plagiarism. According to his daughter Olga, Vladimir Litvinenko himself wrote the dissertation.\n\nLitvinenko was Putin's political campaign manager in 2000 and 2004.\n\nOn June 11, 2014, he was given an honorary doctorate by the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, Saxony, Germany.\n\nBusiness career\nLitvinenko owns nearly 15% of PhosAgro, a phosphate mining company in the Arctic. The mine had been at one time partly owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He claims that he was paid in shares for some consulting that he did in 2004 and that this \"did not contradict any laws\".\n\nPhosagro was floated on the London Stock Exchange in July 2011 and Litvinenko was listed among its new owners, as chairman. When Litvinenko owned 5%, the stock was worth about $260 million. In April 2014, he acquired a further 4.9% from Andrey Guryev, who controls the company, for $269 million.\n\nPersonal life\nLitvinenko is married to Tatyana Petrovna Klovanich. Litvinenko has a daughter, Olga, born in 1983, who used to be a member of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg. In May 2010 Vladimir and his wife Tatyana were looking after Olga's daughter Ester-Maria Litvinenko (born in 2009), and refused to give her back to Olga. Olga has described this as a kidnapping and has instigated legal proceedings to get her daughter back. Olga describes her father as \"the richest rector in Russia\" and an \"oligarch\" (\"самый богатый ректор России, олигарх\"). When Olga fled the country in summer 2011, Vladimir reported to the police that Olga and her other son, Michael Stefan, had been kidnapped and his daughter's assets were frozen. According to Olga, all lawyers defending her were arrested and sentenced.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Profile of Litvinenko, Saint Petersburg Times\nOlga's Daughter Facebook, in Russian\n\n1955 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Krasnoyarsk Krai\nRecipients of the Order \"For Merit to the Fatherland\", 3rd class\nRecipients of the Order of Honour (Russia)\nRussian billionaires\nRussian businesspeople\nRussian mining engineers\nSaint Petersburg Mining University faculty\nSaint Petersburg Mining University alumni\nState Prize of the Russian Federation laureates",
"Litvinenko () is a gender-neutral Slavic surname. It may refer to\nAlexander Litvinenko (1962–2006), former Russian secret service agent, defector and recruited to MI6, poisoned in the United Kingdom.\nAlexei Litvinenko (born 1980), Kazakhstani ice hockey defenceman\nAlina Litvinenko (born 1995), Kyrgyzstani football striker\nIrina Ektova (née Litvinenko in 1987), Kazakhstani triple jumper\nOleg Litvinenko (1973–2007), Kazakhstani association football player\nOlga Litvinenko (born 1983), Russian politician, daughter of Vladimir\nVladimir Litvinenko (born 1955), Russian academic and businessman, father of Olga\nVladimir Litvinenko (sledge hockey) (born 1989), Russian sledge hockey player\n\nSee also\n \n Litvin\n Lytvynenko"
] |
[
"Alexander Litvinenko",
"Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB",
"Did Litvinenko support terrorism?",
"He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide"
] |
C_b8883b97a81b45b78198b0134887ad83_1
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What does FSB stand for?
| 2 |
What does FSB stand for?
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Alexander Litvinenko
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Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramirez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Ocalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin". When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services." Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin he advised British intelligence and coined the term "Mafia state" to describe the Russian regime before he was murdered by radiation poisoning in 2006. Although Russia has refused to cooperate with investigations, it is considered extremely likely Putin personally ordered his assassination, as heard by a 2015 British inquiry into his death.
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services. During his time in Boston, Lincolnshire, Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, wherein he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings in 1999 and other acts of terrorism in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised after poisoning by polonium-210; he died from the poisoning on 23 November. The events leading up to this are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation pointed to Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), as the main suspect. Dmitry Kovtun was later named as a second suspect. The United Kingdom demanded that Lugovoy be extradited, however Russia denied the extradition as the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, leading to a straining of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom.
After Litvinenko's death, his wife Marina, aided by biologist Alexander Goldfarb, pursued a vigorous campaign through the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. In October 2011, she won the right for an inquest into her husband's death to be conducted by a coroner in London; the inquest was repeatedly set back by issues relating to examinable evidence. A public inquiry began on 27 January 2015, and concluded in January 2016 that Litvinenko's murder was carried out by the two suspects and that they were "probably" acting under the direction of the FSB and with the approval of president Vladimir Putin and then FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. In the 2021 case Carter v Russia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for his death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages.
Early life and career
Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh in 1962. After he graduated from a Nalchik secondary school in 1980, he was drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage ended in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company of 4th Regiment, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit. In 1986, he became an informant when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB counterintelligence section and in 1988, he was officially transferred to the Third Chief Directorate of the KGB, Military Counter Intelligence. Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.
Career in Russian security services
In 1991, Litvinenko was promoted to the Central Staff of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organised crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with the Moscow criminal investigation department, the MUR. Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia. During the First Chechen War, Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. Although he was often called a "Russian spy" by western press, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch. He later was responsible for the oligarch's security. Litvinenko's employment under Berezovsky and other security services created a conflict of interest, but such practice is usually tolerated by the Russian state.
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.
Conflict with FSB leadership
During his work in the FSB, Litvinenko discovered numerous connections between top leadership of Russian law enforcement agencies and Russian mafia groups, such as the Solntsevo gang. He wrote a memorandum about this issue for Boris Yeltsin. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB director Mikhail Barsukov and deputy director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the corruption problems; however, this had no effect. Litvinenko gradually realized that the entire system was corrupted from the top to the bottom. He explained: "If your partner bilked you, or a creditor did not pay, or a supplier did not deliver - where did you turn to complain? ...When force became a commodity, there was always demand for it. "Roofs" (krysha) appeared, people who sheltered and protected your business. First it was provided by the mob, then by police, and soon even our own guys realized what was what, and then the rivalry began among gangsters, cops, and the Agency for market share. As the police and the FSB became more competitive, they squeezed the gangs out of the market. However, in many cases competition gave way to cooperation, and the services became gangsters themselves."
On 25 July 1998, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Vladimir Putin. He said: "Go see Putin. Make yourself known. See what a great guy we have installed, with your help." On the same day, Putin replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, with help from Berezovsky. Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. Litvinenko said to his wife after the meeting: "I could see in his eyes that he hated me." Litvinenko said that he was doing an investigation of Uzbek drug barons who received protection from the FSB, and Putin tried to stall the investigation to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998, Berezovsky wrote an open letter to Putin in Kommersant. He accused four senior officers of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups of ordering his assassination: Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov, N. Stepanov, A. Kamyshnikov, and N. Yenin.
Four days later, on 17 November, Litvinenko and four other officers appeared together in a press conference at the Russian news agency Interfax. All officers worked for both FSB in the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups. They repeated the allegation made by Berezovsky. The officers also said they were ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin who was also present at the press conference, and to kidnap a brother of the businessman Umar Dzhabrailov. In 2007, Sergey Dorenko provided the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with a complete copy of an interview he conducted in April 1998 for ORT, a television station, with Litvinenko and his fellow employees. The interview, of which only excerpts were broadcast in 1998, shows the FSB officers, who were disguised in masks or dark glasses, claim that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame prominent Russian politicians and business people.
After holding the press conference, Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB. Later, in an interview with Yelena Tregubova, Putin said that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating, "I fired Litvinenko and disbanded his unit ...because FSB officers should not stage press conferences. This is not their job. And they should not make internal scandals public." Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said, "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."
Flight from Russia and asylum in the United Kingdom
In October 2000, in violation of an order not to leave Moscow, Litvinenko and his family travelled to Turkey, possibly via Ukraine. While in Turkey, Litvinenko applied for asylum at the United States Embassy in Ankara, but his application was denied. With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul-London-Moscow flight, and asked for political asylum at Heathrow Airport during the transit stop on 1 November 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001, not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, according to Litvinenko, but rather on humanitarian grounds. While in London he became a journalist for Chechenpress and an author. He also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government. In October 2006, he became a naturalised British citizen with residence in Whitehaven.
In 2002, Litvinenko was convicted in absentia in Russia and given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for charges of corruption. According to Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, her husband cooperated with the British security services, working as a consultant and helping the agencies to combat Russian organised crime in Europe. During the public inquiry started in January 2015, it was confirmed that Litvinenko was recruited by MI6 to provide "useful information about senior Kremlin figures and their links with Russian organised crime", primarily related to Russian mafia activities in Spain.
Shortly before his death, Litvinenko tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain. During a meeting in May 2006 he allegedly provided security officials with information on the locations, roles, and activities of several "Russian" mafia figures with ties to Spain, including Zahkar Kalashov, Izguilov and Tariel Oniani.
Litvinenko allegedly converted to Islam in Britain and was rumoured to have told his father he had converted to Islam on his death bed. Litvinenko said his father commented about it: "It doesn't matter. At least you're not a communist."
This account has been strongly denied by close family and friends. Visitors to Litvinenko's death bed included Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko's father, Walter, who flew in from Moscow.
Mikhail Trepashkin said that in 2002 he had warned Litvinenko that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate him. In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom, and often received journalists at his home.
Allegations
Litvinenko published a number of allegations about the Russian government, most of which are related to conducting or sponsoring domestic and foreign terrorism.
Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB
Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."
Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.
Armenian parliament shooting
Litvinenko accused the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces of having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting that killed the Prime Minister of Armenia, Vazgen Sargsyan, and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation. The Russian embassy in Armenia denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.
Russian apartment bombings
Litvinenko wrote two books, Lubyanka Criminal Group and Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within (in co-authorship with historian Yuri Felshtinsky), where he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power.
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
In a 2003 interview with the Australian SBS TV network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege—whom he named "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar"—were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack. Litvinenko said, "[W]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin. The leading role of an FSB agent, Khanpasha Terkibaev ("Abu Bakar"), was also described by Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Rybkin and Alexander Khinshtein. In the beginning of April 2003, Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya. A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to Ivan Rybkin, a speaker of the Russian State Duma, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."
Beslan school siege
In September 2004, Alexander Litvinenko suggested that the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand and probably had organised the attack themselves in order to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law enforcement agencies. His conclusion was based on the fact that several Beslan hostage takers had been released from FSB custody just before the attack in Beslan. He said that they would have been freed only if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under strict surveillance that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed.
Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan, supported Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion.
Alleged Russia–al-Qaeda connection
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1997. Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda." Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB officer and writer, supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996–1997." He said: "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of highly placed police officers to notify them in advance." According to Sergei Ignatchenko, an FSB spokesman, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that a former presidential candidate, Irina Hakamada, warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year earlier. It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky, who claimed that Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, received word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin stated that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings.
Allegations concerning Romano Prodi
According to Litvinenko, the FSB deputy chief General Anatoly Trofimov said to him, "Don't go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there," meaning Romano Prodi, the Italian centre-left leader, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi-KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin.
In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament for London, Gerard Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), demanded an inquiry into the allegations. On 26 April 2006, Batten repeated his call for a parliamentary inquiry, revealing that "former senior members of the KGB are willing to testify in such an investigation, under the right conditions." He added, "It is not acceptable that this situation is unresolved, given the importance of Russia's relations with the European Union." On 22 January 2007, the BBC and ITV News released documents and video footage from February 2006, in which Litvinenko repeated his statements about Prodi.
Connections between FSB and mafia
In his book Gang from Lubyanka, Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organised by Abdul Rashid Dostum. In December 2003, Russian authorities confiscated over 4,000 copies of the book. Shortly before his death, Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin had cultivated a "good relationship" with Semion Mogilevich (head of the Russia mafia) since 1993 or 1994.
Others
In an article written by Litvinenko in July 2006, and published online on Zakayev's Chechenpress website, he claimed that Vladimir Putin is a paedophile and KGB possessed the video footage which allegedly documented the unlawful carnal knowledge of Putin, Red Banner Institute's graduate, and minor boys and which subsequently was destroyed when Putin was the FSB director. Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov and Artyom Borovik knew of the alleged paedophilia. Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his stomach while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast organised by the BBC and Yandex, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice. ... There is nothing behind it."
According to Litvinenko, the 2005 controversy over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists.
Poisoning and death
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. On 3 November, he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital in London. He was then moved to University College Hospital for intensive care. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body.
Litvinenko met with two former agents early on the day he fell ill – Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy. Though both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that Kovtun had left polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg. The men also introduced Litvinenko to a tall, thin man of central Asian appearance called 'Vladislav Sokolenko' whom Lugovoy said was a business partner. Lugovoy is also a former bodyguard of Russian ex-Acting Prime minister Yegor Gaidar (who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, Litvinenko had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant in Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance and nuclear waste expert, Mario Scaramella, with whom he discussed alleged allegations regarding Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating alleged KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, forty-eight, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
Marina Litvinenko, his widow, accused Moscow of orchestrating the murder. Though she believes the order did not come from Putin himself, she does believe it was done at the behest of the authorities, and announced that she will refuse to provide evidence to any Russian investigation out of fear that it would be misused or misrepresented. In a court hearing in London in 2015, a Scotland Yard lawyer concluded that "the evidence suggests that the only credible explanation is in one way or another the Russian state is involved in Litvinenko's murder".
Death and final statement
Before his death, Litvinenko said: "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world, Mr. Putin, will reverberate in your ears for the rest of your life." On 22 November 2006, Litvinenko's medical staff at University College Hospital reported Litvinenko had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack. He died on 23 November. The following day, Putin publicly stated: “Mr Litvinenko is, unfortunately, not Lazarus”.
Scotland Yard stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.
On 24 November 2006, a statement was released posthumously, in which Litvinenko named Putin as the man behind his poisoning. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who was also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund, claimed Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer had composed the statement in Russian on 21 November's and translated it to English.
Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki and claimed it was being used for political purposes. Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko, on his deathbed, had instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian and Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.
His autopsy took place on 1 December at the Royal London Hospital's institute of pathology. It was attended by three physicians, including one chosen by the family and one from the Foreign Office. Litvinenko was buried at Highgate Cemetery (West side) in north London on 7 December. The police treated his death as a murder, although the London coroner's inquest was yet to be completed.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence' report investigating the activities of an unnamed senior Kremlin official on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia, and that the dossier contained damaging information about the senior Kremlin official. He said he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder. British media reported that the poisoning and consequent death of Litvinenko was not widely covered in the Russian news media.
Funeral
On 7 December 2006, Litvinenko was buried within a lead-lined casket at Highgate Cemetery with Christian, Jewish and Muslim rites, including a Christian and Muslim prayer being said by an imam and Orthodox priest in line with Litvinenko's wishes of a non-denominational service at the grave. The funeral ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts.
Investigations into death
UK criminal investigation
On 20 January 2007, British police announced that they had "identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder." The man in question was introduced to Litvinenko as "Vladislav".
As of 26 January 2007, British officials said police had solved the murder of Litvinenko. They discovered "a 'hot' teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing." In addition, a senior official said investigators had concluded the murder of Litvinenko was "a 'state-sponsored' assassination orchestrated by Russian security services." The police want to charge former Russian spy Andrei Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day officials believe the lethal dose of polonium-210 was administered.
On the same day, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoy be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder. On 22 May 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service called for the extradition of Russian citizen Andrei Lugovoy to the UK on charges of murder. Lugovoy dismissed the claims against him as "politically motivated" and said he did not kill Litvinenko.
A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect in the case, from Russia. On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia for the extradition of Lugovoy to face criminal charges in the UK.
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added.
In January 2015, it was reported in the British media that the National Security Agency had intercepted communications between Russian government agents in Moscow and those who carried out what was called a "state execution" in London: the recorded conversations allegedly proved that the Russian government was involved in Litvinenko's murder, and suggested that the motive was Litvinenko's revelations about Vladimir Putin's links with the criminal underworld. On 21 January 2016, the Home Office published The Litvinenko Inquiry: Report into Litvinenko's death.
Russian criminal investigation
Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Alexander Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky. Former FSB chief Nikolay Kovalyov, for whom Litvinenko worked, said that the incident "looks like the hand of Boris Berezovsky. I am sure that no kind of intelligence services participated." This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear the Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210 were found in an office of Berezovsky. Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning. The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning, were not at risk.
Russian authorities were unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.
On 5 July 2007, Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing Article 61 of the Constitution of Russia that prohibits extradition of citizens. Russia has said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoy but Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoy. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoy's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions. However, the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle, claimed that London has already submitted sufficient evidence to extradite him to Britain.
Judicial inquiries
Inquest in London
On 13 October 2011, Dr. Andrew Reid, the Coroner of St. Pancras, announced that he would hold an inquest into Litvinenko's death, which would include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of the Russian government. The inquest, held by Sir Robert Owen, a High Court judge acting as the coroner, originally scheduled to start on 1 May 2013, was subject to a series of pre-hearings: firstly, the coroner agreed that a group representing Russian state prosecutors could be accepted as a party to the inquest process; secondly, the British Government submitted a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate. Under Public Interest Immunity (PII) claims, the information at the disposal of the British government relating to Russian state involvement, as well as how much British intelligence services could have done to prevent the death, would be excluded from the inquest.
On 12 July 2013, Sir Robert, who had previously agreed to exclude certain material from the inquest on the grounds its disclosure could be damaging to national security, announced that the British Government refused the request he had made earlier in June to replace the inquest with a public inquiry, which would have powers to consider secret evidence. After the hearing, Alex Goldfarb said: "There's some sort of collusion behind the scenes with Her Majesty's government and the Kremlin to obstruct justice"; Elena Tsirlina, Mrs Litvinenko's solicitor, concurred with him.
On 22 July 2014, the British Home Secretary Theresa May, who had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the country's relations with Moscow, announced a public inquiry into Litvinenko's death. The inquiry was chaired by Sir Robert Owen who was the Coroner in the inquest into Litvinenko's death; its remit stipulated that "the inquiry will not address the question of whether the UK authorities could or should have taken steps which would have prevented the death". The inquiry started on 27 January 2015. New evidence emerged at first hearings held at the end of January 2015. The last day of hearings was on 31 July 2015.
The inquiry report was released on 21 January 2016. The report found that Litvinenko was killed by two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and that there was a "strong probability" they were acting on behalf of the Russian FSB secret service. Paragraph 10.6 of the report stated: "The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."
The Report outlined five possible motives for the murder: a belief Litvinenko had betrayed the FSB through public disclosures about its work; a belief that he was working for British intelligence; because he was a prominent associate of leading opponents of Mr Putin and his regime, including Mr Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev; because his claims about the FSB were "areas of particular sensitivity to the Putin administration", including a plot to murder dissident Boris Berezovsky; and because there was “undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Litvinenko and Putin, culminating in his allegation that Putin was a paedophile.
On the release of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Putin for presiding over "state sponsored murder". British Labour MP Ian Austin said: "Putin is an unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster who murders his opponents in Russia and, as we know, on the streets of London—and nothing announced today is going to make the blindest bit of difference." The Kremlin dismissed the Inquiry as "a joke" and "whitewash".
The same day, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced that assets belonging to both Lugovoi and Kovtun would be immediately frozen and that the Metropolitan Police were seeking their extradition. The Russian Ambassador was also summoned by the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and demands were made that Russia cooperate with the investigation into Mr Litvinenko's murder with Foreign Office minister David Liddington asserting that Russia had demonstrated "a flagrant disregard for UK law, international law and standards of conduct, and the safety of UK citizens" However, the government's response to the inquiry's results has been described by The Economist as consisting of "tough talk and little action".
Carter v Russia
In May 2007 Marina Litvinenko registered a complaint against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, accusing the Russian state of violating her husband's right to life, and failing to conduct a full investigation. On 21 September 2021, a chamber of the court found Russia responsible for Litvinenko's death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages. Russia can still appeal the decision to the Grand Chamber. Commenting on the case, law professor Marko Milanovic thought it was unlikely that Russia would pay the damages.
In popular culture
Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case is a documentary about Litvinenko's activities and death.
The Litvinenko Project is a live-performance devised by 2Magpies Theatre (Nottingham, UK) exploring the possibilities which lead to Litvinenko's poisoning
A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West is a nonfiction book by Luke Harding published in 2016 by Guardian Faber Publishing.
An episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved about his death aired in August 2018.
A Very Expensive Poison is a play by Lucy Prebble based on the book by Luke Harding and having its world premiere at The Old Vic Theatre in London in 2019.
An opera The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko by Anthony Bolton, libretto Kit Hesketh-Harvey. World premiere 15 July 2021 at Grange Park Opera.
See also
Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Roman Tsepov
List of journalists killed in Russia
Anna Politkovskaya
Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
Boris Berezovsky (businessman)
Badri Patarkatsishvili
Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova
Sergei Magnitsky
Natalya Estemirova
Sergei Yushenkov
Yuri Shchekochikhin
References
His books
Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, "Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror" Encounter Books, New York, 2007
Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia: Terror from within Gibson Square Books, London, 2007,
Alexander Litvinenko: "Allegations – Selected Works by Alexander Litvinenko", translated from Russian and edited by Pavel Stroilov, introduction by Vladimir Bukovsky, Publisher: Aquilion (12 November 2007),
A. Litvinenko and A. Goldfarb. Criminal gang from Lubyanka GRANI, New York, 2002,
А. Литвиненко Лубянская преступная группировка GRANI, New York, 2002,
A documentary film, Assassination of Russia was made by French producers based on books by Litvinenko. He was a consultant for the movie.
Books and films about him
Boris Volodarsky. The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, Pen & Sword/Frontline Books, 2009.
Alan Cowell. The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder, Random House, 2008.
William Dunkerley. The Phony Litvinenko Murder, Omnicom Press, 2011.
Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. Free Press, New York, 2007. .
Luke Harding. A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West, Vintage Books, 2017.
Martin Sixsmith. The Litvinenko File: the True Story of a Death Foretold, Publisher: Macmillan (2 April 2007)
Andrei Nekrasov. Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case, 2007, Dreamscanner. Banned in Russia. Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/20080415151727/http://www.dreamscanner-productions.com/litvinenko/index.html
External links
Litvinenko Justice Foundation
Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club accusing Vladimir Putin of the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya (In Russian and English)
Litvinenko Inquest (official site)
1962 births
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"Slot 1 refers to the physical and electrical specification for the connector used by some of Intel's microprocessors, including the Pentium Pro, Celeron, Pentium II and the Pentium III. Both single and dual processor configurations were implemented.\n\nIntel reverted to the traditional socket interface with Socket 370 in 1999.\n\nGeneral \n\nWith the introduction of the Pentium II CPU, the need for greater access for testing had made the transition from socket to slot necessary. Previously with the Pentium Pro, Intel had combined processor and cache dies in the same Socket 8 package. These were connected by a full-speed bus, resulting in significant performance benefits. Unfortunately, this method required that the two components be bonded together early in the production process, before testing was possible. As a result, a single, tiny flaw in either die made it necessary to discard the entire assembly, causing low production yield and high cost.\n\nIntel subsequently designed a circuit board where the CPU and cache remained closely integrated, but were mounted on a printed circuit board, called a Single-Edged Contact Cartridge (SECC). The CPU and cache could be tested separately, before final assembly into a package, reducing cost and making the CPU more attractive to markets other than that of high-end servers. These cards could also be easily plugged into a Slot 1, thereby eliminating the chance for pins of a typical CPU to be bent or broken when installing in a socket.\n\nThe form factor used for Slot 1 was a 5-inch-long, 242-contact edge connector named SC242. To prevent the cartridge from being inserted the wrong way, the slot was keyed to allow installation in only one direction. The SC242 was later used for AMD's Slot A as well, and while the two slots were identical mechanically, they were electrically incompatible. To discourage Slot A users from trying to install a Slot 1 CPU, the connector was rotated 180 degrees on Slot A motherboards.\n\nWith the new Slot 1, Intel added support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP). A maximum of two Pentium II or Pentium III CPUs can be used in a dual slot motherboard. The Celeron does not have official SMP support.\n\nThere are also converter cards, known as Slotkets, which hold a Socket 8 so that a Pentium Pro CPU can be used with Slot 1 motherboards. These specific converters, however, are rare. Another kind of slotket allows using a Socket 370 CPU in a Slot 1. Many of these latter devices are equipped with their own voltage regulator modules, in order to supply the new CPU with a lower core voltage, which the motherboard would not otherwise allow.\n\nForm factors \n\nThe Single Edge Contact Cartridge, or \"SECC\", was used at the beginning of the Slot 1-era for Pentium II CPUs. Inside the cartridge, the CPU itself is enclosed in a hybrid plastic and metal case. The back of the housing is plastic and has several markings on it: the name, \"Pentium II\"; the Intel logo; a hologram; and the model number. The front consists of a black anodized aluminum plate, which is used to hold the CPU cooler. The SECC form is very solid, because the CPU itself is resting safely inside the case. As compared to socket-based CPUs, there are no pins that can be bent, and the CPU is less likely to be damaged by improper installation of a cooler.\n\nFollowing SECC, the SEPP-form (Single Edge Processor Package) appeared on the market. It was designed for lower-priced Celeron CPUs. This form lacks a case entirely, consisting solely of the printed-circuit board holding the components.\n\nA form factor called SECC2 was used for late Pentium II and Pentium III CPUs for Slot 1, which was created to accommodate the switch to flip chip packaging. Only the front plate was carried over, the coolers were now mounted straight to the PCB and exposed CPU die and are, as such, incompatible with SECC cartridges.\n\nHistory \n\nHistorically, there are three platforms for the Intel P6-CPUs: Socket 8, Slot 1 and Socket 370.\n\nSlot 1 is a successor to Socket 8. While the Socket 8 CPUs (Pentium Pro) directly had the L2-cache embedded into the CPU, it is located (outside of the core) on a circuit board shared with the core itself. The exception is later Slot 1 CPUs with the Coppermine core which have the L2-Cache embedded into the die.\n\nIn the beginning of 2000, while the Pentium-III-CPUs with FC-PGA-housing appeared, Slot 1 was slowly succeeded by Socket 370, after Intel had already offered Socket 370 and Slot 1 at the same time since the beginning of 1999. Socket 370 was initially made for the low-cost Celeron processors, while Slot 1 was thought of as a platform for the expensive Pentium II and early Pentium III models. Cache and core were both embedded into the die.\n\nSlot 1 also obsoleted the old Socket 7, at least regarding Intel, as the standard platform for the home-user. After superseding the Intel P5 Pentium MMX CPU, Intel completely left the Socket 7 market.\n\nChipsets and officially supported CPUsList of VIA chipsets\n\nIntel 440FX \n Introduced in: May 6, 1996\n FSB: 66 MHz\n PIO/WDMA\n Supported RAM type: EDO-DRAM\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium Pro\n Pentium II with 66 MHz FSB\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino)\n Used in both Socket 8 (Pentium Pro) and Slot 1 (Pentium II, early Celerons)\n Does not support AGP or SDRAM\n Allowed up to two CPUs for SMP\n\nIntel 440LX \n Introduced in: August 27, 1997\n FSB: 66 MHz\n Supported RAM type: EDO-DRAM, SDRAM\n Supported CPUs: Pentium II, Celeron\n AGP 2× Mode\n UDMA/33\n Pentium II with 66 MHz FSB\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino)\n Introduced support for AGP and SDRAM\n Allowed up to two CPUs for SMP\n\nIntel 440EX \n Introduced in: April, 1998\n FSB: 66 MHz\n Supported RAM type: EDO-DRAM, SDRAM\n Supported CPUs: Pentium II, Celeron\n AGP 2× Mode\n UDMA/33\n Pentium II with 66 MHz FSB\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino)\n Same specifications as 440LX, but memory support limited to 256MB and no SMP support.\n\nIntel 440BX \n Introduced in: April 1998\n FSB: 66 and 100 MHz (some motherboards supported overclocking to 133 MHz, allowing usage of Socket 370 CPUs using a Slocket)\n AGP 2× Mode (max memory mapping 32 or 64 MB)\n UDMA/33\n Supported RAM types: SDRAM (PC66 and PC100, PC133 with overclocking) up to 4 DIMMs of 256 MB\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium II with 66 and 100 MHz FSB\n Pentium III with 100 MHz FSB (133 with overclocking)\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino, Coppermine)\n Allowed up to two CPUs for SMP\n\nIntel 440ZX \n Introduced in: November 1998\n FSB: 66 and 100 MHz (some motherboards supported overclocking to 133 MHz, allowing usage of Socket 370 CPUs using a Slocket)\n AGP 2× Mode\n UDMA/33\n Supported RAM types: SDRAM (PC66 and PC100, PC133 with overclocking), up to 2 DIMMs of 256 MB\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium II with 66 and 100 MHz FSB\n Pentium III with 100 MHz FSB (133 with overclocking)\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino, Coppermine)\n\nIntel 810 \n Introduced in: 1999\n FSB: 66 and 100 MHz\n No external AGP\nIntel i752 based graphics\n UDMA/66 (UDMA/33 with ICH0)\n Supported RAM types: PC100 SDRAM\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium II with 66 and 100 MHz FSB\n Pentium III with 100 MHz FSB (133 with overclocking)\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino, Coppermine)\n\nIntel 820/820E (Camino) \n Introduced in: November 1999\n FSB: 100 and 133 MHz\n AGP 4× Mode\n UDMA/66 (i820), UDMA/100 (i820E)\n Supported RAM types: RDRAM, SDRAM (PC100 via MTH)\n Supported CPUs: All FSB 100/133 Slot 1 CPUs\n Allowed up to two CPUs for SMP\n\nIntel 840 \n Introduced in: November 1999\n FSB: 100 and 133 MHz\n AGP 4× Mode\n UDMA/66 (i820), UDMA/100 (i820E)\n Supported RAM types: Dual Channel RDRAM, SDRAM (PC100 via MTH)\n Supported CPUs: All FSB 100/133 Slot 1 CPUs\n Allowed up to two CPUs for SMP\n\nVIA Apollo Pro / Pro II / Pro+ \n Introduced in: May 1998 (Pro Plus: Dec 1998)\n FSB: 66, 100 MHz (some motherboards supported overclocking to 133 MHz, allowing usage of Socket 370 CPUs using a Slocket)\n AGP 2× Mode\n UDMA/33 (VT82C586B/VT82C596A), UDMA/66 (VT82C596B)\nSupported RAM types: PC66/100 SDRAM up to 1536 MB\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium Pro with 66 MHz FSB\n Pentium II with 66 and 100 MHz FSB\n Pentium III with 100 MHz FSB (133 with overclocking)\n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino, Coppermine)\n\nVIA Apollo Pro 133 \n Introduced in: July 1999\n FSB: 66, 100, and 133 MHz\n AGP 2× Mode\n UDMA/33 (VT82C596A), UDMA/66 (VT82C596B/VT82C686A), UDMA/100 (VT82C686B)\nSupported RAM types: PC66/100/133 SDRAM up to 1536 MB\n Supported CPUs: All Slot 1 CPUs\n\nVIA Apollo Pro 133A \n Introduced in: Oct 1999\n FSB: 66, 100, and 133 MHz\n AGP 4× Mode\n UDMA/66 (VT82C596B/VT82C686A), UDMA/100 (VT82C686B)\nSupported RAM types: PC66/100/133 SDRAM up to 2048 MB\n Supported CPUs: All Slot 1 CPUs\n Allowed up to two CPUs for SMP\n\nSiS 5600 (SiS 600) \n Introduced in: November 1998\n FSB: 66 and 100 MHz \n AGP 2× Mode\n UDMA/33\n Supported RAM types: PC66/100 SDRAM up to 1536 MB\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium II with 66 and 100 MHz FSB\n Pentium III with 100 MHz FSB \n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino, Coppermine)\n\nSiS 620 \n Introduced in: April 1999\n FSB: 66 and 100 MHz \n No external AGP port\nSiS 6326 based Integrated Graphics\n UDMA/33\n Supported RAM types: PC66/100 SDRAM up to 1536 MB\n Supported CPUs:\n Pentium II with 66 and 100 MHz FSB\n Pentium III with 100 MHz FSB \n Celeron (Covington, Mendocino, Coppermine)\n\nSee also\n Slot A\n Slot 2\n List of Intel microprocessors\n Slotket\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n Intel's specifications for the SC242 connectors\n Intel's detailed Slot 1 CPU (Coppermine) information, including Slot 1 pinout\nAn image of a motherboard with Slot 1 connector\n\nIntel CPU sockets",
"The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is a UK business organisation representing small and medium-sized businesses. It was formed in 1974 as the National Federation of Self Employed (NFSE). The current name for the organisation was adopted in 1991. It is registered with Companies House as The National Federation of Self Employed & Small Businesses Limited (company number 1263540).\n\nFSB is a member-led, not-for-profit and non-party political organisation. FSB is a lobbying organisation representing small firms and the self-employed to UK, national, local and devolved government. FSB offers its members a range of benefits, such as a 24-hour legal advice line and free business banking.\n\nStructure \nThe current National Chairman of FSB is Mike Cherry OBE who was elected on 19 March 2016 \n\nIn 2017 FSB had 184 branches around the UK and these were grouped into 33 regions. Each branch and region has its own committee. In addition, there is a national committee which includes representatives from each regional committee.\n\nIn January 2018, FSB's Board of Directors altered the organisation's volunteer structure by switching from elected Branches & Regions to an unelected, ad-hoc approach to local lobbying & representation.\nThis necessitated changes to FSB's National Council which now comprises 12 appointed representatives, selected from the 9 English regions and the 3 devolved countries.\n\nLobbying \n\nFSB's past political lobbying activities have led in its own opinion to a number of benefits for small businesses, such as:\n\n Repeatedly overcoming attempts to impose unreasonable National Insurance Contributions\n The introduction of enhanced capital allowances and flexible working hours\n The reduction or removal of Corporation Tax for small limited companies\n VAT reform in the form of a flat rate scheme for small businesses\n An end to automatic fines for incorrect filing of VAT returns\n\nMembership \n\nFSB is a member-led federation. Membership criteria are as follows:\n\n Self-Employed or the owner, partner, or director of a business (or businesses) Based in the United Kingdom\n Fewer than 250 employees.\n Agree to the Members' Code of Conduct\n Not barred from membership\n\nThe membership was 185,000 in 2006 and >160,000 in 2016. The membership is 200,000+ if Joint, Associate, Retired, Connect and Business Creation (pre-start-up) affiliates are included.\n\nSmall Business Index \n\nThe FSB Small Business Index measures confidence among small firms. The FSB SBI has been quoted by the Bank of England, the BBC, Economia, and EADT.\n\nCurrent logo \nThe current logo for the organisation was adopted in November 2015. The costs of this re-branding was £0.3M and took well over a year to complete including a complete re-branding of the FSB Website.\n\nSee also \nBritish Chambers of Commerce\nConfederation of British Industry\nTheCityUK\nInstitute of Directors\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n FSB website\n\nBusiness organisations based in the United Kingdom\nOrganizations established in 1974"
] |
[
"Alexander Litvinenko",
"Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB",
"Did Litvinenko support terrorism?",
"He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide",
"What does FSB stand for?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_b8883b97a81b45b78198b0134887ad83_1
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What was his position in the KGB?
| 3 |
What was Alexander Litvinenko's position in the KGB?
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Alexander Litvinenko
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Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramirez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Ocalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin". When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services." Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin he advised British intelligence and coined the term "Mafia state" to describe the Russian regime before he was murdered by radiation poisoning in 2006. Although Russia has refused to cooperate with investigations, it is considered extremely likely Putin personally ordered his assassination, as heard by a 2015 British inquiry into his death.
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services. During his time in Boston, Lincolnshire, Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, wherein he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings in 1999 and other acts of terrorism in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised after poisoning by polonium-210; he died from the poisoning on 23 November. The events leading up to this are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation pointed to Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), as the main suspect. Dmitry Kovtun was later named as a second suspect. The United Kingdom demanded that Lugovoy be extradited, however Russia denied the extradition as the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, leading to a straining of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom.
After Litvinenko's death, his wife Marina, aided by biologist Alexander Goldfarb, pursued a vigorous campaign through the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. In October 2011, she won the right for an inquest into her husband's death to be conducted by a coroner in London; the inquest was repeatedly set back by issues relating to examinable evidence. A public inquiry began on 27 January 2015, and concluded in January 2016 that Litvinenko's murder was carried out by the two suspects and that they were "probably" acting under the direction of the FSB and with the approval of president Vladimir Putin and then FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. In the 2021 case Carter v Russia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for his death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages.
Early life and career
Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh in 1962. After he graduated from a Nalchik secondary school in 1980, he was drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage ended in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company of 4th Regiment, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit. In 1986, he became an informant when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB counterintelligence section and in 1988, he was officially transferred to the Third Chief Directorate of the KGB, Military Counter Intelligence. Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.
Career in Russian security services
In 1991, Litvinenko was promoted to the Central Staff of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organised crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with the Moscow criminal investigation department, the MUR. Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia. During the First Chechen War, Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. Although he was often called a "Russian spy" by western press, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch. He later was responsible for the oligarch's security. Litvinenko's employment under Berezovsky and other security services created a conflict of interest, but such practice is usually tolerated by the Russian state.
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.
Conflict with FSB leadership
During his work in the FSB, Litvinenko discovered numerous connections between top leadership of Russian law enforcement agencies and Russian mafia groups, such as the Solntsevo gang. He wrote a memorandum about this issue for Boris Yeltsin. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB director Mikhail Barsukov and deputy director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the corruption problems; however, this had no effect. Litvinenko gradually realized that the entire system was corrupted from the top to the bottom. He explained: "If your partner bilked you, or a creditor did not pay, or a supplier did not deliver - where did you turn to complain? ...When force became a commodity, there was always demand for it. "Roofs" (krysha) appeared, people who sheltered and protected your business. First it was provided by the mob, then by police, and soon even our own guys realized what was what, and then the rivalry began among gangsters, cops, and the Agency for market share. As the police and the FSB became more competitive, they squeezed the gangs out of the market. However, in many cases competition gave way to cooperation, and the services became gangsters themselves."
On 25 July 1998, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Vladimir Putin. He said: "Go see Putin. Make yourself known. See what a great guy we have installed, with your help." On the same day, Putin replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, with help from Berezovsky. Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. Litvinenko said to his wife after the meeting: "I could see in his eyes that he hated me." Litvinenko said that he was doing an investigation of Uzbek drug barons who received protection from the FSB, and Putin tried to stall the investigation to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998, Berezovsky wrote an open letter to Putin in Kommersant. He accused four senior officers of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups of ordering his assassination: Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov, N. Stepanov, A. Kamyshnikov, and N. Yenin.
Four days later, on 17 November, Litvinenko and four other officers appeared together in a press conference at the Russian news agency Interfax. All officers worked for both FSB in the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups. They repeated the allegation made by Berezovsky. The officers also said they were ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin who was also present at the press conference, and to kidnap a brother of the businessman Umar Dzhabrailov. In 2007, Sergey Dorenko provided the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with a complete copy of an interview he conducted in April 1998 for ORT, a television station, with Litvinenko and his fellow employees. The interview, of which only excerpts were broadcast in 1998, shows the FSB officers, who were disguised in masks or dark glasses, claim that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame prominent Russian politicians and business people.
After holding the press conference, Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB. Later, in an interview with Yelena Tregubova, Putin said that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating, "I fired Litvinenko and disbanded his unit ...because FSB officers should not stage press conferences. This is not their job. And they should not make internal scandals public." Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said, "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."
Flight from Russia and asylum in the United Kingdom
In October 2000, in violation of an order not to leave Moscow, Litvinenko and his family travelled to Turkey, possibly via Ukraine. While in Turkey, Litvinenko applied for asylum at the United States Embassy in Ankara, but his application was denied. With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul-London-Moscow flight, and asked for political asylum at Heathrow Airport during the transit stop on 1 November 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001, not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, according to Litvinenko, but rather on humanitarian grounds. While in London he became a journalist for Chechenpress and an author. He also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government. In October 2006, he became a naturalised British citizen with residence in Whitehaven.
In 2002, Litvinenko was convicted in absentia in Russia and given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for charges of corruption. According to Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, her husband cooperated with the British security services, working as a consultant and helping the agencies to combat Russian organised crime in Europe. During the public inquiry started in January 2015, it was confirmed that Litvinenko was recruited by MI6 to provide "useful information about senior Kremlin figures and their links with Russian organised crime", primarily related to Russian mafia activities in Spain.
Shortly before his death, Litvinenko tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain. During a meeting in May 2006 he allegedly provided security officials with information on the locations, roles, and activities of several "Russian" mafia figures with ties to Spain, including Zahkar Kalashov, Izguilov and Tariel Oniani.
Litvinenko allegedly converted to Islam in Britain and was rumoured to have told his father he had converted to Islam on his death bed. Litvinenko said his father commented about it: "It doesn't matter. At least you're not a communist."
This account has been strongly denied by close family and friends. Visitors to Litvinenko's death bed included Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko's father, Walter, who flew in from Moscow.
Mikhail Trepashkin said that in 2002 he had warned Litvinenko that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate him. In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom, and often received journalists at his home.
Allegations
Litvinenko published a number of allegations about the Russian government, most of which are related to conducting or sponsoring domestic and foreign terrorism.
Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB
Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."
Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.
Armenian parliament shooting
Litvinenko accused the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces of having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting that killed the Prime Minister of Armenia, Vazgen Sargsyan, and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation. The Russian embassy in Armenia denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.
Russian apartment bombings
Litvinenko wrote two books, Lubyanka Criminal Group and Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within (in co-authorship with historian Yuri Felshtinsky), where he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power.
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
In a 2003 interview with the Australian SBS TV network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege—whom he named "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar"—were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack. Litvinenko said, "[W]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin. The leading role of an FSB agent, Khanpasha Terkibaev ("Abu Bakar"), was also described by Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Rybkin and Alexander Khinshtein. In the beginning of April 2003, Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya. A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to Ivan Rybkin, a speaker of the Russian State Duma, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."
Beslan school siege
In September 2004, Alexander Litvinenko suggested that the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand and probably had organised the attack themselves in order to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law enforcement agencies. His conclusion was based on the fact that several Beslan hostage takers had been released from FSB custody just before the attack in Beslan. He said that they would have been freed only if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under strict surveillance that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed.
Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan, supported Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion.
Alleged Russia–al-Qaeda connection
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1997. Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda." Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB officer and writer, supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996–1997." He said: "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of highly placed police officers to notify them in advance." According to Sergei Ignatchenko, an FSB spokesman, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that a former presidential candidate, Irina Hakamada, warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year earlier. It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky, who claimed that Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, received word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin stated that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings.
Allegations concerning Romano Prodi
According to Litvinenko, the FSB deputy chief General Anatoly Trofimov said to him, "Don't go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there," meaning Romano Prodi, the Italian centre-left leader, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi-KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin.
In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament for London, Gerard Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), demanded an inquiry into the allegations. On 26 April 2006, Batten repeated his call for a parliamentary inquiry, revealing that "former senior members of the KGB are willing to testify in such an investigation, under the right conditions." He added, "It is not acceptable that this situation is unresolved, given the importance of Russia's relations with the European Union." On 22 January 2007, the BBC and ITV News released documents and video footage from February 2006, in which Litvinenko repeated his statements about Prodi.
Connections between FSB and mafia
In his book Gang from Lubyanka, Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organised by Abdul Rashid Dostum. In December 2003, Russian authorities confiscated over 4,000 copies of the book. Shortly before his death, Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin had cultivated a "good relationship" with Semion Mogilevich (head of the Russia mafia) since 1993 or 1994.
Others
In an article written by Litvinenko in July 2006, and published online on Zakayev's Chechenpress website, he claimed that Vladimir Putin is a paedophile and KGB possessed the video footage which allegedly documented the unlawful carnal knowledge of Putin, Red Banner Institute's graduate, and minor boys and which subsequently was destroyed when Putin was the FSB director. Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov and Artyom Borovik knew of the alleged paedophilia. Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his stomach while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast organised by the BBC and Yandex, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice. ... There is nothing behind it."
According to Litvinenko, the 2005 controversy over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists.
Poisoning and death
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. On 3 November, he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital in London. He was then moved to University College Hospital for intensive care. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body.
Litvinenko met with two former agents early on the day he fell ill – Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy. Though both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that Kovtun had left polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg. The men also introduced Litvinenko to a tall, thin man of central Asian appearance called 'Vladislav Sokolenko' whom Lugovoy said was a business partner. Lugovoy is also a former bodyguard of Russian ex-Acting Prime minister Yegor Gaidar (who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, Litvinenko had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant in Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance and nuclear waste expert, Mario Scaramella, with whom he discussed alleged allegations regarding Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating alleged KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, forty-eight, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
Marina Litvinenko, his widow, accused Moscow of orchestrating the murder. Though she believes the order did not come from Putin himself, she does believe it was done at the behest of the authorities, and announced that she will refuse to provide evidence to any Russian investigation out of fear that it would be misused or misrepresented. In a court hearing in London in 2015, a Scotland Yard lawyer concluded that "the evidence suggests that the only credible explanation is in one way or another the Russian state is involved in Litvinenko's murder".
Death and final statement
Before his death, Litvinenko said: "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world, Mr. Putin, will reverberate in your ears for the rest of your life." On 22 November 2006, Litvinenko's medical staff at University College Hospital reported Litvinenko had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack. He died on 23 November. The following day, Putin publicly stated: “Mr Litvinenko is, unfortunately, not Lazarus”.
Scotland Yard stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.
On 24 November 2006, a statement was released posthumously, in which Litvinenko named Putin as the man behind his poisoning. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who was also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund, claimed Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer had composed the statement in Russian on 21 November's and translated it to English.
Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki and claimed it was being used for political purposes. Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko, on his deathbed, had instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian and Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.
His autopsy took place on 1 December at the Royal London Hospital's institute of pathology. It was attended by three physicians, including one chosen by the family and one from the Foreign Office. Litvinenko was buried at Highgate Cemetery (West side) in north London on 7 December. The police treated his death as a murder, although the London coroner's inquest was yet to be completed.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence' report investigating the activities of an unnamed senior Kremlin official on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia, and that the dossier contained damaging information about the senior Kremlin official. He said he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder. British media reported that the poisoning and consequent death of Litvinenko was not widely covered in the Russian news media.
Funeral
On 7 December 2006, Litvinenko was buried within a lead-lined casket at Highgate Cemetery with Christian, Jewish and Muslim rites, including a Christian and Muslim prayer being said by an imam and Orthodox priest in line with Litvinenko's wishes of a non-denominational service at the grave. The funeral ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts.
Investigations into death
UK criminal investigation
On 20 January 2007, British police announced that they had "identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder." The man in question was introduced to Litvinenko as "Vladislav".
As of 26 January 2007, British officials said police had solved the murder of Litvinenko. They discovered "a 'hot' teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing." In addition, a senior official said investigators had concluded the murder of Litvinenko was "a 'state-sponsored' assassination orchestrated by Russian security services." The police want to charge former Russian spy Andrei Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day officials believe the lethal dose of polonium-210 was administered.
On the same day, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoy be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder. On 22 May 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service called for the extradition of Russian citizen Andrei Lugovoy to the UK on charges of murder. Lugovoy dismissed the claims against him as "politically motivated" and said he did not kill Litvinenko.
A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect in the case, from Russia. On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia for the extradition of Lugovoy to face criminal charges in the UK.
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added.
In January 2015, it was reported in the British media that the National Security Agency had intercepted communications between Russian government agents in Moscow and those who carried out what was called a "state execution" in London: the recorded conversations allegedly proved that the Russian government was involved in Litvinenko's murder, and suggested that the motive was Litvinenko's revelations about Vladimir Putin's links with the criminal underworld. On 21 January 2016, the Home Office published The Litvinenko Inquiry: Report into Litvinenko's death.
Russian criminal investigation
Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Alexander Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky. Former FSB chief Nikolay Kovalyov, for whom Litvinenko worked, said that the incident "looks like the hand of Boris Berezovsky. I am sure that no kind of intelligence services participated." This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear the Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210 were found in an office of Berezovsky. Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning. The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning, were not at risk.
Russian authorities were unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.
On 5 July 2007, Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing Article 61 of the Constitution of Russia that prohibits extradition of citizens. Russia has said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoy but Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoy. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoy's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions. However, the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle, claimed that London has already submitted sufficient evidence to extradite him to Britain.
Judicial inquiries
Inquest in London
On 13 October 2011, Dr. Andrew Reid, the Coroner of St. Pancras, announced that he would hold an inquest into Litvinenko's death, which would include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of the Russian government. The inquest, held by Sir Robert Owen, a High Court judge acting as the coroner, originally scheduled to start on 1 May 2013, was subject to a series of pre-hearings: firstly, the coroner agreed that a group representing Russian state prosecutors could be accepted as a party to the inquest process; secondly, the British Government submitted a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate. Under Public Interest Immunity (PII) claims, the information at the disposal of the British government relating to Russian state involvement, as well as how much British intelligence services could have done to prevent the death, would be excluded from the inquest.
On 12 July 2013, Sir Robert, who had previously agreed to exclude certain material from the inquest on the grounds its disclosure could be damaging to national security, announced that the British Government refused the request he had made earlier in June to replace the inquest with a public inquiry, which would have powers to consider secret evidence. After the hearing, Alex Goldfarb said: "There's some sort of collusion behind the scenes with Her Majesty's government and the Kremlin to obstruct justice"; Elena Tsirlina, Mrs Litvinenko's solicitor, concurred with him.
On 22 July 2014, the British Home Secretary Theresa May, who had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the country's relations with Moscow, announced a public inquiry into Litvinenko's death. The inquiry was chaired by Sir Robert Owen who was the Coroner in the inquest into Litvinenko's death; its remit stipulated that "the inquiry will not address the question of whether the UK authorities could or should have taken steps which would have prevented the death". The inquiry started on 27 January 2015. New evidence emerged at first hearings held at the end of January 2015. The last day of hearings was on 31 July 2015.
The inquiry report was released on 21 January 2016. The report found that Litvinenko was killed by two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and that there was a "strong probability" they were acting on behalf of the Russian FSB secret service. Paragraph 10.6 of the report stated: "The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."
The Report outlined five possible motives for the murder: a belief Litvinenko had betrayed the FSB through public disclosures about its work; a belief that he was working for British intelligence; because he was a prominent associate of leading opponents of Mr Putin and his regime, including Mr Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev; because his claims about the FSB were "areas of particular sensitivity to the Putin administration", including a plot to murder dissident Boris Berezovsky; and because there was “undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Litvinenko and Putin, culminating in his allegation that Putin was a paedophile.
On the release of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Putin for presiding over "state sponsored murder". British Labour MP Ian Austin said: "Putin is an unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster who murders his opponents in Russia and, as we know, on the streets of London—and nothing announced today is going to make the blindest bit of difference." The Kremlin dismissed the Inquiry as "a joke" and "whitewash".
The same day, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced that assets belonging to both Lugovoi and Kovtun would be immediately frozen and that the Metropolitan Police were seeking their extradition. The Russian Ambassador was also summoned by the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and demands were made that Russia cooperate with the investigation into Mr Litvinenko's murder with Foreign Office minister David Liddington asserting that Russia had demonstrated "a flagrant disregard for UK law, international law and standards of conduct, and the safety of UK citizens" However, the government's response to the inquiry's results has been described by The Economist as consisting of "tough talk and little action".
Carter v Russia
In May 2007 Marina Litvinenko registered a complaint against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, accusing the Russian state of violating her husband's right to life, and failing to conduct a full investigation. On 21 September 2021, a chamber of the court found Russia responsible for Litvinenko's death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages. Russia can still appeal the decision to the Grand Chamber. Commenting on the case, law professor Marko Milanovic thought it was unlikely that Russia would pay the damages.
In popular culture
Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case is a documentary about Litvinenko's activities and death.
The Litvinenko Project is a live-performance devised by 2Magpies Theatre (Nottingham, UK) exploring the possibilities which lead to Litvinenko's poisoning
A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West is a nonfiction book by Luke Harding published in 2016 by Guardian Faber Publishing.
An episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved about his death aired in August 2018.
A Very Expensive Poison is a play by Lucy Prebble based on the book by Luke Harding and having its world premiere at The Old Vic Theatre in London in 2019.
An opera The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko by Anthony Bolton, libretto Kit Hesketh-Harvey. World premiere 15 July 2021 at Grange Park Opera.
See also
Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Roman Tsepov
List of journalists killed in Russia
Anna Politkovskaya
Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
Boris Berezovsky (businessman)
Badri Patarkatsishvili
Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova
Sergei Magnitsky
Natalya Estemirova
Sergei Yushenkov
Yuri Shchekochikhin
References
His books
Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, "Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror" Encounter Books, New York, 2007
Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia: Terror from within Gibson Square Books, London, 2007,
Alexander Litvinenko: "Allegations – Selected Works by Alexander Litvinenko", translated from Russian and edited by Pavel Stroilov, introduction by Vladimir Bukovsky, Publisher: Aquilion (12 November 2007),
A. Litvinenko and A. Goldfarb. Criminal gang from Lubyanka GRANI, New York, 2002,
А. Литвиненко Лубянская преступная группировка GRANI, New York, 2002,
A documentary film, Assassination of Russia was made by French producers based on books by Litvinenko. He was a consultant for the movie.
Books and films about him
Boris Volodarsky. The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, Pen & Sword/Frontline Books, 2009.
Alan Cowell. The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder, Random House, 2008.
William Dunkerley. The Phony Litvinenko Murder, Omnicom Press, 2011.
Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. Free Press, New York, 2007. .
Luke Harding. A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West, Vintage Books, 2017.
Martin Sixsmith. The Litvinenko File: the True Story of a Death Foretold, Publisher: Macmillan (2 April 2007)
Andrei Nekrasov. Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case, 2007, Dreamscanner. Banned in Russia. Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/20080415151727/http://www.dreamscanner-productions.com/litvinenko/index.html
External links
Litvinenko Justice Foundation
Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club accusing Vladimir Putin of the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya (In Russian and English)
Litvinenko Inquest (official site)
1962 births
2006 deaths
Assassinated British people
Assassinated Russian people
British Muslims
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
Converts to Islam
Deaths by poisoning
Espionage scandals and incidents
Federal Security Service officers
KGB officers
Male murder victims
Nuclear terrorism
People attacked in FSB or SVR operations
Writers from Voronezh
People murdered in London
People of the Chechen wars
Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Russian murder victims
Russian Muslims
Russian people murdered abroad
Russian political activists
Russian political writers
Secret Intelligence Service
Unsolved murders in London
Victims of radiological poisoning
| false |
[
"Ilya Grigoryevich Dzhirkvelov (; born 1927) is a Georgian author, journalist, TASS editor and former KGB agent who defected from the Soviet Union in 1980 and now lives in England. For his defection he was sentenced to death in absentia.\n\nBiography \nDzhirkvelov was born in 1927 in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 1943, at the age of 16, he joined the youth wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Komsomol. He also started doing volunteer reconnaissance work against Nazi Germany around that time. In 1944, Dzhirkvelov was recruited into the NKVD, which would later be known as the KGB. \n\nHis first posting was in Crimea to help the deportation of the native Crimean Tatars. The Tatars were rounded up on wagons and sent to Siberia or, in some cases, the firing squad. In 1945 Dzhirkvelov attended the Yalta Conference as a guard, which was one of the three major wartime conferences of World War II.\n\nAfter the war, he was sent to an espionage school, which he attended until graduation in 1947. After his graduation, he was posted in Romania for several months, but was then recalled and reassigned to do work in the Middle East, primarily Turkey and Iran. In 1957, with his final rank as captain, he was voluntarily discharged from the KGB. In 1966, he started work as a journalist for TASS as its correspondent to Sudan and Tanzania. While in Africa, Dzhirkvelov still kept in contact with the KGB and contributed to what could be characterised as a ‘disinformation campaign,’ such as discrediting the American Peace Corps by characterizing it as a front for the CIA. He was expelled along with other Soviet officials after the failure of the 1971 Sudanese coup d'état. He was recalled to Moscow where he served as chief foreign editor for TASS, but when in 1975 he was appointed as correspondent to Zambia, Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda refused him entry into the country, as Dzerkhilov was identified as being involved with the KGB. \n\nIn 1976, Dzerkhilov was posted to Geneva, Switzerland, as an information officer for the World Health Organization. In 1980 while still posted in Geneva, Dzerkhilov defected to NATO with his family. Dzhirkvelov asserts the defection was motivated not politically but for a better life for his family in the west. He now lives in London, England, and in 1988 published a book, Secret Servant: My life with the KGB and Soviet Elite.\n\nReferences \n\n1927 births\nKGB officers\nSoviet intelligence personnel who defected to the United Kingdom\nJournalists from Georgia (country)\nLiving people",
"Robert Owen Menaker (June 25, 1904 – September 1, 1988) was an American exporter who allegedly worked for Soviet intelligence during World War II.\n\nBiography\nBorn in Passaic, New Jersey, Menaker was the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant who was imprisoned for revolutionary activity in Russia. His family were noted radicals; he was named for utopian socialist Robert Owen and one of his nieces, Ellen, was married to Victor Perlo, head of the Perlo group. \n\nMenaker was identified by Arlington Hall cryptographers in sixteen Venona messages. Menaker assisted Floyd Miller's infiltration of the Socialist Workers Party. Several Venona messages are related to Menaker's employer, Michael Burd, for whom Menaker worked at the Midland Export Corporation of New York City. In 1944 and 1945, Menaker traveled to Chile to represent Midland Export. While in Chile he met the Chilean diplomat Christian Casanova Subercaseaux. Burd and Subercaseaux were also both Soviet intelligence agents.\n\nAfter returning from his 1944 Chile trip, Burd complained to the New York KGB office that Menaker alienated several companies they did business with. KGB Officer Pavel Ivanovich Fedosimov reported to Moscow that \"allowances should be made\" working with Menaker since he had not been thoroughly trained or screened prior to assignment.\n\nIn a later Venona transcript, the KGB speculates about the possibility that Laurence Duggan, another source who had recently resigned from the U.S. State Department, might go to Chile in place of Menaker or do some unspecified work with him. A cable from October references work with Joseph Katz, owner of the Tempus Import Company in Manhattan, and one of the KGB's most active agents. The decrypt requests instructions regarding Menaker's salary, and noted someone would be paying him thirty thousand dollars but that he might not receive it for a year. Menaker, like his friend Floyd Miller, \"apparently cooperated with the FBI to some extent in the 1950s....His son wrote of the frequent presence in the household in the 1950s of a friendly FBI agent, but his father never spoke about precisely what he did in Mexico, or what he told the FBI.\"\n\nMenaker and his wife, Mary Grace Menaker, had two sons: author Daniel Menaker (1941–2020), and Michael Menaker (d. 1967). He is the grandfather of Chapo Trap House host Will Menaker.\n\nMenaker moved from New York City to South Nyack, New York in 1952. He died at a hospital in Nyack on September 1, 1988, at the age of 84.\n\nVenona\nMenaker, whose code names as deciphered by Arlington Hall cryptographers is BOB and CZECH, is referenced in the following Venona project decryptions:\n\n55 KGB Moscow to New York, January 10, 1943\n694 KGB New York to Moscow, May 15, 1943\n1044 KGB New York to Moscow, July 2, 1943\n1185 KGB New York to Moscow, July 21, 1943\n1031 KGB New York to Moscow, July 24, 1944\n1143–1144 KGB New York to Moscow, August 10, 1944\n1313 KGB New York to Moscow, September 13, 1944\n1337 KGB New York to Moscow, September 19, 1944\n1430 KGB New York to Moscow, October 10, 1944\n1470 KGB New York to Moscow, October 17, 1944\n1512 KGB New York to Moscow, October 24, 1944\n1522 KGB New York to Moscow, October 27, 1944\n1613 KGB New York to Moscow, November 18, 1944\n1637 KGB New York to Moscow, November 21, 1944\n1716 KGB New York to Moscow, December 5, 1944\n77 KGB New York to Moscow, January 17, 1945\n\nReferences\n\nDaniel Menaker, The Old Left, (New York: Knopf, 1987).\nEarl M. Hyde, Bernard Schuster and Joseph Katz: KGB Master Spies in the United States, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Volume 12, Number 1, March 1, 1999\n\nJohn Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pgs. 266–267, 284 .\n\n1904 births\n1988 deaths\n20th-century American businesspeople\nAmerican people in the Venona papers\nAmerican people of Russian-Jewish descent\nAmerican spies for the Soviet Union\nEspionage in the United States\nPeople from Passaic, New Jersey\nPeople from South Nyack, New York"
] |
[
"Alexander Litvinenko",
"Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB",
"Did Litvinenko support terrorism?",
"He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide",
"What does FSB stand for?",
"I don't know.",
"What was his position in the KGB?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_b8883b97a81b45b78198b0134887ad83_1
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What terrorist attacks was he involved in?
| 4 |
What terrorist attacks was Alexander Litvinenko involved in?
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Alexander Litvinenko
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Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramirez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Ocalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin". When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services." Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (30 August 1962 or 4 December 1962 – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin he advised British intelligence and coined the term "Mafia state" to describe the Russian regime before he was murdered by radiation poisoning in 2006. Although Russia has refused to cooperate with investigations, it is considered extremely likely Putin personally ordered his assassination, as heard by a 2015 British inquiry into his death.
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services. During his time in Boston, Lincolnshire, Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, wherein he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings in 1999 and other acts of terrorism in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised after poisoning by polonium-210; he died from the poisoning on 23 November. The events leading up to this are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation pointed to Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), as the main suspect. Dmitry Kovtun was later named as a second suspect. The United Kingdom demanded that Lugovoy be extradited, however Russia denied the extradition as the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, leading to a straining of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom.
After Litvinenko's death, his wife Marina, aided by biologist Alexander Goldfarb, pursued a vigorous campaign through the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. In October 2011, she won the right for an inquest into her husband's death to be conducted by a coroner in London; the inquest was repeatedly set back by issues relating to examinable evidence. A public inquiry began on 27 January 2015, and concluded in January 2016 that Litvinenko's murder was carried out by the two suspects and that they were "probably" acting under the direction of the FSB and with the approval of president Vladimir Putin and then FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. In the 2021 case Carter v Russia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for his death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages.
Early life and career
Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh in 1962. After he graduated from a Nalchik secondary school in 1980, he was drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage ended in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly. After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company of 4th Regiment, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit. In 1986, he became an informant when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB counterintelligence section and in 1988, he was officially transferred to the Third Chief Directorate of the KGB, Military Counter Intelligence. Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.
Career in Russian security services
In 1991, Litvinenko was promoted to the Central Staff of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organised crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with the Moscow criminal investigation department, the MUR. Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia. During the First Chechen War, Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. Although he was often called a "Russian spy" by western press, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch. He later was responsible for the oligarch's security. Litvinenko's employment under Berezovsky and other security services created a conflict of interest, but such practice is usually tolerated by the Russian state.
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.
Conflict with FSB leadership
During his work in the FSB, Litvinenko discovered numerous connections between top leadership of Russian law enforcement agencies and Russian mafia groups, such as the Solntsevo gang. He wrote a memorandum about this issue for Boris Yeltsin. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB director Mikhail Barsukov and deputy director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the corruption problems; however, this had no effect. Litvinenko gradually realized that the entire system was corrupted from the top to the bottom. He explained: "If your partner bilked you, or a creditor did not pay, or a supplier did not deliver - where did you turn to complain? ...When force became a commodity, there was always demand for it. "Roofs" (krysha) appeared, people who sheltered and protected your business. First it was provided by the mob, then by police, and soon even our own guys realized what was what, and then the rivalry began among gangsters, cops, and the Agency for market share. As the police and the FSB became more competitive, they squeezed the gangs out of the market. However, in many cases competition gave way to cooperation, and the services became gangsters themselves."
On 25 July 1998, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Vladimir Putin. He said: "Go see Putin. Make yourself known. See what a great guy we have installed, with your help." On the same day, Putin replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, with help from Berezovsky. Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed. Litvinenko said to his wife after the meeting: "I could see in his eyes that he hated me." Litvinenko said that he was doing an investigation of Uzbek drug barons who received protection from the FSB, and Putin tried to stall the investigation to save his reputation.
On 13 November 1998, Berezovsky wrote an open letter to Putin in Kommersant. He accused four senior officers of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups of ordering his assassination: Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov, N. Stepanov, A. Kamyshnikov, and N. Yenin.
Four days later, on 17 November, Litvinenko and four other officers appeared together in a press conference at the Russian news agency Interfax. All officers worked for both FSB in the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups. They repeated the allegation made by Berezovsky. The officers also said they were ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin who was also present at the press conference, and to kidnap a brother of the businessman Umar Dzhabrailov. In 2007, Sergey Dorenko provided the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with a complete copy of an interview he conducted in April 1998 for ORT, a television station, with Litvinenko and his fellow employees. The interview, of which only excerpts were broadcast in 1998, shows the FSB officers, who were disguised in masks or dark glasses, claim that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame prominent Russian politicians and business people.
After holding the press conference, Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB. Later, in an interview with Yelena Tregubova, Putin said that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating, "I fired Litvinenko and disbanded his unit ...because FSB officers should not stage press conferences. This is not their job. And they should not make internal scandals public." Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said, "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."
Flight from Russia and asylum in the United Kingdom
In October 2000, in violation of an order not to leave Moscow, Litvinenko and his family travelled to Turkey, possibly via Ukraine. While in Turkey, Litvinenko applied for asylum at the United States Embassy in Ankara, but his application was denied. With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul-London-Moscow flight, and asked for political asylum at Heathrow Airport during the transit stop on 1 November 2000. Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001, not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, according to Litvinenko, but rather on humanitarian grounds. While in London he became a journalist for Chechenpress and an author. He also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government. In October 2006, he became a naturalised British citizen with residence in Whitehaven.
In 2002, Litvinenko was convicted in absentia in Russia and given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for charges of corruption. According to Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, her husband cooperated with the British security services, working as a consultant and helping the agencies to combat Russian organised crime in Europe. During the public inquiry started in January 2015, it was confirmed that Litvinenko was recruited by MI6 to provide "useful information about senior Kremlin figures and their links with Russian organised crime", primarily related to Russian mafia activities in Spain.
Shortly before his death, Litvinenko tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain. During a meeting in May 2006 he allegedly provided security officials with information on the locations, roles, and activities of several "Russian" mafia figures with ties to Spain, including Zahkar Kalashov, Izguilov and Tariel Oniani.
Litvinenko allegedly converted to Islam in Britain and was rumoured to have told his father he had converted to Islam on his death bed. Litvinenko said his father commented about it: "It doesn't matter. At least you're not a communist."
This account has been strongly denied by close family and friends. Visitors to Litvinenko's death bed included Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko's father, Walter, who flew in from Moscow.
Mikhail Trepashkin said that in 2002 he had warned Litvinenko that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate him. In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom, and often received journalists at his home.
Allegations
Litvinenko published a number of allegations about the Russian government, most of which are related to conducting or sponsoring domestic and foreign terrorism.
Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB
Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying, "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."
Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me." He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.
Armenian parliament shooting
Litvinenko accused the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces of having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting that killed the Prime Minister of Armenia, Vazgen Sargsyan, and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation. The Russian embassy in Armenia denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.
Russian apartment bombings
Litvinenko wrote two books, Lubyanka Criminal Group and Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within (in co-authorship with historian Yuri Felshtinsky), where he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power.
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
In a 2003 interview with the Australian SBS TV network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege—whom he named "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar"—were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack. Litvinenko said, "[W]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin. The leading role of an FSB agent, Khanpasha Terkibaev ("Abu Bakar"), was also described by Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Rybkin and Alexander Khinshtein. In the beginning of April 2003, Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya. A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to Ivan Rybkin, a speaker of the Russian State Duma, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."
Beslan school siege
In September 2004, Alexander Litvinenko suggested that the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand and probably had organised the attack themselves in order to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law enforcement agencies. His conclusion was based on the fact that several Beslan hostage takers had been released from FSB custody just before the attack in Beslan. He said that they would have been freed only if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under strict surveillance that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed.
Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan, supported Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion.
Alleged Russia–al-Qaeda connection
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1997. Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda." Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB officer and writer, supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996–1997." He said: "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of highly placed police officers to notify them in advance." According to Sergei Ignatchenko, an FSB spokesman, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that a former presidential candidate, Irina Hakamada, warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year earlier. It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky, who claimed that Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, received word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin stated that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings.
Allegations concerning Romano Prodi
According to Litvinenko, the FSB deputy chief General Anatoly Trofimov said to him, "Don't go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there," meaning Romano Prodi, the Italian centre-left leader, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi-KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin.
In April 2006, a British Member of the European Parliament for London, Gerard Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), demanded an inquiry into the allegations. On 26 April 2006, Batten repeated his call for a parliamentary inquiry, revealing that "former senior members of the KGB are willing to testify in such an investigation, under the right conditions." He added, "It is not acceptable that this situation is unresolved, given the importance of Russia's relations with the European Union." On 22 January 2007, the BBC and ITV News released documents and video footage from February 2006, in which Litvinenko repeated his statements about Prodi.
Connections between FSB and mafia
In his book Gang from Lubyanka, Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organised by Abdul Rashid Dostum. In December 2003, Russian authorities confiscated over 4,000 copies of the book. Shortly before his death, Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin had cultivated a "good relationship" with Semion Mogilevich (head of the Russia mafia) since 1993 or 1994.
Others
In an article written by Litvinenko in July 2006, and published online on Zakayev's Chechenpress website, he claimed that Vladimir Putin is a paedophile and KGB possessed the video footage which allegedly documented the unlawful carnal knowledge of Putin, Red Banner Institute's graduate, and minor boys and which subsequently was destroyed when Putin was the FSB director. Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov and Artyom Borovik knew of the alleged paedophilia. Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his stomach while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast organised by the BBC and Yandex, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice. ... There is nothing behind it."
According to Litvinenko, the 2005 controversy over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists.
Poisoning and death
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. On 3 November, he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital in London. He was then moved to University College Hospital for intensive care. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body.
Litvinenko met with two former agents early on the day he fell ill – Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy. Though both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that Kovtun had left polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg. The men also introduced Litvinenko to a tall, thin man of central Asian appearance called 'Vladislav Sokolenko' whom Lugovoy said was a business partner. Lugovoy is also a former bodyguard of Russian ex-Acting Prime minister Yegor Gaidar (who also suffered from a mysterious illness in November 2006). Later, Litvinenko had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant in Piccadilly in London, with an Italian acquaintance and nuclear waste expert, Mario Scaramella, with whom he discussed alleged allegations regarding Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating alleged KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, forty-eight, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
Marina Litvinenko, his widow, accused Moscow of orchestrating the murder. Though she believes the order did not come from Putin himself, she does believe it was done at the behest of the authorities, and announced that she will refuse to provide evidence to any Russian investigation out of fear that it would be misused or misrepresented. In a court hearing in London in 2015, a Scotland Yard lawyer concluded that "the evidence suggests that the only credible explanation is in one way or another the Russian state is involved in Litvinenko's murder".
Death and final statement
Before his death, Litvinenko said: "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world, Mr. Putin, will reverberate in your ears for the rest of your life." On 22 November 2006, Litvinenko's medical staff at University College Hospital reported Litvinenko had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack. He died on 23 November. The following day, Putin publicly stated: “Mr Litvinenko is, unfortunately, not Lazarus”.
Scotland Yard stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.
On 24 November 2006, a statement was released posthumously, in which Litvinenko named Putin as the man behind his poisoning. Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who was also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund, claimed Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer had composed the statement in Russian on 21 November's and translated it to English.
Putin disputed the authenticity of this note while attending a Russia-EU summit in Helsinki and claimed it was being used for political purposes. Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko, on his deathbed, had instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian and Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.
His autopsy took place on 1 December at the Royal London Hospital's institute of pathology. It was attended by three physicians, including one chosen by the family and one from the Foreign Office. Litvinenko was buried at Highgate Cemetery (West side) in north London on 7 December. The police treated his death as a murder, although the London coroner's inquest was yet to be completed.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence' report investigating the activities of an unnamed senior Kremlin official on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia, and that the dossier contained damaging information about the senior Kremlin official. He said he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder. British media reported that the poisoning and consequent death of Litvinenko was not widely covered in the Russian news media.
Funeral
On 7 December 2006, Litvinenko was buried within a lead-lined casket at Highgate Cemetery with Christian, Jewish and Muslim rites, including a Christian and Muslim prayer being said by an imam and Orthodox priest in line with Litvinenko's wishes of a non-denominational service at the grave. The funeral ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts.
Investigations into death
UK criminal investigation
On 20 January 2007, British police announced that they had "identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder." The man in question was introduced to Litvinenko as "Vladislav".
As of 26 January 2007, British officials said police had solved the murder of Litvinenko. They discovered "a 'hot' teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing." In addition, a senior official said investigators had concluded the murder of Litvinenko was "a 'state-sponsored' assassination orchestrated by Russian security services." The police want to charge former Russian spy Andrei Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day officials believe the lethal dose of polonium-210 was administered.
On the same day, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoy be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder. On 22 May 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service called for the extradition of Russian citizen Andrei Lugovoy to the UK on charges of murder. Lugovoy dismissed the claims against him as "politically motivated" and said he did not kill Litvinenko.
A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect in the case, from Russia. On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia for the extradition of Lugovoy to face criminal charges in the UK.
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added.
In January 2015, it was reported in the British media that the National Security Agency had intercepted communications between Russian government agents in Moscow and those who carried out what was called a "state execution" in London: the recorded conversations allegedly proved that the Russian government was involved in Litvinenko's murder, and suggested that the motive was Litvinenko's revelations about Vladimir Putin's links with the criminal underworld. On 21 January 2016, the Home Office published The Litvinenko Inquiry: Report into Litvinenko's death.
Russian criminal investigation
Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Alexander Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky. Former FSB chief Nikolay Kovalyov, for whom Litvinenko worked, said that the incident "looks like the hand of Boris Berezovsky. I am sure that no kind of intelligence services participated." This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear the Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210 were found in an office of Berezovsky. Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning. The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning, were not at risk.
Russian authorities were unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.
On 5 July 2007, Russia officially declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing Article 61 of the Constitution of Russia that prohibits extradition of citizens. Russia has said that they could take on the case themselves if Britain provided evidence against Lugovoy but Britain has not handed over any evidence. The head of the investigating committee at the General Prosecutor's Office said Russia has not yet received any evidence from Britain on Lugovoy. "We have not received any evidence from London of Lugovoy's guilt, and those documents we have are full of blank spaces and contradictions. However, the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle, claimed that London has already submitted sufficient evidence to extradite him to Britain.
Judicial inquiries
Inquest in London
On 13 October 2011, Dr. Andrew Reid, the Coroner of St. Pancras, announced that he would hold an inquest into Litvinenko's death, which would include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of the Russian government. The inquest, held by Sir Robert Owen, a High Court judge acting as the coroner, originally scheduled to start on 1 May 2013, was subject to a series of pre-hearings: firstly, the coroner agreed that a group representing Russian state prosecutors could be accepted as a party to the inquest process; secondly, the British Government submitted a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate. Under Public Interest Immunity (PII) claims, the information at the disposal of the British government relating to Russian state involvement, as well as how much British intelligence services could have done to prevent the death, would be excluded from the inquest.
On 12 July 2013, Sir Robert, who had previously agreed to exclude certain material from the inquest on the grounds its disclosure could be damaging to national security, announced that the British Government refused the request he had made earlier in June to replace the inquest with a public inquiry, which would have powers to consider secret evidence. After the hearing, Alex Goldfarb said: "There's some sort of collusion behind the scenes with Her Majesty's government and the Kremlin to obstruct justice"; Elena Tsirlina, Mrs Litvinenko's solicitor, concurred with him.
On 22 July 2014, the British Home Secretary Theresa May, who had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the country's relations with Moscow, announced a public inquiry into Litvinenko's death. The inquiry was chaired by Sir Robert Owen who was the Coroner in the inquest into Litvinenko's death; its remit stipulated that "the inquiry will not address the question of whether the UK authorities could or should have taken steps which would have prevented the death". The inquiry started on 27 January 2015. New evidence emerged at first hearings held at the end of January 2015. The last day of hearings was on 31 July 2015.
The inquiry report was released on 21 January 2016. The report found that Litvinenko was killed by two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and that there was a "strong probability" they were acting on behalf of the Russian FSB secret service. Paragraph 10.6 of the report stated: "The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."
The Report outlined five possible motives for the murder: a belief Litvinenko had betrayed the FSB through public disclosures about its work; a belief that he was working for British intelligence; because he was a prominent associate of leading opponents of Mr Putin and his regime, including Mr Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev; because his claims about the FSB were "areas of particular sensitivity to the Putin administration", including a plot to murder dissident Boris Berezovsky; and because there was “undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Litvinenko and Putin, culminating in his allegation that Putin was a paedophile.
On the release of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Putin for presiding over "state sponsored murder". British Labour MP Ian Austin said: "Putin is an unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster who murders his opponents in Russia and, as we know, on the streets of London—and nothing announced today is going to make the blindest bit of difference." The Kremlin dismissed the Inquiry as "a joke" and "whitewash".
The same day, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced that assets belonging to both Lugovoi and Kovtun would be immediately frozen and that the Metropolitan Police were seeking their extradition. The Russian Ambassador was also summoned by the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and demands were made that Russia cooperate with the investigation into Mr Litvinenko's murder with Foreign Office minister David Liddington asserting that Russia had demonstrated "a flagrant disregard for UK law, international law and standards of conduct, and the safety of UK citizens" However, the government's response to the inquiry's results has been described by The Economist as consisting of "tough talk and little action".
Carter v Russia
In May 2007 Marina Litvinenko registered a complaint against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, accusing the Russian state of violating her husband's right to life, and failing to conduct a full investigation. On 21 September 2021, a chamber of the court found Russia responsible for Litvinenko's death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages. Russia can still appeal the decision to the Grand Chamber. Commenting on the case, law professor Marko Milanovic thought it was unlikely that Russia would pay the damages.
In popular culture
Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case is a documentary about Litvinenko's activities and death.
The Litvinenko Project is a live-performance devised by 2Magpies Theatre (Nottingham, UK) exploring the possibilities which lead to Litvinenko's poisoning
A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West is a nonfiction book by Luke Harding published in 2016 by Guardian Faber Publishing.
An episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved about his death aired in August 2018.
A Very Expensive Poison is a play by Lucy Prebble based on the book by Luke Harding and having its world premiere at The Old Vic Theatre in London in 2019.
An opera The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko by Anthony Bolton, libretto Kit Hesketh-Harvey. World premiere 15 July 2021 at Grange Park Opera.
See also
Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Roman Tsepov
List of journalists killed in Russia
Anna Politkovskaya
Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
Boris Berezovsky (businessman)
Badri Patarkatsishvili
Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova
Sergei Magnitsky
Natalya Estemirova
Sergei Yushenkov
Yuri Shchekochikhin
References
His books
Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky, "Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror" Encounter Books, New York, 2007
Yuri Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, and Geoffrey Andrews. Blowing up Russia: Terror from within Gibson Square Books, London, 2007,
Alexander Litvinenko: "Allegations – Selected Works by Alexander Litvinenko", translated from Russian and edited by Pavel Stroilov, introduction by Vladimir Bukovsky, Publisher: Aquilion (12 November 2007),
A. Litvinenko and A. Goldfarb. Criminal gang from Lubyanka GRANI, New York, 2002,
А. Литвиненко Лубянская преступная группировка GRANI, New York, 2002,
A documentary film, Assassination of Russia was made by French producers based on books by Litvinenko. He was a consultant for the movie.
Books and films about him
Boris Volodarsky. The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, Pen & Sword/Frontline Books, 2009.
Alan Cowell. The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal and Murder, Random House, 2008.
William Dunkerley. The Phony Litvinenko Murder, Omnicom Press, 2011.
Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. Free Press, New York, 2007. .
Luke Harding. A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West, Vintage Books, 2017.
Martin Sixsmith. The Litvinenko File: the True Story of a Death Foretold, Publisher: Macmillan (2 April 2007)
Andrei Nekrasov. Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case, 2007, Dreamscanner. Banned in Russia. Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/20080415151727/http://www.dreamscanner-productions.com/litvinenko/index.html
External links
Litvinenko Justice Foundation
Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club accusing Vladimir Putin of the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya (In Russian and English)
Litvinenko Inquest (official site)
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"On 5 October 2016, three police officers were attacked by a man wielding a machete in the Schaerbeek neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium. Two of them suffered stab wounds, while the third was physically assaulted but otherwise uninjured. The suspected assailant, a Belgian citizen named Hicham Diop, was apprehended and charged with attempted terrorism-related murder and participating in a terrorist group.\n\nHe soon told police that his brother had also been involved, and the brother, Aboubaker Diop, was also arrested.\n\nBackground\nPrior to the stabbing, Schaerbeek and the nearby neighborhood of Molenbeek had already become known as \"a hotbed of jihadism\" in Brussels. It was the neighborhood where the perpetrators of the March 2016 Brussels bombings and some of the perpetrators of the November 2015 Paris attacks were based. Schaerbeek was the home of the taxi driver who drove the suspects to Brussels Airport. They raided the home and found a nail bomb, of acetone peroxide, hydrogen peroxide, and an ISIL flag. Inside a waste container near the house they also found a computer belonging to Ibrahim El Bakraoui who is believed to have carried out suicide bombings during the attacks along with his brother.\n\nThe stabbing came nearly two months after a similar stabbing attack in Charleroi, in which an Algerian citizen stabbed two police officers; and nearly one month after another similar attack in nearby Molenbeek, in which a man of North African origin slightly injured two police officers. At the time of the stabbing, Brussels was on a high terror alert.\n\nISIS has used social media to inspire sympathizers in Western countries to target police and soldiers for attack on the grounds that they represent the state.\n\nThe attack was one of a series of attacks on Belgian police officers in 2016, including the stabbing of two officers on 7 September in Molenbeek and the 6 August 2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers. Christopher Dickey describes this attack as part of a pattern of jihadist attacks in which there have been, \"many small incidents and thwarted ones, then suddenly one or two high-casualty attacks\" in Europe since 2014.\n\nThe attack occurred as a summit of world leaders, including American Secretary of State John Kerry, met in Brussels to discuss Afghanistan.\n\nAttack\nThe attack reportedly occurred during an identity check on Boulevard Lambermont, a busy main road in Schaerbeek. A man, armed with a machete, lunged for two police officers; one was stabbed in the stomach and the other in the neck, but neither was seriously injured. Afterwards, the attacker fled the scene, but encountered a third officer nearby and got into a violent struggle, which resulted in Diop, a former professional boxer, slugging the officer and giving him a broken nose. The officer then shot and wounded the attacker with a single shot to the leg. According to an eyewitness, the attacker shouted something in Arabic after being shot.\n\nSuspect\nThe suspect, Hicham Diop (43), was at first identified only as Hicham D. by police and media. According to Belgian media, he was a 43-year-old Belgium Army veteran and former boxer who was discharged in 2009 and was previously known to police and to security services for his contacts with extremist Islamists. He was also believed to have links to jihadists who traveled to Syria. A married man with young children, Diop once stood for a seat in a regional parliament, but lost the election. His home was searched by Belgian police, which recovered no weapons.\n\nA spokesman for the federal prosecutor said there was \"reason to believe that [the stabbing] is terror-related\", but did not initially elaborate. Hicham D. was charged with attempted terrorism-related attempted murder and participating in a terrorist group. His 46-year-old brother, Aboubaker Diop, was also arrested and charged with participating in a terrorist group.\n\nIn 2011, Aboubaker and Hicham were involved in an incident involving the official police vehicle of a security officer.\n\nAlso in 2015, the brothers were arrested for fighting in an incident involving shots fires at a Kinepolis security guard. The defense asserted that the incident was a family quarrel relating to events that occurred years ago in Senegal.\n\nHicham Diop stood for election on the list of an Islamist party.\n\nThe brothers are part of a family that migrated to Belgium from Senegal. Hicham was a kickboxer.\n\nLegal proceedings\n\nHicham Diop\nHicham Diop has been charged with attempted murder in a terrorist context, deliberate intentional assault, violations of arms legislation and armed rebellion. According to Belgian police, Hicham made terrorism related statements as he was being interrogated. He was known to police for having been in contact with Islamic extremists.\n\nAn additional set of charges was filed in June 2017 for threatening two officers with death as they transported him to the police station following his arrest for assault in October 2016.\n\nIn September 2017, a federal prosecutor asked that Diop be sentenced to 15 years' prison.\n\nAboubaker Diop\n\nAboubaker Diop, born in 1970, a Belgian national has been charged with \"participation in the activities of a terrorist group.\"\n\nReactions\nBelgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon tweeted a statement after the attack, expressing his support for police officers in Schaerbeek.\n\nIn a speech in February 2017, Donald Trump stated that the media was not reporting on terrorist attacks. Later that day, the administration included this stabbing attack in a list of 78 attacks which the admin said were \"under-reported\". It was not clear what \"under-reported\" meant, or what criteria were used to compile the list. News organizations stated that they had indeed covered most of the incidents in the list, some of them extensively. Politifact rated Donald Trump's claim as false.\n\nSee also\n Islamic terrorism in Europe\n Stabbing as a terrorist tactic\n 2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers\n 2018 Liège shooting\n List of terrorist incidents in Belgium\n\nReferences\n\nOctober 2016 crimes in Europe\n2016 in Brussels\nStabbing attacks in 2016\nIslamic terrorism in Belgium\nTerrorist incidents in Belgium in 2016\nTerrorist incidents involving knife attacks\nTerrorist incidents in Belgium\nCrimes against police officers in Belgium\nStabbing attacks in Belgium",
"The 2007 Yemen tourist attack was a suicide car bomb attack on Spanish tourists visiting the Queen of Sheba temple in Marib, Marib Governorate on July 2, 2007.\n\nDetails\nA member of Al-Qaeda rammed an explosive-laden car into a tourist convoy killing 8 Spanish tourists, 2 Yemeni drivers, and injuring 12.\n\nAftermath\nOn August 8, four militants died in a Yemeni security forces raid near Mareb, one of them Kassem al-Raimi, who was the top Al-Qaeda operative who masterminded the attacks. Raimi was involved in other operations and was one of 13 convicted prisoners who escaped from a Sanaa prison in 2006.\n\nSee also\nList of terrorist incidents, 2007\n2008 attack on tourists in Yemen\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWarvictims.wordpresscom\n\n2007 murders in Yemen\nAttacks on tourists in Asia\nJuly 2007 events in Asia\nMarib Governorate\nMass murder in 2007\nTerrorist incidents in Yemen in 2007\nTerrorist incidents attributed to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula\nSpain–Yemen relations\nSuicide car and truck bombings in Yemen"
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"Amish",
"Amish life in the modern world"
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C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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What has modern life done
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How has modern life changed the Amish?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
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Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
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Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
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[
"Drusilla Norman Beyfus (born 1927) is a British etiquette writer. She was married to the journalist and critic Milton Shulman.\n\nPublications (selected)\n1968: The English Marriage: what it is like to be married today\n1969: Lady Behave: a guide to modern manners for the 1970s (with Anne Edwards) \n1985: The Bride's Book\n1992: Courtship - The Done Thing: modern manners in miniature \n1992: Modern Manners: the essential guide to living in the '90s\n1992: Parties - The Done Thing: modern manners in miniature \n1993: Business: the Done Thing\n1993: Sex: the Done Thing\n1994: Modern Manners: the complete guide to contemporary etiquette\n\nReferences\n\n1927 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Hampstead\nEtiquette writers\nEnglish Jewish writers",
"What Is to Be Done? is the English translation of several names and book titles.\n\nIn Russian \nChto delat'? (Russian: Что делать?, lit. What to Do?) may refer to:\n What Is to Be Done?, an 1863 novel by Nikolai Chernyshevsky\n What Is to Be Done?, a 1902 political pamphlet by Vladimir Lenin\n Chto Delat (What Is to Be Done?), an art collective founded in 2003 in Saint Petersburg\n\nTak chto zhe nam delat'? (Russian: Так что же нам делать?, lit. What Then Shall We Do?) may refer to:\n What Is to Be Done?, an 1883 essay by Leo Tolstoy\n\nIn Persian \n What Should Then Be Done O People of the East, a 1936 book of poetry by Muhammad Iqbal\n\nSee also \n Do what has to be done\n To do\n Todo (disambiguation)"
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[
"Amish",
"Amish life in the modern world",
"What has modern life done",
"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world."
] |
C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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What pressure
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What pressures do the Amish feel from the modern world?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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Issues such as taxation,
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
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Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
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Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
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"\"What She Came For\" is the fourth single from the album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand by Franz Ferdinand. It was remixed as \"Feel the Pressure\" for the band's remix album, Blood: Franz Ferdinand.\n\nBackground\n\"What She Came For\" originated from the song \"Favourite Lie\", which was played live in 2007 by the band and featured similarities in arrangement and lyrics.\n\nTrack listing \nDigital download\n\"What She Came For\" – 3:33\n\nVinyl Remixes EP\n\"What She Came For\" (Drums of Death Remix) – 4:18\n\"What She Came For\" (Tigerstyle Remix) – 3:28\n\"What She Came For\" (Lee Mortimer Vocal Remix) – 6:24\n\"What She Came For\" (Lee Mortimer Dub) – 6:25\n\n\"Feel the Pressure\" digital download\n\"Feel the Pressure\" – 3:28\n\nRemixes \nThe song has been remixed by:\n\nDrums of Death\nTigerstyle\nLee Mortimer\nMr Dan (remix called \"Feel the Pressure\" for the remix album Blood: Franz Ferdinand)\n\nReferences \nhttp://wax.fm/vinyl-lp-releases/franz_ferdinand_what_she_came_for_remixes.html\nhttp://images2.wax.fm/franz_ferdinand_what_she_came_for_remixes-RUG326T-1251838191.jpeg\n\"Blood: Franz Ferdinand\" liner notes.\n\nSpecific\n\n2009 singles\nFranz Ferdinand (band) songs\n2008 songs\nDomino Recording Company singles",
"A pressure-balanced valve provides water at nearly constant temperature to a shower or bathtub, despite pressure fluctuations in either the hot or cold supply lines.\n\nIf, for example, someone flushes a toilet while the shower is in use, the fixture suddenly draws a significant amount of cold water from the common supply line, causing a pressure drop. In the absence of a compensating mechanism, the relatively higher pressure in the hot water supply line will cause the shower temperature to rise just as suddenly, possibly reaching an uncomfortable or even dangerous level. Conversely, if someone opens a hot water faucet elsewhere, the relatively higher pressure in the cold water supply line will cause the shower temperature to drop suddenly. This is described in US patent 3674048.\n\nThe pressure-balanced shower valve compensates for changes in water pressure. It has a diaphragm or piston inside that reacts to relative changes in either hot or cold water pressure to maintain balanced pressure. As water pressure drops on one supply line, the valve reduces the pressure in the other supply line to match. A side effect of this is that the pressure and flow at the shower head or tub spigot will drop twice as much as if only one supply line had been affected, but without a large temperature change. There are ball bearings in the valves to regulate forces.\n\nThe use of pressure-balanced valves can prevent scalding injuries, in particular to the elderly, the infirm, to children and infants. Based on that, some municipalities require by building codes to have it installed.\n\nSee also\nThermostatic mixing valve\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWhat Is Butterfly Valve? Working Principle & Function\nIndustrial Ball Valve, Gate Valve & Globe Valve\n\nBathing\nPlumbing\nPlumbing valves"
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"Amish",
"Amish life in the modern world",
"What has modern life done",
"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.",
"What pressure",
"Issues such as taxation,"
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C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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What other issue
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What other issues do the Amish suffer from besides taxation?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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education,
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
.
Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
.
.
.
.
.
Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
.
.
Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
| true |
[
"Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children is a comic book series written by Dave Louapre and illustrated by Dan Sweetman, published by DC Comics through their Piranha Press imprint from June 1989 until September 1992. The series saw a total of 30 issues. A trade paperback, titled A Cotton Candy Autopsy, reprinted issues #1 and #13, and concluded the story told in those issues with a previously unpublished third part.\n\nThe promotional material said that the title would be restarting in a 128-page quarterly anthology format with the first issue being titled, What If This Were Heaven, Wouldn't That Be Hell?. Despite the plan to continue publishing in this format, this would actually be the final Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children story to be released.\n\nOriginal series\n Issue #1: A Cotton Candy Autopsy\n Issue #2: The Dead Johnsons' Big Incredible Day\n Issue #3: Diary of a Depressed Tap Dancer\n Issue #4: The Black Balloon\n Issue #5: The Crypt of The Magi\n Issue #6: Happy Birthday to Hell\n Issue #7: Ricky The Doughnut Boy\n Issue #8: Die Rainbow Die\n Issue #9: By The Light of The Screaming Moon\n Issue #10: Where The Tarantulas Play\n Issue #11: The Daffodils of Plague Town\n Issue #12: Beneath The Useless Universe\n Issue #13: A Cotton Candy Autopsy II - Bingo And Addy's Escape\n Issue #14: Dangerous Prayers\n Issue #15: The Pagan Tourist\n Issue #16: The Santas of Demotion Street\n Issue #17: A Conspiracy of Sweaters\n Issue #18: The Neutered Beast\n Issue #19: Nice Girls Don't Massacre Ants\n Issue #20: Arnold: Confessions of a Blood Junkie\n Issue #21: Dances With Cows\n Issue #22: Psychotronic Virgin\n Issue #23: Tiny Slimy, Writhing Thing\n Issue #24: I Am Paul's Dog\n Issue #25: Legion of Ogs\n Issue #26: Dead Like Me\n Issue #27: The No-Wax Killing Floor\n Issue #28: The Guilty Orphan\n Issue #29: Gravity Sucks\n Issue #30: The Dream is Dead - Gone, Shot Off, All Squashed Flat\n A Cotton Candy Autopsy trade paperback\n What If This Were Heaven, Wouldn't That Be Hell?\n Ashcan - collects twelve pages of What If This Were Heaven, Wouldn't That Be Hell?\n\nReferences\n\n1989 comics debuts",
"George Woodman Hilton (January 18, 1925 – August 4, 2014) was a United States historian and economist, who specialized in social history, transportation economics, regulation by commission, the history of economic thought and labor history.\n\nEarly life and education \nBorn in Chicago, Hilton attended Dartmouth College and earned his A.B. in Economics summa cum laude in 1946. He obtained his M.A. in 1950. Hilton attended the London School of Economics in 1953-1955, and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1956.\n\nCareer \nHe then taught for many years at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was later a Professor Emeritus of Economics at UCLA. He served as the Acting Curator of Rail Transportation at the Smithsonian Institution from July 1968 through June 1969. He died of heart disease in 2014, aged 89.\n\nPublications\nBooks and Academic Articles\n Hilton, G. W. (1954) Cable railways of Chicago, Electric Railway Historical Society.\n Hilton, G. W. (1957) \"The British Truck System in the Nineteenth Century,\" Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 65, pp. 237–256.\n \n .\n Hilton, G. W. (1960) The truck system including a history of the British truck acts 1465-1960\n \n Hilton, G. W. (1962) The Great Lakes car ferries (Howell-North, Berkeley, California)\n Hilton, G. W. (1963) The Ma and Pa: A History of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad. Howell-North Books (Second edition, 1980; revised, 1999, The Johns Hopkins University Press)\n Hilton, G. W. (1964) \"The Controversy Concerning Relief for the Hand-Loom Weavers,\" Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Second Series, Vol. 1, No. 2, Winter 1964, pp. 164–186.\n Hilton, G. W. (1964) The Staten Island Ferry, Howell-North Books, First edition.\n Hilton, G. W. (1966) \"The Consistency of the Interstate Commerce Act,\" Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 9, pp, 87-113.\n Hilton, G. W. (1967) \"Rail transit and the pattern of cities: the California case\", Traffic Quarterly, vol. 3, (1967).\n Hilton, G. W. (1968) The Night Boat, Howell-North Books, First edition.\n Hilton, G. W. (1969) The Transportation Act of 1958: A decade of experience, Indiana University Press, First edition.\n Hilton, G. W. (1971) The Cable Car in America (Revised edition, 1982)\n Hilton, G.W.; Eckert, R.D. (1972) \"The Jitneys,\" Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Oct 1972), pp. 293–325.\n Hilton, G. W. (1974) Federal Transit Subsidies: The Urban Mass Transportation Assistance Program. (AEI) \n Hilton, G. W. (1975) The Northeast railroad problem (AEI)] Pdf.\n Hilton, G. W.; Jobe, Joseph and Plummer, Russell (1976) The illustrated history of paddle steamers Two Continents Publishing Group.\n Hilton, G. W. (1976) \"What did we give wp with the big red cars?\" (article)\n \n Hilton, G. W. (1987) Monon Route, Howell-North.\n\n Hilton, G. W. (1995) The annotated baseball stories of Ring W. Lardner, 1914-1919 Stanford University Press, First edition.\n Hilton, G. W. (1995) Eastland: legacy of the Titanic Stanford University Press.\n Hilton, G. W. (1997) The Toledo, Port Clinton & Lakeside Railway, Montevallo Historical Press.\n Hilton, G. W. (1997) Nellie Farren, Sir Arthur Sullivan Society.\n Hilton, G. W. (2002) Lake Michigan passenger steamers, Stanford University Press.\n Hilton, G. W. (2002) editor, The Front Page: From Theater to Reality, Hanover: Smith and Kraus, Inc.\n\nArticles and Comments published in Trains Magazine, 1945 - 1993\n Pere Marquette, August 1945 issue, pages 7–21\n Tennessee Central, January 1946 issue, pages 8–15\n Meets All Trains, August 1946 issue, pages 48–49\n Carquinez Train Ferries, August 1946 issue, pages 36–39\n Where 19th Century Carferries Float On, March 1965 issue, pages 24–27\n What Does Manx Mean?, September 1966 issue, pages 24–27\n What Went Wrong and What to Do About It, January 1967 issue, pages 36–45\n Muckraking in a Day Coach, June 1968 issue, pages 48–50\n The Promise of Promontory, May 1969 issue, pages 20–28\n What Was Grand About Grand Central, September 1969 issue, pages 20–28\n Ralph in the Roundhouse, November 1970 issue, pages 44–47\n Please, No Hero for the North Western, January 1971 issue, pages 27–28\n Integration in the North, July 1971 issue, pages 36–43\n The View of the Viaduct from in Front of the Diner, May 1972 issue, pages 20–25\n What Does the ICC Cost You and Me?, October 1972 issue, pages 24–28\n Turntable: Good News from the Lehigh Valley, August 1973 issue, page 58\n Department-Store Mural, March 1974 issue, page 43\n Why Pre-Electronic Railroading Survives, May 1974 issue, pages 20–24\n Turntable: Railfanning as Education, November 1974 issue, page 66\n Great Lakes Car Ferries: An Endangered Species, January 1975 issue, pages 42–51\n Turntable: The View from Middle Age, November 1975 issue, page 82\n Slack, February 1976 issue, pages 22–28\n What Does the ICC Cost You and Me? Currently, That Is, June 1978 issue, pages 28–32\n The One Best Place to Watch Trains, December 1980 issue, pages 28–38\n Turntable: Infran-canin-ophilia, March 1983 issue, page 66\n Turntable: Railfanning without Railroads, September 1984 issue, page 70\n Turntable: Is Railroading Worth a Lifetime?, February 1985 issue, page 70\n Turntable: In Praise of the Unbuilt, February 1986 issue, page 70\n Turntable: What Should Be Preserved from the ICC, November 1987 issue, page 90\n Perspectives: The Trains Were in Transition, and It Was a Fascinating Railroad Business, November 1990 issue, pages 82–83\n ABCs of Railroading: A History of Track Gauge, September 1992 issue, pages 23–24\n Regrets from Early Youth, July 1993 issue, page 76\n\nReferences\n\nUniversity of California, Los Angeles faculty\n1925 births\n2014 deaths\n20th-century American economists\n21st-century American economists\nAlumni of the London School of Economics\nDartmouth College alumni\nHistorians of economic thought\nLabor historians\nRail transport writers\nUniversity of Chicago alumni\nHistorians from California"
] |
[
"Amish",
"Amish life in the modern world",
"What has modern life done",
"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.",
"What pressure",
"Issues such as taxation,",
"What other issue",
"education,"
] |
C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
|
What is another issue they face
| 4 |
What is another issue the Amish face besides education?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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law and its enforcement,
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
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Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
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Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
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[
"The Face is a fictional character, a comic book superhero that appeared in 1940s comics during what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books. He was created by artist Mart Bailey and an unknown writer.\n\nThe Face is radio announcer Tony Trent, who decides to fight crime after having witnessed a murder committed by gangsters disguised as cops. Having no innate superpowers, he instead uses a grotesque green mask to scare criminals, not unlike Batman. With issue #63, he no longer wears the mask and fights crime as himself.\n\nPublication history\n\nThe Face first appeared in the Columbia Comics omnibus title Big Shot Comics #1 (May 1940) and continued until issue #62 (January 1946). By 1947, the shock value had worn off. From issue #63 the feature continued as \"Tony Trent\" until Big Shot #104, the final issue of the series. Apart from appearing in Big Shot, The Face also had two issues of his own title (1941-1942), as well as two as Tony Trent (1948).\n\nOriginally created by Mart Bailey, the character wore a frightening green mask, with flaming red hair, a vampire's white fangs and ghoulish yellow eyes. Underneath the mask was a deep blue tuxedo, which gave him more class. His alter ego was Tony Trent. Tony's outgoing personality made him perfect for his job at a broadcasting station.\n\nAccording to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, \"The Face fights ordinary criminals, gold-makers, the Hook, and even the Japanese when the Face frees the Flying Tigers from a Japanese ship.\"\n\nIn the 1980s, new stories were published by Ron Frantz' Ace Comics. Three issues of What Is... The Face? were published.\n\nAfter the Face passed into the public domain, a character heavily based on him, called Mr. Face, was introduced for the 2008 limited series Project Superpowers, published by Dynamite Entertainment.\n\nProject Superpowers\nAt some point after World War II, The Fighting Yank persuades Trent to don his mask just one more time, immediately after which the Yank traps him in the mystical Urn of Pandora, as part of a misguided quest to end all evil on Earth. Decades later, the Urn is broken and all the prisoners are freed, although some of them are now changed. The Face discovers that anyone who looks at his masked face now experiences hallucinations of whatever they fear most.\n\nPowers and abilities\nThe Face has no superpowers, usually relying on his masked appearance to scare his opponents. Later he developed an expertise in unarmed combat, and was an excellent marksman with a mastery with most weapons as well as being an expert swordsman.\n\nMr. Face has the ability to make his opponents experience their worst fears while looking at his masked face.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican comics titles\nComics characters introduced in 1940\nDynamite Entertainment characters\nGolden Age superheroes",
"In sociology, linguistics, media studies and communication studies, face-to-face interaction (less often, face-to-face communication or face-to-face discourse) is social interaction carried out without any mediating technology. Face-to-face interaction is defined as the mutual influence of individuals’ direct physical presence with his/her body language. Face-to-face interaction is one of the basic elements of the social system, forming a significant part of individual socialization and experience gaining throughout one's lifetime. Similarly it is also central to the development of various groups and organizations composed of those individuals. With face to face interaction, not only does it allow you to communicate better by seeing the other persons physical presence but it also improves mental health and can help reduce the risk of depression and other illnesses.\n\nStudying history \nStudy of face-to-face interaction is defined as the process of recording and analyzing the reactive pattern of individuals when they are involved in a face-to-face interaction. It is concerned with issues such as its organization, rules, and strategy.\nThe concept of face-to-face interaction has been of interest to scholars since at least the early 20th century. One of the earliest social science scholars to analyze this type of interaction was sociologist Georg Simmel, who in his 1908 book observed that sensory organs play an important role in interaction, discussing examples of human behavior such as eye contact. His insights were soon developed by others, including Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead. Their theories became known as symbolic interactionism. By the mid-20th century, there was already a sizable scholarly literature on various aspects of face-to-face interaction. Works on this topic have been published by scholars such as Erving Goffman and Eliot Chapple.\n\nAdvent of mediated communication \nHistorically, mediated communication was much rarer than face-to-face. Even though humans have possessed the technology to communicate in space and time (e.g. writing) for millennia, the majority of the world's population lacked the necessary skills, such as literacy, to use them. This began to change with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg that led to the spread of printed texts and rising literacy in Europe from the 15th century. Since then, face-to-face interaction has begun to steadily lose ground to mediated communication.\n\nCompared with mediated communication \nFace-to-face communication has been however described as less preferable to mediated communication in some situations, particularly where time and geographical distance are an issue. For example, in maintaining a long-distance friendship, face-to-face communication was only the fourth most common way of maintaining ties, after telephone, email, and instant messaging.\n\nWhat's more, face-to-face communication could easily be interrupted or avoided by just pulling out a cell phone or electronic device. When it comes to communication and understanding one another fully 93% is non-verbal, and body language and 7% is written. (Tardanico) According to research studies show that there is an estimated total of over 300 million cell phones users in the United States. (Lopez-Rosenfeld) Owning a cell phone becomes a distraction in everyday life whether if you get a phone call, text message, e-mail, etc. Any alert, in general, is a distraction because of the settings that you can customize.\n\nDespite the advent of many new information and communication technologies, face-to-face interaction is still widespread and popular and has a better performance in many different areas. Nardi and Whittaker (2002) pointed that face-to-face communication is still the golden standard among the mediated technologies based on many theorists, particularly in the context of the media richness theory where face-to-face communication is described as the most efficient and informational one. This is explained because face-to-face communication engages more human senses than mediated communication. Face-to-face interaction is also a useful way for people when they want to win over others based on verbal communication, or when they try to settle disagreements. Besides, it does help a lot for teachers as one effective teaching method. It is also easier to keep a stronger and more active political connection with others by face-to-face interaction.\n\nCross multicultures \nSo far, the effect of face-to-face interaction across different cultures has not been discussed. Although there are increasingly virtual communications in large transnational companies with the development of Internet, face-to-face interaction is still a crucial tool for employees to cooperate or negotiate with each other.\n\nCooperation in a multicultural team requires knowledge sharing. Ambiguous knowledge which arises frequently in a multicultural team is inevitable because of the different language habits. Face-to-face communication is better than other virtual communications for the ambiguous information. The reason is that face-to-face communication can provide non-verbal messages including gestures, eye contact, touch, and body movement. However, the virtual communications, such as email, only have verbal information which will make team members more misunderstanding of the knowledge due to their different comprehension of the same words. On the other hand, the understanding of professional standards shows no difference between face-to-face interaction and virtual communications.\n\nWhat's more, van der Zwaard and Bannink (2014) examined the effect of video call compared with face-to-face communication on the negotiation of meaning between native speakers and non-native speakers of English. Face-to-face communication can provide individuals who use English as the second language both intentional and unintentional actions which could enhance the comprehension of the chat in English. Besides, individuals are more honest in understanding when they are in face-to-face interaction than in video call due to the potential loss of face issues for the non-native language speakers during the video call. So as a result, face-to-face interaction has a more positive influence on the negotiation of meaning than virtual communications such as the video call.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\nM. Storper and A.J. Venables (2004), \"Buzz: Face-To-Face Contact and the Urban Economy\", Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 4, nº 4, pp. 351–370.\n\nHuman communication"
] |
[
"Amish",
"Amish life in the modern world",
"What has modern life done",
"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.",
"What pressure",
"Issues such as taxation,",
"What other issue",
"education,",
"What is another issue they face",
"law and its enforcement,"
] |
C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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What was the next issue they faced
| 5 |
What other issues do the Amish face besides law enforcement?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors,
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
.
Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
.
.
.
.
.
Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
.
.
Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
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[
"The Next List is a 30-minute weekend television program on CNN. It aired every Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm ET/PT and was hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.\n\nCNN announced cancellation in September 2013.\n\nEach week, the show profiled innovators, visionaries, and agents of change from around the world who are steadily mapping the course to the future with their new ideas. Each half-hour episode featured one 'Next Lister' and told their story about what they're doing to change the world, what challenges they faced, and the innovative approaches they've developed to overcome obstacles. Next Listers are creative, passionate, and embracers of opportunity and change.\n\nThe show premiered on November 13, 2011 and featured cyber-illusionist Marco Tempest.\n\nFormat\n\nThe show was shot exclusively on DSLR using the Canon 5D Mark II camera giving it its signature cinematic look. In every episode each Next Lister is asked to 'sign' their name to the 'list' by writing their name backwards on a window of glass or Plexiglas. The sign-in is taped for use in the show and pays homage to Leonardo da Vinci who was known for his mirror writing and was a great historical innovator.\n\nThe Next List blog featured online commentary from those profiled on the show, as well as the latest on innovation and creative thinkers from around the world.\n\nEpisodes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nCNN original programming",
"The Mercer Pottery Company is a defunct American pottery company. The backstamp on many of its pottery pieces indicates it was founded in 1865 in Trenton, New Jersey. It was then purchased in 1875 by James Moses. The company ran successfully until the 1930s. It claimed to have made the first semi-porcelain ware in the United States. They operated four kilns and employed 120 people with an annual revenue of $150,000 per year. Although primarily focused on plain white dinnerware, by 1873 the company had established an on-site decorating room in order to facilitate a growing demand for decorated ceramics.\n\nIn 1900, the plant faced a strike by its jiggermen who claimed the company paid unfair wages. The issue was brought to a committee formed by parties on both sides to settle the matter, but workers decided that the committee was not deciding fast enough. Despite the strike, the plant continued to operate and the issue remained at the committee. A decade later, the plant threatened to shut down due to, what it considered, unreasonable demands by city inspectors.\n\nReferences \n\nCompanies based in Trenton, New Jersey\nCeramics manufacturers of the United States\nDefunct manufacturing companies based in New Jersey"
] |
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"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.",
"What pressure",
"Issues such as taxation,",
"What other issue",
"education,",
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"law and its enforcement,",
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C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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What has this caused
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What effect has sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors had on the Amish?
|
Amish
|
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
|
throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages
|
The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
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Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
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Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
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European diaspora in North America
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"Frictional alopecia is the loss of hair that is caused by rubbing of the hair, follicles, or skin around the follicle. The most typical example of this is the loss of ankle hair among people who wear socks constantly for years. The hair may not grow back even years after the source of friction has ended.\n\nCause\nHair loss on legs went largely undiagnosed, but is now thought to be quite common. While the overall causes are still being explored, the primary culprit is currently thought to be friction from socks and footwear. There is some debate as to what proportion is caused by friction, and what by androgen deficiency, minor vascular disease, rash of various causes, or thyroid deficiency.\n\nReferences\n\nConditions of the skin appendages",
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"Amish",
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"law and its enforcement,",
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"sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors,",
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"throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages"
] |
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What is an issue with th state
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
.
Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
.
.
.
.
.
Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
.
.
Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
| true |
[
"True Believers is an American comic book limited series from Marvel Comics, written by Cary Bates, with art by Paul Gulacy.\n\nIt is also the name of an obscure group of Spider-Man villains.\n\nPublication history\nThe series launched as a five-part storyline on July 30, 2008.\n\nCharacters\nThe four team members are:\n\n Payback - Mavis Trent, a S.H.I.E.L.D. data analyst who uses her position to keep the True Believers safe from the Superhuman Registration Act. Due to being bonded with an alien symbiote, Trent is able to transform into a silver skinned energy form. Unlike the Venom alien, this one is sustained when its host is in a state of bliss.\n Headtrip - Talyn Roark, a relationship expert with heightened empathic abilities. Max Trent's former girlfriend and first recruit in the True Believers.\n Red Zone - Theo Bomba, Fringe conspiracy theorist, with heightened mental abilities caused by a lightning strike accidentally fusing his skull with an advanced tin foil hat made from an alien alloy.\n Battalus - Ozzie Tanaka, former S.H.I.E.L.D. R&D scientist. Uses Advanced Battle Armor developed for urban combat. Ozzie also has a form of Borderline Personality Disorder.\n\nPlot\n\nThe series involves a team of new characters digging into the background goings-on in the Marvel Universe. The team is led by Payback, Mavis Trent, a S.H.I.E.L.D. data analyst.\n\nThough a mini-series, True Believers is unusual in that each issue contains a central plot that is resolved by the end. Issue 1 features the team ending an underground fight club. This club is run by rich and powerful men who pay to have women abducted, drugged and forced to fight one another.\n\nThe second issue deals with a conspiracy to frame Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, for driving under the influence of alcohol. This issue also sees Payback with Reynolds' psychiatrist Dr. Cornelius Worth discussing her feelings with her father.\n\nThe third issue reveals the origin of Payback, and begins the search for the murderer of Payback's father.\n\nThe fourth gives the origins of Battalus and Red Zone, and further details of the murder of Payback's father.\n\nThe fifth reveals the truth behind the murder of Payback's father.\n\nReception\nThe first issue had estimated sales of 17,151 copies, placing it at number 132 in the sales chart. Issue #2 dropped to an estimate of 12,838 (149th).\n\nTrue Believers has received mixed reviews. For instance, Broken Frontier was less impressed, feeling it didn't live up to expectations suggesting \"it is rather disappointing given what one might have hoped for\" and that the \"tone established by the writing crosses over to the art as well: it shows some nice potential, but fails to realize it fully\". However, they also feel that all hope isn't lost and if \"Bates and Gulacy really put their minds to it and are willing to push the limits of what they can do with this concept, it just might turn into something very special indeed. Keep an eye out for future issues\" Comic Book Resources agrees and suggests that the story \"is an original and timely concept, but the weak execution doesn't carry it well. Bates' craft seems to be a little rusty at best, and feels more than a little outdated at times\" and that problems with the art partly come from script problems as \"any artist would struggle to fit 15 panels on one page and still maintain a good flow.\" Comics Bulletin is largely positive and concludes that \"overall this issue presents an interesting if somewhat vague introduction to the characters\" with the only downside being the colouring \"Beredo does an estimable job but the technique seems so common that it fails to add anything\". They stop just shy of awarding full marks to the second issue, largely because the reviewer feels \"a certain detachment from the principal character,\" but the minor niggles about the art in the first issue have been addressed and they declare that they are \"prepared to ratchet up my praise for Rain Beredo's colours, too\". The online comic book reviewer for Scifipulse.net, Nicholas Yanes, is equally positive, writing that \"this is a title that everyone should have on their pull list.\"\n\nCollected editions \nThe series will be collected into a trade paperback:\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\nBorderline personality disorder in fiction",
"is a sub-kilometer asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Aten group, that is a temporary horseshoe companion to the Earth. It is the 11th known Earth horseshoe librator. Prior to a close encounter with the Earth on 15 December 2015, was an Apollo asteroid.\n\nDiscovery \n\n was discovered on 16 December 2015 by G. J. Leonard and R. G. Matheny observing\nfor the Catalina Sky Survey. As of 9 March 2016, it has been observed 47 times with an observation arc of 5 days.\n\nOrbit and orbital evolution \n\n is currently an Aten asteroid (Earth-crossing but with a period less than a year). Its semi-major axis (currently 0.99753 AU) is similar to that of Earth (1.00074 AU), but it has a moderate eccentricity (0.2791) and very low orbital inclination (1.6249°). It alternates between being an Aten asteroid and being an Apollo asteroid, although its orbital evolution is rather chaotic. As of 9 March 2016, this object is the 16th known Earth co-orbital and the 11th known object following a horseshoe path with respect to our planet. Asteroid follows an asymmetrical horseshoe path with respect to our planet; the value of its relative mean longitude oscillates about 180°, but enclosing 0°.\n\nPhysical properties \n\nWith an absolute magnitude of 27.4 mag, it has a diameter in the range 9–22 meters (for an assumed albedo range of 0.04–0.20, respectively).\n\nSee also \n\n 54509 YORP\n \n 3753 Cruithne\n\nNotes \n\n This is assuming an albedo of 0.20–0.04.\n\nReferences \n\nFurther reading\n Understanding the Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids Bottke, W. F., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Petit, J.-M., Gladman, B. 2000, Science, Vol. 288, Issue 5474, pp. 2190–2194.\n A Numerical Survey of Transient Co-orbitals of the Terrestrial Planets Christou, A. A. 2000, Icarus, Vol. 144, Issue 1, pp. 1–20.\n Debiased Orbital and Absolute Magnitude Distribution of the Near-Earth Objects Bottke, W. F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.-M., Levison, H. F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T. S. 2002, Icarus, Vol. 156, Issue 2, pp. 399–433.\n Transient co-orbital asteroids Brasser, R., Innanen, K. A., Connors, M., Veillet, C., Wiegert, P., Mikkola, S., Chodas, P. W. 2004, Icarus, Vol. 171, Issue 1, pp. 102–109.\n A trio of horseshoes: past, present and future dynamical evolution of Earth co-orbital asteroids 2015 XX169, 2015 YA and 2015 YQ1 de la Fuente Marcos, C., de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2016, Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 361, Issue 4, article 121 (13 pp).\n\nExternal links \n Discovery MPEC \n data at MPC\n ADS MPEC record\n \n \n \n\nMinor planet object articles (unnumbered)\nEarth-crosser asteroids\nEarth co-orbital asteroids\n20151216"
] |
[
"Amish",
"Amish life in the modern world",
"What has modern life done",
"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.",
"What pressure",
"Issues such as taxation,",
"What other issue",
"education,",
"What is another issue they face",
"law and its enforcement,",
"What was the next issue they faced",
"sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors,",
"What has this caused",
"throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages",
"What is an issue with th state",
"Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined"
] |
C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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When did this happen
| 8 |
When did the fines happen?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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May 19, 1972,
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
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Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
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Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
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"What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? is the debut studio album from Los Angeles band 2AM Club. It was released September 14, 2010 by RCA Records.\n\nCritical reception\n\nMatt Collar of AllMusic stated that with this album \"2AM Club reveal themselves as the best and brightest of the nu-eyed-soul set\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nOn May 31, the band released a song named \"Baseline\" that was a bonus track on What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? (sold on iTunes). It was advertised by them via Twitter, and was available for free download through a file sharing website, Hulk Share.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2010 albums\nPop rock albums by American artists",
"Friend Public Schools is a school district headquartered in Friend, Nebraska.\n\nIt operates Friend Elementary School and Friend Junior-Senior High School.\n\nIn 2017 a Twitter account criticizing officials and using the logo of the district had appeared. The district board asked for the owner to contact them. When this did not happen, the district filed a lawsuit to find the identity of the owner in 2019.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Friend Public Schools\n \n\nEducation in Saline County, Nebraska\nSchool districts in Nebraska"
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"Amish",
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"What has modern life done",
"Amish have felt pressures from the modern world.",
"What pressure",
"Issues such as taxation,",
"What other issue",
"education,",
"What is another issue they face",
"law and its enforcement,",
"What was the next issue they faced",
"sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors,",
"What has this caused",
"throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages",
"What is an issue with th state",
"Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined",
"When did this happen",
"May 19, 1972,"
] |
C_cb3e423b38384886adc052d6903801d1_0
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What was the out come
| 9 |
What was the outcome of the fines?
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Amish
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As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty. The Amish way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of modern society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads. The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed. CANNOTANSWER
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Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court
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The Amish (; ; ) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will), all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites immigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Old Beachy Amish as well as Old Order Mennonites continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", although two different Alemannic dialects are used by Old Order Amish in Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. , over 350,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States, and about 6,000 lived in Canada: a population that is rapidly growing, as the Amish generally do not use birth control. Amish church groups seek to maintain a degree of separation from the non-Amish world. Non-Amish people are generally referred to as "English" by the Amish.
Amish church membership begins with adult baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families, and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The rules of the church, the Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. Generally, a heavy emphasis is placed on church and family relationships. The Amish typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education after grade eight. Most Amish do not buy commercial insurance or participate in Social Security. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service.
History
Anabaptist beginnings
The Anabaptist movement, from which the Amish later emerged, started in circles around Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) who led the early Reformation in Switzerland. In Zürich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock practiced adult baptism to each other and then to others. This Swiss movement, part of the Radical Reformation, later became known as Swiss Brethren.
Emergence of the Amish
The term Amish was first used as a (a term of disgrace) in 1710 by opponents of Jakob Amman. The first informal division between Swiss Brethren was recorded in the 17th century between s (those living in the hills) and (those living in the Emmental valley). The s were a more extreme congregation; their zeal pushed them into more remote areas.
Swiss Anabaptism developed, from this point, in two parallel streams, most clearly marked by disagreement over the preferred treatment of "fallen" believers. The Emmentalers (sometimes referred to as Reistians, after bishop Hans Reist, a leader among the Emmentalers) argued that fallen believers should only be withheld from communion, and not regular meals. The Amish argued that those who had been banned should be avoided even in common meals. The Reistian side eventually formed the basis of the Swiss Mennonite Conference. Because of this common heritage, Amish and conservative Mennonites from southern Germany and Switzerland retain many similarities. Those who leave the Amish fold tend to join various congregations of Conservative Mennonites.
Migration to North America
Amish began migrating to Pennsylvania, then regarded favorably due to the lack of religious persecution and attractive land offers, in the early 18th century as part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. Between 1717 and 1750 approximately 500 Amish migrated to North America, mainly to the region that became Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County. A second wave of around 1,500 arrived around the mid 19th century and settled mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and southern Ontario. Most of these late immigrants eventually did not join the Old Order Amish but more liberal groups.
1850–1878 Division into Old Orders and Amish Mennonites
Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. The major division that resulted in the loss of identity of many Amish congregations occurred in the third quarter of the 19th century. The forming of factions worked its way out at different times at different places. The process was rather a "sorting out" than a split. Amish people are free to join another Amish congregation at another place that fits them best.
In the years after 1850, tensions rose within individual Amish congregations and between different Amish congregations. Between 1862 and 1878, yearly (ministerial conferences) were held at different places, concerning how the Amish should deal with the tensions caused by the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; for bishops to assemble to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the more traditionally minded bishops agreed to boycott the conferences.
The more progressive members, comprising roughly two-thirds of the group, became known by the name Amish Mennonite, and eventually united with the Mennonite Church, and other Mennonite denominations, mostly in the early 20th century. The more traditionally minded groups became known as the Old Order Amish. The Egli Amish had already started to withdraw from the Amish church in 1858. They soon drifted away from the old ways and changed their name to "Defenseless Mennonite" in 1908. Congregations who took no side in the division after 1862 formed the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference in 1910, but dropped the word "Amish" from their name in 1957.
Because no division occurred in Europe, the Amish congregations remaining there took the same way as the change-minded Amish Mennonites in North America and slowly merged with the Mennonites. The last Amish congregation in Germany to merge was the Ixheim Amish congregation, which merged with the neighboring Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.
20th century
Though splits happened among the Old Order in the 19th century in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a major split among the Old Orders took until World War I. At that time, two very conservative affiliations emerged – the Swartzentruber Amish in Holmes County, Ohio, and the Buchanan Amish in Iowa. The Buchanan Amish soon were joined by like-minded congregations all over the country.
With World War I came the massive suppression of the German language in the US that eventually led to language shift of most Pennsylvania German speakers, leaving the Amish and other Old Orders as almost the only speakers by the end of the 20th century. This created a language barrier around the Amish that did not exist before in that form.
In the late 1920s, the more change minded faction of the Old Order Amish, that wanted to adopt the car, broke away from the mainstream and organized under the name Beachy Amish.
During the Second World War, the old question of military service for the Amish came up again. Because Amish young men in general refused military service, they ended up in the Civilian Public Service (CPS), where they worked mainly in forestry and hospitals. The fact that many young men worked in hospitals, where they had a lot of contact with more progressive Mennonites and the outside world, had the result that many of these men never joined the Amish church.
In the 1950s, the Beachy Amish transformed into an evangelical church. The ones who wanted to preserve the old way of the Beachy became the Old Beachy Amish.
Until about 1950, almost all Amish children attended small, local, non-Amish schools, but then school consolidation and mandatory schooling beyond eighth grade caused Amish opposition. Amish communities opened their own Amish schools. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court exempted Amish pupils from compulsory education past eighth grade. By the end of the 20th century, almost all Amish children attended Amish schools.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a growing number of Amish men left farm work and started small businesses because of increasing pressure on small-scale farming. Though a wide variety of small businesses exists among the Amish, construction work and woodworking are quite widespread. In many Amish settlements, especially the larger ones, farmers are now a minority. Approximately 12,000 of the 40,000 dairy farms in the United States are Amish-owned as of 2018.
Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th century. Telephones were the first important technology that was rejected, soon followed by the rejection of cars, tractors, radios, and many other technological inventions of the 20th century.
Old Order Mennonites and Amish sects are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine: The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Religious practices
Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on (humility) and (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as "submission" or "letting-be". is perhaps better understood as a reluctance to be forward, to be self-promoting, or to assert oneself. The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of Jesus", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community. Modern innovations such as electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity. Electric power lines would be going against the Bible, which says that you shall not be "conformed to the world" ().
Amish church membership begins with baptism, usually between the ages of 16 and 23. It is a requirement for marriage within the Amish church. Once a person is baptized within the church, he or she may marry only within the faith. Church districts have between 20 and 40 families and worship services are held every other Sunday in a member's home or barn. The district is led by a bishop and several ministers and deacons who are chosen by a combination of election and cleromancy (lot).
The rules of the church, the so-called Ordnung, which differs to some extent between different districts, is reviewed twice a year by all members of the church. Only if all members give their consent to it, Lord's supper is held. The Ordnung must be observed by every member and covers many aspects of day-to-day living, including prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing. As present-day Anabaptists, Amish church members practice nonresistance and will not perform any type of military service. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.
Members who do not conform to these community expectations and who cannot be convinced to repent are excommunicated. In addition to excommunication, members may be shunned, a practice that limits social contacts to shame the wayward member into returning to the church. Almost 90 percent of Amish teenagers choose to be baptized and join the church. During an adolescent period of rumspringa (dialectal [Pennsylvania] German for "jumping around", "hopping around") in some communities, nonconforming behavior that would result in the shunning of an adult who had made the permanent commitment of baptism, may be met with a degree of forbearance.
Way of life
Amish lifestyle is regulated by the ("rules") which differs slightly from community to community and from district to district within a community. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. The is agreed upon – or changed – within the whole community of baptized members prior to Communion which takes place two times a year. The meeting where the is discussed is called in Standard German and in Pennsylvania Dutch. The include matters such as dress, permissible uses of technology, religious duties, and rules regarding interaction with outsiders. In these meetings, women also vote in questions concerning the .
Bearing children, raising them, and socializing with neighbors and relatives are the greatest functions of the Amish family. Amish typically believe that large families are a blessing from God. Farm families tend to have larger families, because sons are needed to perform farm labor. Community is central to the Amish way of life.
Working hard is considered godly, and some technological advancements have been considered undesirable because they reduce the need for hard work. Machines such as automatic floor cleaners in barns have historically been rejected as this provides young farmhands with too much free time.
Clothing
The Amish are known for their plain attire. Men wear solid colored shirts, broad-brimmed hats, and suits that signify similarity amongst one another. Amish men grow beards to symbolize manhood and marital status, as well as to promote humility. They are forbidden to grow mustaches because mustaches are seen by the Amish as being affiliated with the military, which they are strongly opposed to, due to their pacifist beliefs. Women have similar guidelines on how to dress, which are also expressed in the , the Amish version of legislation. They are to wear calf-length dresses, muted colors along with bonnets and aprons. Prayer caps or bonnets are worn by the women because they are a visual representation of their religious beliefs and promote unity through the tradition of every woman wearing one. The color of the bonnet signifies whether a woman is single or married. Single women wear black bonnets and married women wear white. The color coding of bonnets is important because women are not allowed to wear jewelry, such as wedding rings, as it is seen as drawing attention to the body which can induce pride in the individual. All clothing is sewn by hand, but the way to fasten the garment widely depends on whether the Amish person is a part of the New Order or Old Order Amish. The Old Order Amish seldom, if ever, use buttons because they are seen as too flashy; instead, they use the hook and eye approach to fashion clothing or metal snaps. The New Order Amish are slightly more progressive and allow the usage of buttons to help attire clothing.
Cuisine
Amish cuisine is noted for its simplicity and traditional qualities. Food plays an important part in Amish social life and is served at potlucks, weddings, fundraisers, farewells, and other events. Many Amish foods are sold at markets including pies, preserves, bread mixes, pickled produce, desserts, and canned goods. Many Amish communities have also established restaurants for visitors. Amish meat consumption is similar to the American average though they tend to eat more preserved meat.
Subgroups
Over the years, the Amish churches have divided many times mostly over questions concerning the Ordnung, but also over doctrinal disputes, mainly about shunning. The largest group, the "Old Order" Amish, a conservative faction that separated from other Amish in the 1860s, are those who have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. The New Order Amish are a group of Amish whom some scholars see best described as a subgroup of Old Order Amish, despite the name.
Affiliations
About 40 different Old Order Amish affiliations are known; the eight major affiliations are below, with Lancaster as the largest one in number of districts and population:
Use of technology by different affiliations
The table below indicates the use of certain technologies by different Amish affiliations. The use of cars is not allowed by any Old and New Order Amish, nor are radio, television, or in most cases the use of the Internet. The three affiliations: "Lancaster", "Holmes Old Order", and "Elkhart-LaGrange" are not only the three largest affiliations, but they also represent the mainstream among the Old Order Amish. The most conservative affiliations are above, the most modern ones below. Technologies used by very few are on the left; the ones used by most are on the right. The percentage of all Amish who use a technology is also indicated approximately. The Old Order Amish culture involves lower greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors and activities with the exception of diet, and their per-person emissions has been estimated to be less than one quarter that of the wider society.
Language
Most Old Order Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and refer to non-Amish people as "English", regardless of ethnicity. Some Amish whose ancestors migrated to the United States in the 1850s speak a form of Bernese German or a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym , which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Pennsylvania Dutch" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later (post 1830) waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as and to Germans as (literally "Germany-ers", compare ) whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
According to one scholar, "today, almost all Amish are functionally bilingual in Pennsylvania Dutch and English; however, domains of usage are sharply separated. Pennsylvania Dutch dominates in most in-group settings, such as the dinner table and preaching in church services. In contrast, English is used for most reading and writing. English is also the medium of instruction in schools and is used in business transactions and often, out of politeness, in situations involving interactions with non-Amish. Finally, the Amish read prayers and sing in Standard German (which, in Pennsylvania Dutch, is called ) at church services. The distinctive use of three different languages serves as a powerful conveyor of Amish identity. "Although 'the English language is being used in more and more situations,' Pennsylvania Dutch is 'one of a handful of minority languages in the United States that is neither endangered nor supported by continual arrivals of immigrants.'"
Ethnicity
The Amish largely share a German or Swiss-German ancestry. They generally use the term "Amish" only for members of their faith community and not as an ethnic designation. However some Amish descendants recognize their cultural background knowing that their genetic and cultural traits are uniquely different from other ethnicities. Those who choose to affiliate with the church, or young children raised in Amish homes, but too young to yet be church members, are considered to be Amish. Certain Mennonite churches have a high number of people who were formerly from Amish congregations. Although more Amish immigrated to North America in the 19th century than during the 18th century, most of today's Amish descend from 18th-century immigrants. The latter tended to emphasize tradition to a greater extent, and were perhaps more likely to maintain a separate Amish identity. There are a number of Amish Mennonite church groups that had never in their history been associated with the Old Order Amish because they split from the Amish mainstream in the time when the Old Orders formed in the 1860s and 1870s. The former Western Ontario Mennonite Conference (WOMC) was made up almost entirely of former Amish Mennonites who reunited with the Mennonite Church in Canada. Orland Gingerich's book The Amish of Canada devotes the vast majority of its pages not to the Beachy or Old Order Amish, but to congregations in the former WOMC.
Para-Amish groups
Several other groups, called "para-Amish" by G. C. Waldrep and others, share many characteristics with the Amish, such as horse and buggy transportation, plain dress, and the preservation of the German language. The members of these groups are largely of Amish origin, but they are not in fellowship with other Amish groups because they adhere to theological doctrines (e.g., assurance of salvation) or practices (community of goods) that are normally not accepted among mainstream Amish. The Bergholz Community is a different case, it is not seen as Amish anymore because the community has shifted away from many core Amish principles.
Population and distribution
Because the Amish are usually baptized no earlier than 18 and children are not counted in local congregation numbers, estimating their numbers is difficult. Rough estimates from various studies placed their numbers at 125,000 in 1992, 166,000 in 2000, and 221,000 in 2008. Thus, from 1992 to 2008, population growth among the Amish in North America was 84 percent (3.6 percent per year). During that time, they established 184 new settlements and moved into six new states. In 2000, about 165,620 Old Order Amish resided in the United States, of whom 73,609 were church members. The Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world, with an average of seven children per family in the 1970s and a total fertility rate of 5.3 in the 2010s.
In 2010, a few religious bodies, including the Amish, changed the way their adherents were reported to better match the standards of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. When looking at all Amish adherents and not solely Old Order Amish, about 241,000 Amish adherents were in 28 U.S. states in 2010.
Distribution by country
United States
The United States is the home to the overwhelming majority (98 percent) of the Amish people. In 2021, Old Order communities were present in 31 U.S. states. The total Amish population in the United States has stood at 355,660 up 10,990 or 3.2 percent, compared to the previous year. Pennsylvania has the largest population (84.1 thousand), followed by Ohio (80.2 thousand) and Indiana (61.0 thousand), . The largest Amish settlements are in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania (40,525), Holmes County and adjacent counties in northeastern Ohio (36,955), and Elkhart and LaGrange counties in northeastern Indiana (26,380), . The highest concentration of Amish in the world is in the Holmes County community; nearly 50 percent of the entire population of Holmes County is Amish as of 2010.
The largest concentration of Amish west of the Mississippi River is in Missouri, with other settlements in eastern Iowa and southeast Minnesota. The largest Amish settlements in Iowa are located near Kalona and Bloomfield. The largest settlement in Wisconsin is near Cashton with 13 congregations, i.e. about 2,000 people in 2009.
Because of the rapid population growth of the Amish communities, new settlements in the United States are being established each year, thus: 19 new settlements were established in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 9 by mid-2021. The main reason for the continuous expansion is to obtain enough affordable farmland, other reasons for new settlements include locating in isolated areas that support their lifestyle, moving to areas with cultures conducive to their way of life, maintaining proximity to family or other Amish groups, and sometimes to resolve church or leadership conflicts.
The adjacent table shows the eight states with the largest Amish population in the years 1992, 2000, 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Canada
Amish settlements are in four Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The majority of Old Order settlements is located in the province of Ontario, namely Oxford (Norwich Township) and Norfolk Counties. A small community is also established in Bruce County (Huron-Kinloss Township) near Lucknow.
In 2016, several dozen Old Order Amish families founded two new settlements in Kings County in the province of Prince Edward Island. Increasing land prices in Ontario had reportedly limited the ability of members in those communities to purchase new farms. At about the same time a new settlement was founded near Perth-Andover in New Brunswick, only about 12 km from Amish settlements in Maine. In 2017, an Amish settlement was founded in Manitoba near Stuartburn.
Latin America
There are currently two Amish settlements in South American nations: Argentina and Bolivia. The majority of Old Order settlements are located in Bolivia. The first attempt by Old Order Amish to settle in Latin America was in Paradise Valley, near Galeana, Nuevo León, Mexico, but the settlement only lasted from 1923 to 1929. An Amish settlement was tried in Honduras from about 1968 to 1978, but this settlement failed too. In 2015, new settlements of New Order Amish were founded east of Catamarca, Argentina, and Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia, about southwest of Santa Cruz. Most of the members of these new communities come from Old Colony Mennonite background and have been living in the area for several decades.
Europe
In Europe, no split occurred between Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; like the Amish Mennonites in North America, the European Amish assimilated into the Mennonite mainstream during the second half of the 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century. Eventually, they dropped the word "Amish" from the names of their congregations and lost their Amish identity and culture. The last European Amish congregation joined the Mennonites in 1937 in Ixheim, today part of Zweibrücken in the Palatinate region.
Seekers and joiners
Only a few hundred outsiders, so-called seekers, have ever joined the Old Order Amish. Since 1950, only some 75 non-Anabaptist people have joined and remained lifelong members of the Amish. Since 1990, some twenty people of Russian Mennonite background have joined the Amish in Aylmer, Ontario.
Two whole Christian communities have joined the Amish: The church at Smyrna, Maine, one of the five Christian Communities of Elmo Stoll after Stoll's death and the church at Manton, Michigan, which belonged to a community that was founded by Harry Wanner (1935–2012), a minister of Stauffer Old Order Mennonite background. The "Michigan Amish Churches", with which Smyrna and Manton affiliated, are said to be more open to seekers and converts than other Amish churches. Most of the members of these two para-Amish communities originally came from Plain churches, i.e. Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonite, or Old German Baptist Brethren.
More people have tested Old Order Amish life for weeks, months, or even years, but in the end decided not to join. Others remain close to the Amish, but never think of joining.
On the other hand, the Beachy Amish, many of whom conduct their services in English and allow for a limited range of modern conveniences, regularly receive seekers into their churches as visitors, and eventually, as members.
Stephen Scott, himself a convert to the Old Order River Brethren, distinguishes four types of seekers:
Checklist seekers are looking for a few certain specifications.
Cultural seekers are more enchanted with the lifestyle of the Amish than with their religion.
Spiritual utopian seekers are looking for true New Testament Christianity.
Stability seekers come with emotional issues, often from dysfunctional families.
Health
Amish populations have higher incidences of particular conditions, including dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types. The Amish represent a collection of different demes or genetically closed communities. Although the Amish do not have higher incidence of genetic disorders than the general population, since almost all Amish descend from a few hundred 18th-century founders, some recessive conditions are more prevalent (an example of the founder effect). Some of these disorders are rare or unique, and are serious enough to increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The Amish are aware of the advantages of exogamy, but for religious reasons, marry only within their communities. The majority of Amish accept these as (God's will); they reject the use of preventive genetic tests prior to marriage and genetic testing of unborn children to discover genetic disorders. When a child is born with a disorder, it is accepted into the community and tasked with chores within their ability. However, Amish are willing to participate in studies of genetic diseases. Their extensive family histories are useful to researchers investigating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and macular degeneration.
While the Amish are at an increased risk for some genetic disorders, researchers have found their tendency for clean living can lead to better health. Overall cancer rates in the Amish are reduced and tobacco-related cancers in Amish adults are 37 percent and non-tobacco-related cancers are 72 percent of the rate for Ohio adults. Even skin cancer rates are lower for Amish, even though many Amish make their living working outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight. They are typically covered and dressed by wearing wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves which protect their skin.
Treating genetic problems is the mission of Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatments for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, a previously fatal disease. The clinic is embraced by most Amish, ending the need for parents to leave the community to receive proper care for their children, an action that might result in shunning. Another clinic is DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, located in Middlefield, Ohio, for special-needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research, and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families.
People's Helpers is an Amish-organized network of mental health caregivers who help families dealing with mental illness and recommend professional counselors. Suicide rates for the Amish are about half that of the general population.
The Old Order Amish do not typically carry private commercial health insurance. A handful of American hospitals, starting in the mid-1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. In some Amish communities, the church will collect money from its members to help pay for medical bills of other members. Although the Amish are often perceived by outsiders as rejecting all modern technologies, this is not the case and modern medicine is employed by Amish communities, including hospital births and other advanced treatments. As they go without health insurance and pay up front for services, Amish individuals will often travel to Mexico for non-urgent care and surgery to reduce costs.
Although not forbidden, most Amish do not practice any form of birth control. They are against abortion and also find "artificial insemination, genetics, eugenics, and stem cell research" to be "inconsistent with Amish values and beliefs". However, some communities allow access to birth control to women whose health would be compromised by childbirth.
Life in the modern world
As time has passed, the Amish have felt pressures from the modern world. Issues such as taxation, education, law and its enforcement, and occasional discrimination and hostility are areas of difficulty.
The modern way of life in general has increasingly diverged from that of Amish society. On occasion, this has resulted in sporadic discrimination and hostility from their neighbors, such as throwing of stones or other objects at Amish horse-drawn carriages on the roads.
The Amish do not usually educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school and college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (usually young, unmarried women) from the Amish community. On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish, and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this, finding the benefits of universal education were not sufficient justification to overcome scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Amish are subject to sales and property taxes. As they seldom own motor vehicles, they rarely have occasion to pay motor vehicle registration fees or spend money in the purchase of fuel for vehicles. Under their beliefs and traditions, generally the Amish do not agree with the idea of Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance. On this basis, the United States Internal Revenue Service agreed in 1961 that they did not need to pay Social Security-related taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into or receive benefits from the United States Social Security system. This exemption applies to a religious group that is conscientiously opposed to accepting benefits of any private or public insurance, provides a reasonable level of living for its dependent members, and has existed continuously since December 31, 1950. The U.S. Supreme Court clarified in 1982 that Amish employers are not exempt, but only those Amish individuals who are self-employed.
Publishing
In 1964, Pathway Publishers was founded by two Amish farmers to print more material about the Amish and Anabaptists in general. It is located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. Pathway has become the major publisher of Amish school textbooks, general-reading books, and periodicals. Also, a number of private enterprises publish everything from general reading to reprints of older literature that has been considered of great value to Amish families. Some Amish read the Pennsylvania German newspaper , and some of them even contribute dialect texts.
Similar groups
Groups that sprang from the same late 19th century Old Order Movement as the Amish share their Pennsylvania German heritage and often still retain similar features in dress. These Old Order groups include different subgroups of Old Order Mennonites, traditional Schwarzenau Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. The Noah Hoover Old Order Mennonites are so similar in outward aspects to the Old Order Amish (dress, beards, horse and buggy, extreme restrictions on modern technology, Pennsylvania German language), that they are often perceived as Amish and even called Amish.
Conservative "Russian" Mennonites and Hutterites who also dress plain and speak German dialects emigrated from other European regions at different times with different German dialects, separate cultures, and related but different religious traditions. Particularly, the Hutterites live communally and are generally accepting of modern technology.
In Ukraine there is a nameless movement of Baptists that has been compared to the Amish, due to their similar beliefs of plain living and pacifism.
The few remaining Plain Quakers are similar in manner and lifestyle, including their attitudes toward war, but are unrelated to the Amish. Early Quakers were influenced, to some degree, by the Anabaptists, and in turn influenced the Amish in colonial Pennsylvania. Almost all modern Quakers have since abandoned their traditional dress.
Relations with Native Americans
The Northkill Amish Settlement, established in 1740 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, was the first identifiable Amish community in the new world. During the French and Indian War, the so-called Hochstetler Massacre occurred: Local tribes attacked the Jacob Hochstetler homestead in the Northkill settlement on September 19, 1757. The sons of the family took their weapons but father Jacob did not allow them to shoot. Jacob Sr.'s wife, Anna (Lorentz) Hochstetler, a daughter (name unknown) and Jacob Jr. were killed by the Native Americans. Jacob Sr. and sons Joseph and Christian were taken captive. Jacob escaped after about eight months, but the boys were held for several years.
As early as 1809 Amish were farming side by side with Native American farmers in Pennsylvania. According to Cones Kupwah Snowflower, a Shawnee genealogist, the Amish and Quakers were known to incorporate Native Americans into their families to protect them from ill-treatment, especially after the Removal Act of 1832.
The Amish, as pacifists, did not engage in warfare with Native Americans, nor displace them directly, but were among the European immigrants whose arrival resulted in their displacement.
In 2012, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society collaborated with the Native American community to construct a replica Iroquois Longhouse.
In popular culture
See also
Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center
Amish furniture
Amish music
Barn raising
Bank of Bird-in-Hand
Christian views on poverty and wealth
Fancy Dutch
List of Amish and their descendants
Martyrs Mirror
Pinecraft
Plain people
West Nickel Mines School shooting
Notes
References
Bibliography
.
Kraybill, Donald B., Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 500 pp.
.
.
.
.
.
Mackall, Joe: Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish, Boston, Mass. 2007.
.
.
Further reading
Die Botschaft – Lancaster, PA – Newspaper for Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites; only Amish may place advertisements.
The Budget – Sugarcreek, OH – Weekly newspaper by and for Amish.
The Diary – Gordonville, PA – Monthly newsmagazine by and for Old Order Amish.
Beachy, Leroy (2011). Unser Leit ... The Story of the Amish. Millersburg, OH: Goodly Heritage Books.
DeWalt, Mark W. (2006). Amish Education in the United States and Canada. Rowman and Littlefield Education.
Garret, Ottie A and Ruth Irene Garret (1998). True Stories of the X-Amish: Banned, Excommunicated and Shunned, Horse Cave, KY: Neu Leben.
Garret, Ruth Irene (1998). Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life, Thomas More.
Gehman Richard. "Plainest of Pennsylvania's Plain People Amish Folk". National Geographic, August 1965, pp. 226–53.
Good, Merle and Phyllis (1979). 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Hostetler, John A. ed. (1989). Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Igou, Brad (1999). The Amish in Their Own Words: Amish Writings from 25 Years of Family Life, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2006). Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Johnson-Weiner, Karen M. (2017) New York Amish : Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State (Cornell UP, 2017).
Keim, Albert (1976). Compulsory Education and the Amish: The Right Not to be Modern. Beacon Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. "Amish." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 2014), pp. 97–112. online
Kraybill, Donald B. (2008). The Amish of Lancaster County. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.* Kraybill, Donald B. ed. (2003). The Amish and the State. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. 2nd ed.: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. (2014). Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Carl D. Bowman (2002). On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B. & Steven M. Nolt (2004). Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2006). Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt & David L. Weaver-Zercher (2010). The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World. New York: Jossey-Bass.
Luthy, David (1991). Amish Settlements That Failed, 1840–1960. LaGrange, IN: Pathway Publishers.
Nolt, Steven M. and Thomas J. Myers (2007). Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schachtman, Tom (2006). Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. New York: North Point Press.
Schlabach, Theron F. (1988). Peace, Faith, Nation: Mennonites and Amish in Nineteenth-Century America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.
Schmidt, Kimberly D., Diane Zimmerman Umble, & Steven D. Reschly, eds. (2002) Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Scott, Stephen (1988). The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Smith, Jeff (2016). Becoming Amish. Cedar, MI: Dance Hall Press
Stevick, Richard A. (2007). Growing Up Amish: the Teenage Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman (2000). Holding the Line: the Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Umble, Diane Zimmerman & David L. Weaver-Zercher, eds. (2008). The Amish and the Media. Johns Hopkins University Press
Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2001). The Amish in the American Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Yoder, Harvey (2007). The Happening: Nickel Mines School Tragedy. Berlin, OH: TGS International.
External links
"Amish" in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
"FAQs About the Amish", by resident experts at the Mennonite Information Center.
The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
"Amish Studies" at the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association, a professional organization of scholars and service providers to the Amish and plain people
"Amish Studies" at Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College
"The Amish" from the Missouri Folklore Society
"Amish in Serbia – reportage" Amish in Serbia
Anabaptists
Christian organizations established in the 17th century
Ethnic groups in Canada
History of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
German-American culture
German-American history
German diaspora
Ohio culture
Peace churches
Pennsylvania culture
Protestantism in Indiana
Protestantism in Ohio
Anabaptism in Pennsylvania
Protestantism in Wisconsin
Religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Religious organizations established in 1693
Simple living
Swiss-American culture
Ethnoreligious groups
1693 establishments in Europe
17th-century establishments in Switzerland
Ethnic groups in the United States
European diaspora in North America
| false |
[
"\"Out Come the Freaks\" is the name of a trilogy of songs by art-funk ensemble Was (Not Was). The trilogy consists of three songs that feature the same basic title, tune and chorus lyric: \"Out Come the Freaks\" (1981), \"(Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks\" (1983), and \"Out Come The Freaks\" (1987) (later issued as \"Out Come the Freaks (Again)\".)\n\nDespite the three songs' abundant similarities, each song is distinctive, as differing lyrics in the verses of each song tell stories about different societal outcasts. As well, each recording had a different contemporary sound, a thoroughly different arrangement, and reworked the melody while still retaining the chorus vocal: Woodwork squeaks, and out comes the freaks.\n\nRecordings\n\n\"Out Come the Freaks\" (1981)\nThe original recording was the opening song on the groups debut album Was (Not Was). This version began with the chorus sung several times simultaneously by a number of vocalists before the rhythm section is introduced. The single became a club hit in the US and peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart.\n\nThe song's parent album was later renamed Out Come The Freaks when it was remastered and expanded in 2004. A companion remix album is titled (The) Woodwork Squeaks.\n\n\"(Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks\" (1983)\n\nThe second recording is slower and sparser as opposed to the post-disco sound of the original. This version is sung by Harry Bowens, who sings the Woodwork Squeaks chorus as more of a refrain than a chant. This version adds a new introductory verse which sets up the concept of the song. The final chorus replaces the words \"the freaks\" with a succession of song titles including \"Papa's Got A Brand New Bag\" and \"The Shadow of Your Smile\", implying a more positive spin on the idea of a \"freak\" to counterpoint the earlier verses. \"(Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks\" was the only single from Born to Laugh at Tornadoes to chart in the UK, and was also their first hit in that country, hitting the UK top 50. This version of the song also appears as a hidden track (at the end of track 11, Walk The Dinosaur) on the compilation album Hello Dad... I'm In Jail.\n\n\"Out Come the Freaks (Again)\" (1988)\n\nThe third \"Out Come The Freaks\" recording was released in 1987 and included on the group's most successful album What Up, Dog?. It was eventually also released as one of the final singles from the album in the UK, and again peaked just inside the UK top 50. The song was listed as \"Out Come the Freaks\" on the album but reference to the songs reworked status was acknowledged in the inclusion of the subtitle 'Again' on the single's release. The single version was also alternatively titled \"(Stuck Inside of Detroit With the) Out Come the Freaks (Again)\".\n\nThis recording was once again dominated by the vocal of Harry Bowens, but a female vocalist sang the chorus refrain. The arrangement was more upbeat than the second recording but had a tighter Funk and Synth-Pop sound. The introductory verse was retained but the other verses were changed to feature different characters to the earlier versions. Instead of song titles, the more positive final chorus listed real people such as Leon Trotsky and John Coltrane.\n\n\"Look What's Back\" (1990)\nA fourth song related to \"Out Come the Freaks\" called \"Look What's Back\" appears as the final track on the group's fourth album Are You Okay? in 1990. The song is a 43-second acoustic camp-fire rendition in which the group chants the chorus: 'Woodwork squeaks, and out comes the freaks'.\n\nRemixes\n\"Out Come the Freaks\"\n Album Version – 5:37\n Seven Inch – 4:28\n Extended Version – 6:39\n Dub Version – 6:10\n \"Tell Me That I'm Dreaming (Souped Up Version)\" / \"Out Come the Freaks (Dub Version)\" – 12:50\n Classic 12\" Version – 7:12\n Predominantly Funk Version – 12:25\n\n\"(Return to the Valley of) Out Come the Freaks\"\n Album Version – 4:22\n Seven Inch – 3:45\n Extended Version – 8:45\n\n\"Out Come the Freaks (Again)\"\n Album Version – 4:35\n The Mighty Mook Mix\n The Bobby Maggot Mix\n\nChart positions\n\nReferences\n\n1981 songs\n1981 singles\n1984 singles\n1988 singles\nWas (Not Was) songs\nSong recordings produced by Don Was\nSongs written by David Was\nSongs written by Don Was\nIsland Records singles",
"\"Gee! What a Wonderful Time We'll Have When the Boys Come Home\" is a World War I era song released in 1917. Lyrics and music were written by Mary Earl. The song was published by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. of New York, New York. It was written for both voice and piano. The sheet music cover was designed by artist Albert Wilfred Barbelle. On the cover are soldiers marching down a city street. A skyline is behind them, and the lights spell out, \"Welcome Home.\"\n\nThe song calls for a celebration when the soldiers return home from war. The chorus is as follows:\nGee! What a wonderful time we'll have\nWhen the boys come home\nThe girls will be dressed in their Sunday best\nWhen the boys come home\nThe flags will fly and the bands will play\nWe'll all turn out with a smile so gay\nAnd ev'ry one shouting, \"Hip Hip Hooray:\nWhen the boys come home\n\nThe sheet music can be found at Pritzker Military Museum & Library.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n View the song MP3 and sheet music here\n\nSongs about soldiers\nSongs of World War I\n1917 songs\nSongs written by Robert A. King (composer)"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years"
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
|
when was he born?
| 1 |
When was George Bernard Shaw born?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.
|
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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"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"
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"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
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"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin."
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where did he go to school?
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Where did George Bernard Shaw go to school?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.
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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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[
"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"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated."
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C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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who were his parents?
| 3 |
Who were the parents of 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. CANNOTANSWER
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He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).
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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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[
"The Extraordinary Tale of Nicholas Pierce is a 2011 adventure novel written by Alexander DeLuca. It follows the journey of a university teacher Nicholas Pierce, who suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder as he searches for his biological parents, traveling across states in the United States of America. He travels with a friend, who is an eccentric barista in a cafe in upstate New York, named Sergei Tarasov.\n\nPlot\nNicholas Pierce suffers from OCD. He is also missing the memory of the first five years of his life. Raised by adoptive parents, one day he receives a mysterious box from an \"Uncle Nathan\". Curious, he sets off on a journey to find his biological parents with a Russian friend, Sergei Tarasov. On the trip, they meet several people, face money problems and different challenges. They also pick up a hitchhiker, Jessica, who later turns out to be a criminal.\n\nFinally, Nicholas finds his grandparents, who direct him to his biological parents. When he meets them, he finds out that his vaguely registered biological 'parents' were actually neighbors of his real parents who had died in an accident. The mysterious box that he had received is destroyed. He finds out that it contained photographs from his early life.\n\n2011 American novels\nNovels about obsessive–compulsive disorder",
"Bomba and the Jungle Girl is a 1952 adventure film directed by Ford Beebe and starring Johnny Sheffield. It is the eighth film (of 12) in the Bomba, the Jungle Boy film series.\n\nPlot\nBomba decides to find out who his parents were. He starts with Cody Casson's diary and follows the trail to a native village. An ancient blind woman tells him his parents, along the village's true ruler, were murdered by the current chieftain and his daughter. With the aid of an inspector and his daughter, Bomba battles the usurpers in the cave where his parents were buried.\n\nCast\nJohnny Sheffield\nKaren Sharpe\nWalter Sande\nSuzette Harbin\nMartin Wilkins\nMorris Buchanan\nLeonard Mudie\nDon Blackman.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1952 films\nAmerican films\nAmerican adventure films\nFilms directed by Ford Beebe\nFilms produced by Walter Mirisch\nMonogram Pictures films\n1952 adventure films\nAmerican black-and-white films"
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[
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"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913)."
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C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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where did he grow up?
| 4 |
Where did George Bernard Shaw grow up?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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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.
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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 |
[
"Grow Up may refer to:\nAdvance in age\nProgress toward psychological maturity\nGrow Up (book), a 2007 book by Keith Allen\nGrow Up (video game), 2016 video game\n\nMusic\nGrow Up (Desperate Journalist album), 2017\nGrow Up (The Queers album), 1990\nGrow Up (Svoy album), 2011\nGrow Up, a 2015 EP by HALO\n\"Grow Up\" (Olly Murs song)\n\"Grow Up\" (Paramore song)\n\"Grow Up\" (Simple Plan song)\n\"Grow Up\", a song by Rockwell\n\"Grow Up\", a song from the Bratz album Rock Angelz\n\"Grow Up\", a song by Cher Lloyd from Sticks and Stones\n\nSee also\nGrowing Up (disambiguation)\nGrow Up, Tony Phillips, a 2013 film by Emily Hagins",
"\"When I Grow Up\" is the second single from Swedish recording artist Fever Ray's self-titled debut album, Fever Ray (2009).\n\nCritical reception\nPitchfork Media placed \"When I Grow Up\" at number 36 on the website's list of The Top 100 Tracks of 2009.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"When I Grow Up\" was directed by Martin de Thurah. He said of the video's visual statement:\n\n\"That initial idea was something about something coming out of water—something which was about to take form – a state turning into something new. And a double headed creature not deciding which to turn. But the idea had to take a simpler form, to let the song grow by itself. I remembered a photo I took in Croatia two years ago, a swimming pool with its shining blue color in a grey foggy autumn landscape.\"\n\nThe video premiered on Fever Ray's YouTube channel on 19 February 2009. It has received over 12 million views as of March 2016.\n\n\"When I Grow Up\" was placed at number three on Spins list of The 20 Best Videos of 2009.\n\nTrack listings\niTunes single\n\"When I Grow Up\" – 4:31\n\"When I Grow Up\" (Håkan Lidbo's Encephalitis Remix) – 5:59\n\"When I Grow Up\" (D. Lissvik) – 4:28\n\"Memories from When I Grew Up (Remembered by The Subliminal Kid)\" – 16:41\n\"When I Grow Up\" (Van Rivers Dark Sails on the Horizon Mix) – 9:16\n\"When I Grow Up\" (We Grow Apart Vocal Version by Pär Grindvik) – 6:02\n\"When I Grow Up\" (We Grow Apart Inspiration - Take 2 - By Pär Grindvik) – 7:59\n\"When I Grow Up\" (Scuba's High Up Mix) – 6:17\n\"When I Grow Up\" (Scuba's Straight Down Mix) – 5:54\n\"When I Grow Up\" (Video) – 4:04\n\nSwedish 12\" single \nA1. \"When I Grow Up\" (Van Rivers Dark Sails on the Horizon Mix) – 9:10\nA2. \"When I Grow Up\" (D. Lissvik) – 4:28\nB1. \"Memories from When I Grew Up (Remembered by The Subliminal Kid)\" – 16:41\n\nUK promo CD single \n\"When I Grow Up\" (Edit) – 3:42\n\"When I Grow Up\" (D. Lissvik Radio Edit) – 3:19\n\nNominations\n\nAppearances in other media\nThe song was used as part of the soundtrack for the video game Pro Evolution Soccer 2011.\n\nReferences\n\n2009 singles\n2009 songs\nFever Ray songs\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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."
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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why didn't he like school?
| 5 |
Why didn't George Bernard Shaw like school?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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"Schools and schoolmasters", he later wrote, were "prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents."
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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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[
"\"Why Didn't You Call Me\" is a song by American singer Macy Gray from her debut studio album, On How Life Is (1999). It was released on July 24, 2000, as the album's fourth and final single.\n\nRelease\n\"Why Didn't You Call Me\" became Gray's third consecutive top-10 entry on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 38. In the United States, the single reached number 25 on the Adult Top 40 chart and number 29 on the Top 40 Mainstream chart. However, the song missed the Billboard Hot 100, instead peakind at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\n\n\"Why Didn't You Call Me\" was released on two CD formats in the UK. The CD single contained remixes of \"Why Didn't You Call Me\" and \"I've Committed Murder\", along with a live recording of \"I Can't Wait to Meetchu\".\n\nMusic video\nThe music video, which depicts Gray performing in a dimly-lit room and shows close-ups of dancers, received significant play on BET, MTV, and VH1. The video entered the top 10 on VH1's most-played video chart.\n\nTrack listings\nUK CD 1\n \"Why Didn't You Call Me\" (album version)\n \"I've Committed Murder\" (Gang Starr Remix featuring Mos Def)\n \"Why Didn't You Call Me\" (88-Keys Remix featuring Grafh)\n\nUK CD 2\n \"Why Didn't You Call Me\" (album version)\n \"I Can't Wait to Meetchu\" (live)\n \"Why Didn't You Call Me\" (The Black Eyed Peas Remix)\n \"Why Didn't You Call Me\" (music video)\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1999 songs\n2000 singles\nEpic Records singles\nMacy Gray songs\nMusic videos directed by Hype Williams\nSongs written by Jeremy Ruzumna\nSongs written by Macy Gray",
"Waarom heeft niemand mij verteld dat het zo erg zou worden in Afghanistan (English: Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan) is the first full length feature film shot with a mobile phone. The films is about a Dutch Afghan War veteran who recalls his experiences during the war and tells how he came to cope with them.\n\nThe film premiered at major film festivals: the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007 (WP), Tribeca Film Festival 2007 (IP), the San Francisco International Film Festival 2007, Pesaro 2007, and many others.\n\nDirected by Cyrus Frisch and mostly filmed in the Netherlands.\n\nSources \nThe phoney film-maker Chris Campion, The Observer, 2007-02-04\nWhy Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan Sean Uyehara, San Francisco Film Society, accessed 2007-12-04\nSFIFF Film Capsules Gregg Rickman, SF Weekly, 2007-04-25\nWhy didn't anybody tell me it would become this bad in Afghanistan 2007 Tribeca Film Guide, Tribeca Enterprises, LLC, accessed 2007-12-04\nRutger Hauer na 28 jaar weer in Nederlandse speelfilm nieuws, cinema.nl, 2007-11-05\nCyrus Frisch Professional search, 2007 International Film Festival Rotterdam, accessed 2007-12-04\nWhy Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan (2007) Internet Movie Database Inc. (IMDb), accessed 2007-12-04\n\n2007 films\nDutch films\nDutch independent films\nMobile phone films\n2000s Dutch-language films"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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.",
"why didn't he like school?",
"\"Schools and schoolmasters\", he later wrote, were \"prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.\""
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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what did he do when he finished school?
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What did George Bernard Shaw do when he finished school?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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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.
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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 |
[
"Ed Humenik (born June 29, 1959) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.\n\nHumenik joined the PGA Tour in 1989, gaining his Tour card through qualifying school. After struggling on his rookie year on Tour, he joined the Nationwide Tour in 1990. He won two events, the Ben Hogan Macon Open and the Ben Hogan Santa Rosa Open en route to a 5th-place finish on the money list which earned him his PGA Tour card for 1991. In 1991, he finished 121st on the money list, just good enough to retain his Tour card, he recorded two top-10 finishes. He bettered his performance in 1992, finishing 100th on the money list, including finishing in a tie for fourth at the Buick Southern Open. He finished 105th on the money list in 1993 and recorded three top-10 finishes. In 1994 he finished 108th on the money list, with the highlight of his year coming at the Greater Greensboro Open where he finished in a tie for second. He did not do as well in 1995 and failed to retain his Tour card. He did not play full-time on Tour again until 1999 when he played on the Nationwide Tour, his final season on Tour. He played in the U.S. Senior Open in 2009 and missed the cut.\n\nProfessional wins (3)\n\nBen Hogan Tour wins (2)\n\nOther wins (1)\n1988 Michigan Open\n\nResults in major championships\n\nCUT = missed the half-way cut\n\"T\" = tied\nNote: Humenik only played in the U.S. Open.\n\nSee also\n1988 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n1990 Ben Hogan Tour graduates\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican male golfers\nMichigan Wolverines men's golfers\nPGA Tour golfers\nKorn Ferry Tour graduates\nGolfers from Detroit\n1959 births\nLiving people",
"Steven Michael \"Steve\" Kemp (born 29 December 1978 in Lancashire, England) is an English drummer. He was the drummer of indie rock band Hard-Fi.\n\nCareer\nOriginally from Lancashire, Kemp went to Carnforth High School, before he moved to London in his late teens to do a musical course. Kemp is a big fan of Liverpool F.C. and was originally a drummer for a DJ who happened to be friends with Richard Archer. When Archer was scouting for members to be in his band, he asked Kemp to be part of it, through Kemp's link with the DJ.\n\nIn December 2007 he slammed bands such as Led Zeppelin and The Police for charging their fans £100 for tickets to their live concerts. He said \"I know these old bands have a huge legacy but paying over £100 for a ticket is a joke. If it's a band you really love, of course you want to go and see them - but why should you then pay so much money for it? These rock 'n' roll dinosaurs are coming out for a last pay cheque. I don't know what they’re going to do on stage that's so special\". He then joked that, \"I think we should split up in November, just to get back together in December. See if it makes us more famous. Maybe we could have November off and get back together in December and call it the reunion tour. The few remaining tickets will sell out in no time. It will be a winner. It will be perfect.\"\n\nIn an interview with ilikemusic, Kemp was asked to reflect on whether he has time to \"smell the roses and enjoy the journey and reflect\"\n\n\"It's weird because you don't whilst you're doing it. You don't realise how much you're enjoying yourself sometimes. I really try and stop myself in my tracks now and say 'look what you've achieved, look what you've just done, look what you're doing'. I really try and do that, because if you don't, you're always focusing on what's next rather than what's just happened. When we played our tour in May 2006 and we did the five Brixton Academy gigs I remember at the time I was so amazingly tired and shattered I enjoyed it, but it was really hard work. Now I can look back and think what a fucking laugh. It does take a while for it to sink in before you can look back and really enjoy yourselves.\n\nBut it's all amazing. We've had two number one records. We've sold over a million records. We've achieved so much that you have to remind yourself how fantastic that all is, and if it all finished tomorrow, then I've done what I always wanted to do. But hopefully it's not going to finish tomorrow and we can continue on to bigger and better things.\"\n\nReferences\n\nHard-Fi members\nLiving people\nPeople from Carnforth\nEnglish rock drummers\n1978 births\n21st-century drummers"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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.",
"why didn't he like school?",
"\"Schools and schoolmasters\", he later wrote, were \"prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.\"",
"what did he do when he finished school?",
"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."
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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what did he do after he left that job?
| 7 |
What did George Bernard Shaw do after he left the Dublin job?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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During this period, Shaw was known as "George Shaw"; after 1876, he dropped the "George" and styled himself "Bernard Shaw".
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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 |
[
"The situation, task, action, result (STAR) format is a technique used by interviewers to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires. \n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenging situation in which you found yourself.\n Task: What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions? Did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience? Have you used this learning since?\n\nThe STAR technique is similar to the SOARA technique.\n\nThe STAR technique is also often complemented with an additional R on the end STARR or STAR(R) with the last R resembling reflection. This R aims to gather insight and interviewee's ability to learn and iterate. Whereas the STAR reveals how and what kind of result on an objective was achieved, the STARR with the additional R helps the interviewer to understand what the interviewee learned from the experience and how they would assimilate experiences. The interviewee can define what they would do (differently, the same, or better) next time being posed with a situation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe ‘STAR’ technique to answer behavioral interview questions\nThe STAR method explained\n\nJob interview",
"SOARA (Situation, Objective, Action, Results, Aftermath) is a job interview technique developed by Hagymas Laszlo, Professor of Language at the University of Munich, and Alexander Botos, Chief Curator at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. It is similar to the Situation, Task, Action, Result technique. In many interviews, SOARA is used as a structure for clarifying information relating to a recent challenge.\n\nDetails\n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation you found yourself in.\n Objective: What did you have to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what were the alternatives.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives.\n Aftermath: What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since?\n\nJob interview"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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.",
"why didn't he like school?",
"\"Schools and schoolmasters\", he later wrote, were \"prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.\"",
"what did he do when he finished school?",
"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.",
"what did he do after he left that job?",
"During this period, Shaw was known as \"George Shaw\"; after 1876, he dropped the \"George\" and styled himself \"Bernard Shaw\"."
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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where else did he live?
| 8 |
Other than Dublin, where else did George Bernard Shaw live?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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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,
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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 Lost Session is an EP by English rock band Def Leppard. It was released on 19 January 2018 and is exclusive to iTunes Store and Apple Music services.\n\nBackground \nThe Lost Session was recorded in 2006 specifically for the iTunes Store, but the long running dispute between Def Leppard and Universal Music Group over digital royalties that ended in early 2018 prevented it and everything else in the band's catalog from being released digitally.\n\nLead singer Joe Elliott said in an interview, \"The Lost Session (is) from about ten years ago and we just couldn't remember where we did it, why we did it. We re-recorded \"When Love & Hate Collide\". Which is actually better than the album version I think.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nJoe Elliott – lead vocals\nPhil Collen – guitar, backing vocals\nVivian Campbell – guitar, backing vocals\nRick Savage – bass, backing vocals\nRick Allen – drums\n\nReferences \n\n2018 EPs\n2018 live albums\nDef Leppard EPs\nDef Leppard live albums\nITunes-exclusive releases\nLive EPs\nMercury Records EPs",
"\"Sad but True\" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released in February 1993 as the fifth and final single from their eponymous fifth album, Metallica. The music video for the single was released in October 1992.\n\nTrack listing\nUS single\n \"Sad but True\"\n \"So What\"\n\nInternational single part 1\n \"Sad but True\" – 5:27\n \"So What\" – 3:09\n \"Harvester of Sorrow\" (live) – 6:41\n\nInternational single part 2\n \"Sad but True\" – 5:27\n \"Nothing Else Matters\" (Elevator version) – 6:31\n \"Creeping Death\" (live) – 8:01\n \"Sad but True\" (demo) – 4:53\n\nUK picture single\n \"Sad but True\" – 5:26\n \"Nothing Else Matters\" (live) – 6:13\n \"Sad but True\" (live) – 6:12\n\nUK and German 7-inch single\n \"Sad but True\" – 5:24\n \"Nothing Else Matters\" – 6:29\n\nFrench single\n \"Sad but True\" – 5:27\n \"Nothing Else Matters\" (edit) – 6:29\n\nInternational 7-inch single\n \"Sad but True\"\n \"Nothing Else Matters\" (live)\n \"Sad but True\" (live)\n\nPersonnel\n James Hetfield – lead vocals, rhythm guitar\n Kirk Hammett – lead guitar\n Jason Newsted – bass, backing vocals\n Lars Ulrich – drums\n John Marshall – guitar on \"Nothing Else Matters\" (live)\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nCover versions\nIn 2020, the Mongolian hunnu band The HU released a cover of the song translated entirely into Mongolian.\n\nThe Metallica Blacklist, a compilation album released in 2021, features seven covers of the song, including a live version by Sam Fender and studio versions by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Mexican Institute of Sound, Royal Blood, St. Vincent, White Reaper and YB.\n\nReferences\n\n1991 songs\n1993 singles\nMetallica songs\nSongs written by James Hetfield\nSongs written by Lars Ulrich\nSong recordings produced by Bob Rock\nNumber-one singles in Finland\nMusic videos directed by Wayne Isham\nElektra Records singles"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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.",
"why didn't he like school?",
"\"Schools and schoolmasters\", he later wrote, were \"prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.\"",
"what did he do when he finished school?",
"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.",
"what did he do after he left that job?",
"During this period, Shaw was known as \"George Shaw\"; after 1876, he dropped the \"George\" and styled himself \"Bernard Shaw\".",
"where else did he live?",
"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,"
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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did he have any siblings?
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Did George Bernard Shaw have any siblings?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876).
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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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[
"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",
"John August Kusche (1869 – 1934) was a renowned botanist and entomologist, and he discovered many new species of moths and butterflies. The plant of the aster family, Erigeron kuschei is named in his honor.\n\nNotable discoveries \n\nIn 1928, Kusche donated to the Bishop Museum 164 species of Lepidoptera he collected on Kauai between 1919 and 1920. Of those, 55 species had not previously been recorded on Kauai and 6 were new to science, namely Agrotis stenospila, Euxoa charmocrita, Plusia violacea, Nesamiptis senicula, Nesamiptis proterortha and Scotorythra crocorrhoa.\n\nThe Essig Museum of Entomology lists 26 species collected by Kusche from California, Baja California, Arizona, Alaska and on the Solomon Islands.\n\nEarly life \nHis father's name was Johann Karl Wilhelm Kusche, he remarried in 1883 to Johanna Susanna Niesar. He had three siblings from his father (Herman, Ernst and Pauline) and four half siblings from her second marriage (Bertha, Wilhelm, Heinrich and Reinhold. There were two other children from this marriage, which died young and whom were not recorded). His family were farmers, while he lived with them, in Kreuzburg, Germany.\n\nHis siblings quickly accustomed themselves to their new mother, however August, the eldest, did not get on easily with her. He attended a gardening school there in Kreuzburg. He left at a relatively young age after unintentionally setting a forest fire. \"One day on a walk through Kreuzburg forest, he unintentionally caused a huge forest fire. Fearing jail, he fled from home and somehow made it to America.\"\n\nHe wrote letters back to his family, urging them to come to America. His father eventually did, sometime shortly after February 1893. His father started a homestead in Brownsville, Texas. Yellow fever broke out and his father caught it. He managed to survive, while many did not, leaving him a sick old man in his mid-fifties. He wrote to August, who was then living it Prescott, Arizona, asking for money. August wrote back, saying \"Dear father, if you are out of money, see to it that you go back to Germany as soon as possible. Without any money here, you are lost,\" \n\nAugust didn't have any money either, and had been hoping to borrow money from his father. If he had wanted to visit him, then he would have had to make the trip on foot.\n\nWhen August arrived in America, he got a job as a gardener on a Pennsylvania farm. He had an affair with a Swiss woman, which resulted in a child. August denied being the child's father, but married her anyway. He went west, on horseback, and had his horse stolen by Native Americans. He ended up in San Francisco. His family joined him there. By this time he had three sons and a daughter.\n\nAfter his children grew up, he began traveling and collecting moths and butterflies.\n\nLater life \nHe traveled to the South Seas where he collected moths and butterflies. There he caught a terrible fever that very nearly killed him. He was picked up by a government ship in New Guinea, and was unconscious until he awoke in a San Francisco hospital. After that time he had hearing loss and lost all of his teeth. His doctor told him not to take any more trips to Alaska, and this apparently helped his condition.\n\nIn 1924 he lived in San Diego. He had taken a trip to Alaska just before this date. He worked as a gardener in California for nine years (1915–1924) where he died of stomach cancer.\n\nReferences \n\n19th-century German botanists\n1869 births\n1934 deaths\n20th-century American botanists\nGerman emigrants to the United States"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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.",
"why didn't he like school?",
"\"Schools and schoolmasters\", he later wrote, were \"prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.\"",
"what did he do when he finished school?",
"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.",
"what did he do after he left that job?",
"During this period, Shaw was known as \"George Shaw\"; after 1876, he dropped the \"George\" and styled himself \"Bernard Shaw\".",
"where else did he live?",
"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,",
"did he have any siblings?",
"His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876)."
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
|
did he live in any other places?
| 10 |
Besides Dublin and Dalkey Hill, did George Bernard Shaw live in any other places?
|
George Bernard Shaw
|
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. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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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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"Springboro is an unincorporated community in Prairie Township, White County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.\n\nHistory\nA post office was established at Springboro in 1851, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1853. The community took its name from Spring Creek. Springboro soon did not live up to expectations, and business activity shifted to other nearby places.\n\nGeography\nSpringboro is located at .\n\nReferences\n\nUnincorporated communities in White County, Indiana\nUnincorporated communities in Indiana",
"The Garcia Opera House, at Terry Ave. and California St. in Socorro, New Mexico was built in 1886. Its owner hoped to attract opera, but there is no record of any traveling opera company stopping. It did host travelling theatre performances, masked balls, and other functions.\n\nIt was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.\n\nReferences\n\nOpera houses\t\t\nNational Register of Historic Places in Socorro County, New Mexico\nBuildings and structures completed in 1886"
] |
[
"George Bernard Shaw",
"Early years",
"when was he born?",
"Shaw was born at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, a lower-middle-class part of Dublin.",
"where did he go to school?",
"Between 1865 and 1871, Shaw attended four schools, all of which he hated.",
"who were his parents?",
"He was the youngest child and only son of George Carr Shaw (1814-1885) and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw (nee Gurly; 1830-1913).",
"where did he grow up?",
"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.",
"why didn't he like school?",
"\"Schools and schoolmasters\", he later wrote, were \"prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaperoning their parents.\"",
"what did he do when he finished school?",
"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.",
"what did he do after he left that job?",
"During this period, Shaw was known as \"George Shaw\"; after 1876, he dropped the \"George\" and styled himself \"Bernard Shaw\".",
"where else did he live?",
"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,",
"did he have any siblings?",
"His elder siblings were Lucinda (Lucy) Frances (1853-1920) and Elinor Agnes (1855-1876).",
"did he live in any other places?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_94f53935a4914694b1221a4853592c6c_1
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what was one of the schools that he attended?
| 11 |
What was one of the schools that George Bernard Shaw attended?
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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. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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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
| false |
[
"Edmond Public Schools is a public school district located in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, Oklahoma. The school district has an enrollment of 23,496 students as of October 2020, employing over 3,000 people. Edmond Public Schools consists of 17 elementary schools, six middle schools, and three high schools and an early childhood center. Two new elementary schools, Redbud Elementary and Scissortail Elementary, are opening in 2022.\n\nIn 2020, Bret Towne announced that he was retiring as superintendent at the end of the 2020–2021 school year.\n\nHistory \nIn 1889, Oklahoma's first public schoolhouse (not to be confused with Oklahoma's first school) was opened in Edmond. The project was funded by the Ladies School Aid Society, led by Jennie Forster. The first class of students attended school on September 16, 1889. Over the 1890s, the class size outgrew the original schoolhouse, which was sold in September 1899. Eventually, the status of the building was lost to time.\n\nIn 1997, the Edmond City Council approved an effort to investigate what happened to the schoolhouse. The Edmond Historic Preservation Trust led the investigation and eventual restoration of the schoolhouse was completed in April 2007.\n\nSchools\n\nReferences\n\nSchool districts in Oklahoma\nEducation in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma\nEdmond, Oklahoma",
"The Memphis 13 are the group of young children who integrated the schools of Memphis, TN. On October 3, 1961, 13 African-American first grade students were enrolled in schools that were previously all white. The schools that the students attended were Bruce, Gordon, Rozelle, and Springdale elementary schools.\n\nThe students attended the following schools: Bruce Elementary (Dwania Kyles, Harry Williams, Michael Willis); Gordon Elementary (Alvin Freeman, Sharon Malone, Sheila Malone, Pamela Mayes); Rozelle Elementary (Joyce Bell, E.C. Freeman, Leandrew Wiggins, Clarence Williams); Springdale Elementary (Deborah Ann Holt; Jacqueline Moore).\n\nWhen these students desegregated Memphis City Schools there was no violence like the violence witnessed in other parts of the South. There was neither a great deal of news coverage nor a great deal of public discussion about what was going on. Rev. Samuel Kyles was the chairman of the local NAACP's education committee at the time noted that the decision to use first-graders instead of high school students was intentional. Kyles believed that first graders were not tainted and therefore were better suited to integrate the schools.\n\nThe story of the Memphis 13 has been made into a documentary by Professor Daniel Kiel, a professor at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. The documentary is 35 minutes and consists of interviews with the 13 students and their family members about their experiences and feelings during the time. In October 2015, historical markers were placed at the four schools students attended. The students have been honored as part of the City of Memphis \"Be the Dream\" awards program at Mason Temple in January 2016 and were honored at screenings of the documentary at Harvard Law School, the Little Rock Reel Civil Rights Film Festival, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and the University of Mississippi School of Law.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n The Commercial Appeal; The Memphis 13: First-graders make history 50 years ago integrating Memphis schools\n Memphis Daily News; Law Professor Kiel Recounts Stories of 'Memphis 13'\n\n1961 in Tennessee\nRacial segregation\nDiscrimination in the United States\nHistory of Memphis, Tennessee"
] |
[
"The Tragically Hip",
"2009-2015"
] |
C_5ac1f791cc3a4537be7b1c4e9eecb62f_0
|
what is the tragically hip?
| 1 |
what is the tragically hip?
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The Tragically Hip
|
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV). On May 12, 2012, a 90-second clip of the song "At Transformation", the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada. The full song premiered on Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) on May 16. The song was released to radio stations on May 17 and was officially released on iTunes on May 18. Band member Johnny Fay revealed that the title for the album is Now for Plan A. The second single, "Streets Ahead," was released on August 24. The album (their 12th studio album), produced by Gavin Brown, was released on October 2, 2012. The band played several live "Nashville" style shows that week at the Supermarket bar in Kensington market to promote the release of this record. On the evening of October 2, they played a full set to a packed bar with a live webcast through tdsmultimedia to livestream, and an audio simulcast on Sirius XM. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015. CANNOTANSWER
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band
|
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour's final concert, which would ultimately be the band's last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing compilation albums of previously unreleased songs from the band's archives.
History
Early history (1984–1991)
The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the Michael Nesmith movie Elephant Parts.
First album
By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the EP The Tragically Hip. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Boots or Hearts", and "38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Second Album: Road Apples
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("Little Bones", "Twist My Arm", and "Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The 2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The 6 unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020.
The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997
The Hip released another album, Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, both to act as a vehicle for their touring, and to promote other Canadian acts (as well as non-Canadians Ziggy Marley and Pere Ubu).
Many songs from Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "Nautical Disaster" and "Grace, Too". Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. The live album Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism."
On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on Saturday Night Live, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. The band's performance on the show was one of their highest profile media appearances in the United States.
In July 1996, the Hip headlined Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003
In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album, Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design. A single from the album, "Bobcaygeon", won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada.
In February 1999, the Hip played the very first concert at the brand new Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the Woodstock '99 festival in Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by Kid Rock.
2000 saw the release of Music @ Work. It won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts.
In 2002, In Violet Light, recorded by Hugh Padgham and Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. Later that year, the Hip made a cameo appearance in the Paul Gross film Men with Brooms, playing a curling team from their hometown of Kingston. Three of their songs appear in the film, and they backed Sarah Harmer on a fourth, the soundtrack's lead single, "Silver Roads".
On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967 12th Street Riot in Detroit, on Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008
In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies.
At the 92nd Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.
In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song It Can't Be Nashville Every Night from their In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers.
In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture.
On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD box set, Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004 That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005, Yer Favourites and That Night in Toronto were released individually.
In 2006, another studio album, entitled World Container, was released, being notably produced by Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year.
On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada.
On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV).
Single "At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album, Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October.
The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death
In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer.
The Hip's thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem, was released on June 17, 2016. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine".
The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Music, and YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "Ahead by a Century". The CBC's broadcast and live streaming of the concert, uninterrupted by advertisements, was watched by 11.7 million people (roughly one-third of the Canadian population).
On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. Downie also told Mansbridge that he was working with the Tragically Hip on new studio material, and that the band have up to four albums worth of unreleased material in the vaults.
Downie released his fifth solo album, Secret Path on October 18, 2016. The album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations boy who escaped from a Canadian Indian residential school in 1966 and died while attempting to make the 600 km walk back to his home.
On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press' Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title.
On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the Order of Canada by Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; the other four members of the band were invested on November 17.
The band and the tour are the subjects of Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film Long Time Running, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20.
Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. His death was widely mourned throughout Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life."
Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death), Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death
Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017.
In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, the remaining band members became investment partners in Newstrike, a cannabis company which has named several of its products after Tragically Hip songs.
In a July 2018 interview with the Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released.
On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too".
On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston.
The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire.
On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists Hugh Dillon and Tom Cochrane.
In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist, Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28.
In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release.
In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union.
The band released Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found). Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019. Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021.
At the Juno Awards of 2021, the surviving members of the Tragically Hip performed their 2002 single "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" with Feist on lead vocals, which marked the band's first televised performance since Downie's death. In a promotional interview on CBC Radio's Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada.
Legacy and influence
The Tragically Hip's music is extremely popular in their native Canada, and Downie's songwriting has been praised for frequently touching upon uniquely Canadian subjects not otherwise covered by mainstream rock groups. In The National Post, Dave Kaufman wrote "Although Downie sings of Canada, his songs are by no means patriotic, or no more than in the way that we're all influenced by where we're from. The band have never been so obvious as to drape themselves in a Canadian flag, but instead, they evoke that shared experience of what it's meant for many of us to grow up in Canada." The band was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on radio PSAs.
According to Nielsen BDS, the Tragically Hip were the fourth best-selling Canadian musical artist in Canada between 1996 and 2016. In that same period of time, "Ahead by a Century" was listed as the 67th most played song on Canadian radio across all formats, while 18 of their songs appeared in a list of the Top 150 most played songs on Canadian rock radio.
Despite their high popularity in Canada, the group was never able to cross over into the American rock music scene apart from a small, devoted fan-base centered in border cities like Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan. The band notched four entries on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks singles chart in the US; their highest-charting song on the chart being "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)", which reached No. 16 in 1993. Downie once complained that the band's lack of crossover to the American rock music market had been overexamined, stating "[Interviewers] always ask us about our success or lack of success in the States, which I find absurd. While that is a story of the band, there are so many other stories."
Numerous tribute and cover bands to the Tragically Hip have actively performed across Canada both before and after the band's dissolution. The band's music also provides the score for a full length contemporary ballet, Jean Grand-Maitre's All of Us.
The band were named as an influence by several Canadian musicians and bands across multiple genres, including Dallas Green, k-os, and Kevin Drew.
Members
Gord Downie – lead vocals, guitar (1984–2017; deceased)
Rob Baker – guitar (1984–2017)
Paul Langlois – guitar, backup vocals (1986–2017)
Gord Sinclair – bass, backup vocals (1984–2017)
Johnny Fay – drums, percussion (1984–2017)
Davis Manning – saxophone (1984–1986)
Awards and honours
SOCAN Awards
1997: National Achievement Award
Canada's Walk of Fame:
2002: Inducted in Toronto, Ontario
Canadian Music Hall of Fame:
2005: Inducted at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Royal Conservatory of Music:
2006: Presented with an honorary fellowship May 24 at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards:
2008: Presented the National Arts Centre Award in Ottawa, Ontario
Juno Awards
1990: Most Promising Group of the Year
1991: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1993: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1995: Entertainer of the Year
1995: Group of the Year
1997: Group of the Year
1997: Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse),
1997: North Star Rock Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse)
1999: Best Rock Album (Phantom Power)
1999: Best Album Design (Phantom Power)
2000: Best Single ("Bobcaygeon")
2001: Best Rock Album (Music at Work)
2006: CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2006: Music DVD of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2017: Rock Album of the Year (Man Machine Poem)
2017: Group of the Year
2021: Juno Humanitarian Award
Order of Canada
2017: Appointed to the Order of Canada
Homages:
In 2012, the city of Kingston Ontario renamed a prominent portion of Barrack Street, in front of the K-Rock Centre, to "The Tragically Hip Way".
In 2013, the Tragically Hip were one of four bands—alongside Rush, the Guess Who, and Beau Dommage—honoured by Canada Post in a series of postage stamps.
On January 1, 2017, CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show aired a special episode titled The Hip 30, which consisted of Canadian musicians performing live covers of the band's songs and sharing their thoughts on the band's impact on Canadian culture. Participating artists included Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Barenaked Ladies, Donovan Woods, Stars, Arkells and Rheostatics. The episode was already planned as a tribute to the band's 30th anniversary before Downie's cancer diagnosis was announced; several times during the show, host George Stroumboulopoulos reaffirmed that "this is not a eulogy; this is a celebration."
On January 28, 2017, the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League played against the Mississauga Steelheads in a special theme night game, in which the Frontenacs wore specially designed Tragically Hip sweaters. The band participated in the pregame show, in which the band members were presented with their own sweaters.
On February 2, 2017, the City of Kingston unveiled a commemorative stone in Springer Market Square with Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, recognizing the last concert of the Man Machine Poem tour. Lyrics "Everybody was in it from miles around..." from Blow at High Dough were selected in an online poll with over 11,000 votes cast.
On May 2, 2018, Alberta Ballet premiered All of Us, a full-length contemporary ballet featuring the music of the Tragically Hip. Discussions about the project began in early 2016 and had the support of all five band members. The ballet has since been performed in Calgary and Edmonton where Rob Baker attended in both cities on behalf of the band. In 2019 will tour to multiple Canadian cities.
Discography
The Tragically Hip (EP) (MCA, 1987)
Up to Here (MCA, 1989)
Road Apples (MCA, 1991)
Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)
Day for Night (MCA, 1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)
Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)
Music @ Work (Universal, 2000)
In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)
In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)
World Container (Universal, 2006)
We Are the Same (Universal, 2009)
Now for Plan A (Universal, 2012)
Man Machine Poem (Universal, 2016)
Saskadelphia (EP) (Universal, 2021)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of Canadian musicians
List of bands from Canada
References
External links
CanConRox entry
Watch the National Film Board of Canada short documentary Family Band, produced for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Requires Adobe Flash)
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups disestablished in 2017
Musical groups from Kingston, Ontario
Canadian alternative rock groups
Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees
Zoë Records artists
1983 establishments in Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners
Members of the Order of Canada
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Group of the Year winners
| true |
[
"This is a list of the Canadian musical artists named Entertainer of the Year at the Juno Awards in those years in which this award or its nearest equivalent was awarded.\n\nWinners\n\nCanadian Entertainer of the Year (1987)\n1987 - Bryan Adams\n\nCanadian Entertainer of the Year (1989 - 1994)\n1989 - Glass Tiger\n1990 - The Jeff Healey Band\n1991 - The Tragically Hip\n1992 - Bryan Adams\n1993 - The Tragically Hip\n1994 - The Rankin Family\n\nEntertainer of the Year (1995)\n1995 - The Tragically Hip\n\nLevi's Entertainer of the Year (1996)\n1996 - Shania Twain\n\nReferences\n\nEntertainer",
"\"Springtime in Vienna\" is a song by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip. It was released in May 1997 as the fifth and final single from their fifth studio album, Trouble at the Henhouse. The song peaked at number 11 on Canada's RPM Singles Chart.\n\nOn at least one occasion before his death in 2017, Gord Downie identified \"Springtime in Vienna\" as his own favourite song from the Tragically Hip repertoire.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n1997 singles\nThe Tragically Hip songs"
] |
[
"The Tragically Hip",
"2009-2015",
"what is the tragically hip?",
"band"
] |
C_5ac1f791cc3a4537be7b1c4e9eecb62f_0
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what happened to them in 1998?
| 2 |
what happened to the Tragically Hip in 1998?
|
The Tragically Hip
|
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV). On May 12, 2012, a 90-second clip of the song "At Transformation", the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada. The full song premiered on Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) on May 16. The song was released to radio stations on May 17 and was officially released on iTunes on May 18. Band member Johnny Fay revealed that the title for the album is Now for Plan A. The second single, "Streets Ahead," was released on August 24. The album (their 12th studio album), produced by Gavin Brown, was released on October 2, 2012. The band played several live "Nashville" style shows that week at the Supermarket bar in Kensington market to promote the release of this record. On the evening of October 2, they played a full set to a packed bar with a live webcast through tdsmultimedia to livestream, and an audio simulcast on Sirius XM. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
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The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour's final concert, which would ultimately be the band's last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing compilation albums of previously unreleased songs from the band's archives.
History
Early history (1984–1991)
The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the Michael Nesmith movie Elephant Parts.
First album
By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the EP The Tragically Hip. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Boots or Hearts", and "38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Second Album: Road Apples
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("Little Bones", "Twist My Arm", and "Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The 2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The 6 unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020.
The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997
The Hip released another album, Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, both to act as a vehicle for their touring, and to promote other Canadian acts (as well as non-Canadians Ziggy Marley and Pere Ubu).
Many songs from Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "Nautical Disaster" and "Grace, Too". Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. The live album Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism."
On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on Saturday Night Live, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. The band's performance on the show was one of their highest profile media appearances in the United States.
In July 1996, the Hip headlined Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003
In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album, Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design. A single from the album, "Bobcaygeon", won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada.
In February 1999, the Hip played the very first concert at the brand new Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the Woodstock '99 festival in Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by Kid Rock.
2000 saw the release of Music @ Work. It won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts.
In 2002, In Violet Light, recorded by Hugh Padgham and Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. Later that year, the Hip made a cameo appearance in the Paul Gross film Men with Brooms, playing a curling team from their hometown of Kingston. Three of their songs appear in the film, and they backed Sarah Harmer on a fourth, the soundtrack's lead single, "Silver Roads".
On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967 12th Street Riot in Detroit, on Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008
In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies.
At the 92nd Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.
In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song It Can't Be Nashville Every Night from their In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers.
In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture.
On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD box set, Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004 That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005, Yer Favourites and That Night in Toronto were released individually.
In 2006, another studio album, entitled World Container, was released, being notably produced by Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year.
On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada.
On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV).
Single "At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album, Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October.
The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death
In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer.
The Hip's thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem, was released on June 17, 2016. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine".
The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Music, and YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "Ahead by a Century". The CBC's broadcast and live streaming of the concert, uninterrupted by advertisements, was watched by 11.7 million people (roughly one-third of the Canadian population).
On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. Downie also told Mansbridge that he was working with the Tragically Hip on new studio material, and that the band have up to four albums worth of unreleased material in the vaults.
Downie released his fifth solo album, Secret Path on October 18, 2016. The album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations boy who escaped from a Canadian Indian residential school in 1966 and died while attempting to make the 600 km walk back to his home.
On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press' Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title.
On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the Order of Canada by Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; the other four members of the band were invested on November 17.
The band and the tour are the subjects of Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film Long Time Running, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20.
Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. His death was widely mourned throughout Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life."
Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death), Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death
Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017.
In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, the remaining band members became investment partners in Newstrike, a cannabis company which has named several of its products after Tragically Hip songs.
In a July 2018 interview with the Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released.
On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too".
On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston.
The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire.
On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists Hugh Dillon and Tom Cochrane.
In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist, Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28.
In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release.
In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union.
The band released Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found). Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019. Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021.
At the Juno Awards of 2021, the surviving members of the Tragically Hip performed their 2002 single "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" with Feist on lead vocals, which marked the band's first televised performance since Downie's death. In a promotional interview on CBC Radio's Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada.
Legacy and influence
The Tragically Hip's music is extremely popular in their native Canada, and Downie's songwriting has been praised for frequently touching upon uniquely Canadian subjects not otherwise covered by mainstream rock groups. In The National Post, Dave Kaufman wrote "Although Downie sings of Canada, his songs are by no means patriotic, or no more than in the way that we're all influenced by where we're from. The band have never been so obvious as to drape themselves in a Canadian flag, but instead, they evoke that shared experience of what it's meant for many of us to grow up in Canada." The band was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on radio PSAs.
According to Nielsen BDS, the Tragically Hip were the fourth best-selling Canadian musical artist in Canada between 1996 and 2016. In that same period of time, "Ahead by a Century" was listed as the 67th most played song on Canadian radio across all formats, while 18 of their songs appeared in a list of the Top 150 most played songs on Canadian rock radio.
Despite their high popularity in Canada, the group was never able to cross over into the American rock music scene apart from a small, devoted fan-base centered in border cities like Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan. The band notched four entries on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks singles chart in the US; their highest-charting song on the chart being "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)", which reached No. 16 in 1993. Downie once complained that the band's lack of crossover to the American rock music market had been overexamined, stating "[Interviewers] always ask us about our success or lack of success in the States, which I find absurd. While that is a story of the band, there are so many other stories."
Numerous tribute and cover bands to the Tragically Hip have actively performed across Canada both before and after the band's dissolution. The band's music also provides the score for a full length contemporary ballet, Jean Grand-Maitre's All of Us.
The band were named as an influence by several Canadian musicians and bands across multiple genres, including Dallas Green, k-os, and Kevin Drew.
Members
Gord Downie – lead vocals, guitar (1984–2017; deceased)
Rob Baker – guitar (1984–2017)
Paul Langlois – guitar, backup vocals (1986–2017)
Gord Sinclair – bass, backup vocals (1984–2017)
Johnny Fay – drums, percussion (1984–2017)
Davis Manning – saxophone (1984–1986)
Awards and honours
SOCAN Awards
1997: National Achievement Award
Canada's Walk of Fame:
2002: Inducted in Toronto, Ontario
Canadian Music Hall of Fame:
2005: Inducted at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Royal Conservatory of Music:
2006: Presented with an honorary fellowship May 24 at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards:
2008: Presented the National Arts Centre Award in Ottawa, Ontario
Juno Awards
1990: Most Promising Group of the Year
1991: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1993: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1995: Entertainer of the Year
1995: Group of the Year
1997: Group of the Year
1997: Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse),
1997: North Star Rock Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse)
1999: Best Rock Album (Phantom Power)
1999: Best Album Design (Phantom Power)
2000: Best Single ("Bobcaygeon")
2001: Best Rock Album (Music at Work)
2006: CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2006: Music DVD of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2017: Rock Album of the Year (Man Machine Poem)
2017: Group of the Year
2021: Juno Humanitarian Award
Order of Canada
2017: Appointed to the Order of Canada
Homages:
In 2012, the city of Kingston Ontario renamed a prominent portion of Barrack Street, in front of the K-Rock Centre, to "The Tragically Hip Way".
In 2013, the Tragically Hip were one of four bands—alongside Rush, the Guess Who, and Beau Dommage—honoured by Canada Post in a series of postage stamps.
On January 1, 2017, CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show aired a special episode titled The Hip 30, which consisted of Canadian musicians performing live covers of the band's songs and sharing their thoughts on the band's impact on Canadian culture. Participating artists included Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Barenaked Ladies, Donovan Woods, Stars, Arkells and Rheostatics. The episode was already planned as a tribute to the band's 30th anniversary before Downie's cancer diagnosis was announced; several times during the show, host George Stroumboulopoulos reaffirmed that "this is not a eulogy; this is a celebration."
On January 28, 2017, the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League played against the Mississauga Steelheads in a special theme night game, in which the Frontenacs wore specially designed Tragically Hip sweaters. The band participated in the pregame show, in which the band members were presented with their own sweaters.
On February 2, 2017, the City of Kingston unveiled a commemorative stone in Springer Market Square with Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, recognizing the last concert of the Man Machine Poem tour. Lyrics "Everybody was in it from miles around..." from Blow at High Dough were selected in an online poll with over 11,000 votes cast.
On May 2, 2018, Alberta Ballet premiered All of Us, a full-length contemporary ballet featuring the music of the Tragically Hip. Discussions about the project began in early 2016 and had the support of all five band members. The ballet has since been performed in Calgary and Edmonton where Rob Baker attended in both cities on behalf of the band. In 2019 will tour to multiple Canadian cities.
Discography
The Tragically Hip (EP) (MCA, 1987)
Up to Here (MCA, 1989)
Road Apples (MCA, 1991)
Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)
Day for Night (MCA, 1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)
Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)
Music @ Work (Universal, 2000)
In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)
In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)
World Container (Universal, 2006)
We Are the Same (Universal, 2009)
Now for Plan A (Universal, 2012)
Man Machine Poem (Universal, 2016)
Saskadelphia (EP) (Universal, 2021)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of Canadian musicians
List of bands from Canada
References
External links
CanConRox entry
Watch the National Film Board of Canada short documentary Family Band, produced for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Requires Adobe Flash)
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups disestablished in 2017
Musical groups from Kingston, Ontario
Canadian alternative rock groups
Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees
Zoë Records artists
1983 establishments in Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners
Members of the Order of Canada
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Group of the Year winners
| false |
[
"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"
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"The Tragically Hip",
"2009-2015",
"what is the tragically hip?",
"band",
"what happened to them in 1998?",
"I don't know."
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C_5ac1f791cc3a4537be7b1c4e9eecb62f_0
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was their album a hit?
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was The Tragically Hip's album a hit?
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The Tragically Hip
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In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV). On May 12, 2012, a 90-second clip of the song "At Transformation", the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada. The full song premiered on Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) on May 16. The song was released to radio stations on May 17 and was officially released on iTunes on May 18. Band member Johnny Fay revealed that the title for the album is Now for Plan A. The second single, "Streets Ahead," was released on August 24. The album (their 12th studio album), produced by Gavin Brown, was released on October 2, 2012. The band played several live "Nashville" style shows that week at the Supermarket bar in Kensington market to promote the release of this record. On the evening of October 2, they played a full set to a packed bar with a live webcast through tdsmultimedia to livestream, and an audio simulcast on Sirius XM. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015. CANNOTANSWER
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broadcast nationally
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The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour's final concert, which would ultimately be the band's last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing compilation albums of previously unreleased songs from the band's archives.
History
Early history (1984–1991)
The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the Michael Nesmith movie Elephant Parts.
First album
By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the EP The Tragically Hip. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Boots or Hearts", and "38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Second Album: Road Apples
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("Little Bones", "Twist My Arm", and "Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The 2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The 6 unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020.
The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997
The Hip released another album, Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, both to act as a vehicle for their touring, and to promote other Canadian acts (as well as non-Canadians Ziggy Marley and Pere Ubu).
Many songs from Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "Nautical Disaster" and "Grace, Too". Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. The live album Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism."
On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on Saturday Night Live, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. The band's performance on the show was one of their highest profile media appearances in the United States.
In July 1996, the Hip headlined Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003
In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album, Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design. A single from the album, "Bobcaygeon", won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada.
In February 1999, the Hip played the very first concert at the brand new Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the Woodstock '99 festival in Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by Kid Rock.
2000 saw the release of Music @ Work. It won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts.
In 2002, In Violet Light, recorded by Hugh Padgham and Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. Later that year, the Hip made a cameo appearance in the Paul Gross film Men with Brooms, playing a curling team from their hometown of Kingston. Three of their songs appear in the film, and they backed Sarah Harmer on a fourth, the soundtrack's lead single, "Silver Roads".
On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967 12th Street Riot in Detroit, on Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008
In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies.
At the 92nd Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.
In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song It Can't Be Nashville Every Night from their In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers.
In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture.
On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD box set, Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004 That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005, Yer Favourites and That Night in Toronto were released individually.
In 2006, another studio album, entitled World Container, was released, being notably produced by Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year.
On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada.
On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV).
Single "At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album, Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October.
The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death
In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer.
The Hip's thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem, was released on June 17, 2016. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine".
The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Music, and YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "Ahead by a Century". The CBC's broadcast and live streaming of the concert, uninterrupted by advertisements, was watched by 11.7 million people (roughly one-third of the Canadian population).
On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. Downie also told Mansbridge that he was working with the Tragically Hip on new studio material, and that the band have up to four albums worth of unreleased material in the vaults.
Downie released his fifth solo album, Secret Path on October 18, 2016. The album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations boy who escaped from a Canadian Indian residential school in 1966 and died while attempting to make the 600 km walk back to his home.
On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press' Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title.
On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the Order of Canada by Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; the other four members of the band were invested on November 17.
The band and the tour are the subjects of Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film Long Time Running, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20.
Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. His death was widely mourned throughout Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life."
Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death), Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death
Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017.
In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, the remaining band members became investment partners in Newstrike, a cannabis company which has named several of its products after Tragically Hip songs.
In a July 2018 interview with the Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released.
On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too".
On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston.
The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire.
On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists Hugh Dillon and Tom Cochrane.
In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist, Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28.
In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release.
In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union.
The band released Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found). Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019. Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021.
At the Juno Awards of 2021, the surviving members of the Tragically Hip performed their 2002 single "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" with Feist on lead vocals, which marked the band's first televised performance since Downie's death. In a promotional interview on CBC Radio's Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada.
Legacy and influence
The Tragically Hip's music is extremely popular in their native Canada, and Downie's songwriting has been praised for frequently touching upon uniquely Canadian subjects not otherwise covered by mainstream rock groups. In The National Post, Dave Kaufman wrote "Although Downie sings of Canada, his songs are by no means patriotic, or no more than in the way that we're all influenced by where we're from. The band have never been so obvious as to drape themselves in a Canadian flag, but instead, they evoke that shared experience of what it's meant for many of us to grow up in Canada." The band was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on radio PSAs.
According to Nielsen BDS, the Tragically Hip were the fourth best-selling Canadian musical artist in Canada between 1996 and 2016. In that same period of time, "Ahead by a Century" was listed as the 67th most played song on Canadian radio across all formats, while 18 of their songs appeared in a list of the Top 150 most played songs on Canadian rock radio.
Despite their high popularity in Canada, the group was never able to cross over into the American rock music scene apart from a small, devoted fan-base centered in border cities like Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan. The band notched four entries on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks singles chart in the US; their highest-charting song on the chart being "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)", which reached No. 16 in 1993. Downie once complained that the band's lack of crossover to the American rock music market had been overexamined, stating "[Interviewers] always ask us about our success or lack of success in the States, which I find absurd. While that is a story of the band, there are so many other stories."
Numerous tribute and cover bands to the Tragically Hip have actively performed across Canada both before and after the band's dissolution. The band's music also provides the score for a full length contemporary ballet, Jean Grand-Maitre's All of Us.
The band were named as an influence by several Canadian musicians and bands across multiple genres, including Dallas Green, k-os, and Kevin Drew.
Members
Gord Downie – lead vocals, guitar (1984–2017; deceased)
Rob Baker – guitar (1984–2017)
Paul Langlois – guitar, backup vocals (1986–2017)
Gord Sinclair – bass, backup vocals (1984–2017)
Johnny Fay – drums, percussion (1984–2017)
Davis Manning – saxophone (1984–1986)
Awards and honours
SOCAN Awards
1997: National Achievement Award
Canada's Walk of Fame:
2002: Inducted in Toronto, Ontario
Canadian Music Hall of Fame:
2005: Inducted at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Royal Conservatory of Music:
2006: Presented with an honorary fellowship May 24 at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards:
2008: Presented the National Arts Centre Award in Ottawa, Ontario
Juno Awards
1990: Most Promising Group of the Year
1991: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1993: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1995: Entertainer of the Year
1995: Group of the Year
1997: Group of the Year
1997: Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse),
1997: North Star Rock Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse)
1999: Best Rock Album (Phantom Power)
1999: Best Album Design (Phantom Power)
2000: Best Single ("Bobcaygeon")
2001: Best Rock Album (Music at Work)
2006: CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2006: Music DVD of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2017: Rock Album of the Year (Man Machine Poem)
2017: Group of the Year
2021: Juno Humanitarian Award
Order of Canada
2017: Appointed to the Order of Canada
Homages:
In 2012, the city of Kingston Ontario renamed a prominent portion of Barrack Street, in front of the K-Rock Centre, to "The Tragically Hip Way".
In 2013, the Tragically Hip were one of four bands—alongside Rush, the Guess Who, and Beau Dommage—honoured by Canada Post in a series of postage stamps.
On January 1, 2017, CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show aired a special episode titled The Hip 30, which consisted of Canadian musicians performing live covers of the band's songs and sharing their thoughts on the band's impact on Canadian culture. Participating artists included Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Barenaked Ladies, Donovan Woods, Stars, Arkells and Rheostatics. The episode was already planned as a tribute to the band's 30th anniversary before Downie's cancer diagnosis was announced; several times during the show, host George Stroumboulopoulos reaffirmed that "this is not a eulogy; this is a celebration."
On January 28, 2017, the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League played against the Mississauga Steelheads in a special theme night game, in which the Frontenacs wore specially designed Tragically Hip sweaters. The band participated in the pregame show, in which the band members were presented with their own sweaters.
On February 2, 2017, the City of Kingston unveiled a commemorative stone in Springer Market Square with Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, recognizing the last concert of the Man Machine Poem tour. Lyrics "Everybody was in it from miles around..." from Blow at High Dough were selected in an online poll with over 11,000 votes cast.
On May 2, 2018, Alberta Ballet premiered All of Us, a full-length contemporary ballet featuring the music of the Tragically Hip. Discussions about the project began in early 2016 and had the support of all five band members. The ballet has since been performed in Calgary and Edmonton where Rob Baker attended in both cities on behalf of the band. In 2019 will tour to multiple Canadian cities.
Discography
The Tragically Hip (EP) (MCA, 1987)
Up to Here (MCA, 1989)
Road Apples (MCA, 1991)
Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)
Day for Night (MCA, 1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)
Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)
Music @ Work (Universal, 2000)
In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)
In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)
World Container (Universal, 2006)
We Are the Same (Universal, 2009)
Now for Plan A (Universal, 2012)
Man Machine Poem (Universal, 2016)
Saskadelphia (EP) (Universal, 2021)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of Canadian musicians
List of bands from Canada
References
External links
CanConRox entry
Watch the National Film Board of Canada short documentary Family Band, produced for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Requires Adobe Flash)
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups disestablished in 2017
Musical groups from Kingston, Ontario
Canadian alternative rock groups
Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees
Zoë Records artists
1983 establishments in Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners
Members of the Order of Canada
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Group of the Year winners
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"Hit U is the fourth Korean extended play by South Korean girl group Dal Shabet, released January 27, 2012. The album was promoted through title track \"Hit U\". It was their first release to hit number 1 on the Gaon Albums Chart, and their most successful release to date. It was the last promotion cycle with member Viki before her departure.\n\nRelease and promotion\nThe official music video of \"Hit U\" was released on January 26, 2012. Promotions for \"Hit U\" began the same day on M! Countdown. The mini-album was released the next day.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart performance\n\nSales\n\nReferences\n\n2012 EPs\nDance-pop EPs\nKorean-language EPs\nDal Shabet albums",
"The discography of the Bangladeshi rock band Love Runs Blind (often abbreviated as LRB) consists of fourteen studio albums, one live album, five music downloads, two compilation albums, fifteen music videos and appeared on six mixed albums. Formed in Chittagong in 1991, their first lineup consisted of vocalist and guitarist Ayub Bachchu, keyboardist S.I. Tutul, bass guitarist Saidul Hasan Swapan and drummer Habib Anwar Joy. Their first studio album LRB I and LRB II was released in 1992 and was a double album, which was the first ever double album in Bangladesh.\n\nLove Runs Blind's third studio album Shukh was released in 1993, and is their most commercially successful album. The album contained hit songs like \"চলো বদলে যায় (Let's Change)\", \"রুপালি গিটার (Silver Guitar)\", \"গতকাল রাতে (Last Night)\" and \"কী আশাতে? (What to Expect)\". Their fourth studio album Tobuo was released in 1994. The album was not well received by fans and did not contain that much hit songs like the previous one. But, it cemented them as a hard rock band, as their previous albums had contained soft rock and pop rock songs. Their fifth album Ghumonto Shohore was released in 1995 and was a massive hit. The self titled track was a great hit and is considered as one of the classic Love Runs Blind song. They released their sixth studio album Shopno in 1996. In September 1996, they released a live album name, Ferari Mon: Unplugged Live which was the first ever live album in Bangladesh and the only live album of the band. They released another double album in 1998: Amader and Bishmoy.\n\nIn 1999, frontman Bachchu set up his own studio AB Kitchen, which shortly became a record label. They released Mon Chaile Mon Pabe from Soundtek in 2001 which was recorded in AB Kitchen. Their 2003 album Ochena Jibon was the last one to feature founding member S.I. Tutul. They added another guitarist, Abdullah al Masud in the lineup the same year. Their twelfth studio album Sporsho (2007) had included a few heavy metal numbers. In their last two album Juddho (2012) and Rakhe Allah Mare Ke (2016) also had heavy metal numbers and was their first album released in digital platform. In October 2018, founding member Ayub Bachchu died and in April 2019 they announced Balam Jahangir as their new lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist.\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive album\n\nMusic videos\n\nReferences \nGeneral\n\n \"Love Runs Blind discography\". Official website\n \"LRB (Love Runs Blind) on Bangla Band\" Bangla Band Music Digital Archive - Bangla Band\n \"LRB - New Songs, Playlist & Latest News\". BBC Music\n \"Best Love Runs Blind songs\". The Top Tens\n \"Music videos by Love Runs Blind\". YouTube\n\nSpecific\n\nDiscographies of Bangladeshi artists\nRock music group discographies"
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"The Tragically Hip",
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"what is the tragically hip?",
"band",
"what happened to them in 1998?",
"I don't know.",
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"broadcast nationally"
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C_5ac1f791cc3a4537be7b1c4e9eecb62f_0
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anything else interesting?
| 4 |
Besides The Tragically Hip , was anything else interesting?
|
The Tragically Hip
|
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV). On May 12, 2012, a 90-second clip of the song "At Transformation", the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada. The full song premiered on Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) on May 16. The song was released to radio stations on May 17 and was officially released on iTunes on May 18. Band member Johnny Fay revealed that the title for the album is Now for Plan A. The second single, "Streets Ahead," was released on August 24. The album (their 12th studio album), produced by Gavin Brown, was released on October 2, 2012. The band played several live "Nashville" style shows that week at the Supermarket bar in Kensington market to promote the release of this record. On the evening of October 2, they played a full set to a packed bar with a live webcast through tdsmultimedia to livestream, and an audio simulcast on Sirius XM. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015. CANNOTANSWER
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the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada.
|
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour's final concert, which would ultimately be the band's last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing compilation albums of previously unreleased songs from the band's archives.
History
Early history (1984–1991)
The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the Michael Nesmith movie Elephant Parts.
First album
By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the EP The Tragically Hip. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Boots or Hearts", and "38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Second Album: Road Apples
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("Little Bones", "Twist My Arm", and "Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The 2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The 6 unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020.
The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997
The Hip released another album, Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, both to act as a vehicle for their touring, and to promote other Canadian acts (as well as non-Canadians Ziggy Marley and Pere Ubu).
Many songs from Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "Nautical Disaster" and "Grace, Too". Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. The live album Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism."
On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on Saturday Night Live, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. The band's performance on the show was one of their highest profile media appearances in the United States.
In July 1996, the Hip headlined Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003
In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album, Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design. A single from the album, "Bobcaygeon", won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada.
In February 1999, the Hip played the very first concert at the brand new Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the Woodstock '99 festival in Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by Kid Rock.
2000 saw the release of Music @ Work. It won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts.
In 2002, In Violet Light, recorded by Hugh Padgham and Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. Later that year, the Hip made a cameo appearance in the Paul Gross film Men with Brooms, playing a curling team from their hometown of Kingston. Three of their songs appear in the film, and they backed Sarah Harmer on a fourth, the soundtrack's lead single, "Silver Roads".
On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967 12th Street Riot in Detroit, on Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008
In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies.
At the 92nd Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.
In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song It Can't Be Nashville Every Night from their In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers.
In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture.
On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD box set, Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004 That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005, Yer Favourites and That Night in Toronto were released individually.
In 2006, another studio album, entitled World Container, was released, being notably produced by Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year.
On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada.
On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV).
Single "At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album, Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October.
The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death
In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer.
The Hip's thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem, was released on June 17, 2016. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine".
The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Music, and YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "Ahead by a Century". The CBC's broadcast and live streaming of the concert, uninterrupted by advertisements, was watched by 11.7 million people (roughly one-third of the Canadian population).
On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. Downie also told Mansbridge that he was working with the Tragically Hip on new studio material, and that the band have up to four albums worth of unreleased material in the vaults.
Downie released his fifth solo album, Secret Path on October 18, 2016. The album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations boy who escaped from a Canadian Indian residential school in 1966 and died while attempting to make the 600 km walk back to his home.
On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press' Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title.
On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the Order of Canada by Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; the other four members of the band were invested on November 17.
The band and the tour are the subjects of Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film Long Time Running, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20.
Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. His death was widely mourned throughout Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life."
Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death), Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death
Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017.
In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, the remaining band members became investment partners in Newstrike, a cannabis company which has named several of its products after Tragically Hip songs.
In a July 2018 interview with the Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released.
On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too".
On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston.
The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire.
On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists Hugh Dillon and Tom Cochrane.
In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist, Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28.
In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release.
In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union.
The band released Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found). Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019. Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021.
At the Juno Awards of 2021, the surviving members of the Tragically Hip performed their 2002 single "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" with Feist on lead vocals, which marked the band's first televised performance since Downie's death. In a promotional interview on CBC Radio's Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada.
Legacy and influence
The Tragically Hip's music is extremely popular in their native Canada, and Downie's songwriting has been praised for frequently touching upon uniquely Canadian subjects not otherwise covered by mainstream rock groups. In The National Post, Dave Kaufman wrote "Although Downie sings of Canada, his songs are by no means patriotic, or no more than in the way that we're all influenced by where we're from. The band have never been so obvious as to drape themselves in a Canadian flag, but instead, they evoke that shared experience of what it's meant for many of us to grow up in Canada." The band was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on radio PSAs.
According to Nielsen BDS, the Tragically Hip were the fourth best-selling Canadian musical artist in Canada between 1996 and 2016. In that same period of time, "Ahead by a Century" was listed as the 67th most played song on Canadian radio across all formats, while 18 of their songs appeared in a list of the Top 150 most played songs on Canadian rock radio.
Despite their high popularity in Canada, the group was never able to cross over into the American rock music scene apart from a small, devoted fan-base centered in border cities like Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan. The band notched four entries on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks singles chart in the US; their highest-charting song on the chart being "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)", which reached No. 16 in 1993. Downie once complained that the band's lack of crossover to the American rock music market had been overexamined, stating "[Interviewers] always ask us about our success or lack of success in the States, which I find absurd. While that is a story of the band, there are so many other stories."
Numerous tribute and cover bands to the Tragically Hip have actively performed across Canada both before and after the band's dissolution. The band's music also provides the score for a full length contemporary ballet, Jean Grand-Maitre's All of Us.
The band were named as an influence by several Canadian musicians and bands across multiple genres, including Dallas Green, k-os, and Kevin Drew.
Members
Gord Downie – lead vocals, guitar (1984–2017; deceased)
Rob Baker – guitar (1984–2017)
Paul Langlois – guitar, backup vocals (1986–2017)
Gord Sinclair – bass, backup vocals (1984–2017)
Johnny Fay – drums, percussion (1984–2017)
Davis Manning – saxophone (1984–1986)
Awards and honours
SOCAN Awards
1997: National Achievement Award
Canada's Walk of Fame:
2002: Inducted in Toronto, Ontario
Canadian Music Hall of Fame:
2005: Inducted at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Royal Conservatory of Music:
2006: Presented with an honorary fellowship May 24 at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards:
2008: Presented the National Arts Centre Award in Ottawa, Ontario
Juno Awards
1990: Most Promising Group of the Year
1991: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1993: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1995: Entertainer of the Year
1995: Group of the Year
1997: Group of the Year
1997: Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse),
1997: North Star Rock Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse)
1999: Best Rock Album (Phantom Power)
1999: Best Album Design (Phantom Power)
2000: Best Single ("Bobcaygeon")
2001: Best Rock Album (Music at Work)
2006: CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2006: Music DVD of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2017: Rock Album of the Year (Man Machine Poem)
2017: Group of the Year
2021: Juno Humanitarian Award
Order of Canada
2017: Appointed to the Order of Canada
Homages:
In 2012, the city of Kingston Ontario renamed a prominent portion of Barrack Street, in front of the K-Rock Centre, to "The Tragically Hip Way".
In 2013, the Tragically Hip were one of four bands—alongside Rush, the Guess Who, and Beau Dommage—honoured by Canada Post in a series of postage stamps.
On January 1, 2017, CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show aired a special episode titled The Hip 30, which consisted of Canadian musicians performing live covers of the band's songs and sharing their thoughts on the band's impact on Canadian culture. Participating artists included Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Barenaked Ladies, Donovan Woods, Stars, Arkells and Rheostatics. The episode was already planned as a tribute to the band's 30th anniversary before Downie's cancer diagnosis was announced; several times during the show, host George Stroumboulopoulos reaffirmed that "this is not a eulogy; this is a celebration."
On January 28, 2017, the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League played against the Mississauga Steelheads in a special theme night game, in which the Frontenacs wore specially designed Tragically Hip sweaters. The band participated in the pregame show, in which the band members were presented with their own sweaters.
On February 2, 2017, the City of Kingston unveiled a commemorative stone in Springer Market Square with Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, recognizing the last concert of the Man Machine Poem tour. Lyrics "Everybody was in it from miles around..." from Blow at High Dough were selected in an online poll with over 11,000 votes cast.
On May 2, 2018, Alberta Ballet premiered All of Us, a full-length contemporary ballet featuring the music of the Tragically Hip. Discussions about the project began in early 2016 and had the support of all five band members. The ballet has since been performed in Calgary and Edmonton where Rob Baker attended in both cities on behalf of the band. In 2019 will tour to multiple Canadian cities.
Discography
The Tragically Hip (EP) (MCA, 1987)
Up to Here (MCA, 1989)
Road Apples (MCA, 1991)
Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)
Day for Night (MCA, 1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)
Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)
Music @ Work (Universal, 2000)
In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)
In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)
World Container (Universal, 2006)
We Are the Same (Universal, 2009)
Now for Plan A (Universal, 2012)
Man Machine Poem (Universal, 2016)
Saskadelphia (EP) (Universal, 2021)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of Canadian musicians
List of bands from Canada
References
External links
CanConRox entry
Watch the National Film Board of Canada short documentary Family Band, produced for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Requires Adobe Flash)
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups disestablished in 2017
Musical groups from Kingston, Ontario
Canadian alternative rock groups
Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees
Zoë Records artists
1983 establishments in Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners
Members of the Order of Canada
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Group of the Year winners
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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",
"Say Anything may refer to:\n\nFilm and television\n Say Anything..., a 1989 American film by Cameron Crowe\n \"Say Anything\" (BoJack Horseman), a television episode\n\nMusic\n Say Anything (band), an American rock band\n Say Anything (album), a 2009 album by the band\n \"Say Anything\", a 2012 song by Say Anything from Anarchy, My Dear\n \"Say Anything\" (Marianas Trench song), 2006\n \"Say Anything\" (X Japan song), 1991\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Aimee Mann from Whatever, 1993\n \"Say Anything\", a song by the Bouncing Souls from The Bouncing Souls, 1997\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Good Charlotte from The Young and the Hopeless, 2002\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Girl in Red, 2018\n \"Say Anything\", a song by Will Young from Lexicon, 2019\n \"Say Anything (Else)\", a song by Cartel from Chroma, 2005\n\nOther uses\n Say Anything (party game), a 2008 board game published by North Star Games\n \"Say Anything\", a column in YM magazine\n\nSee also\n Say Something (disambiguation)"
] |
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"the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada."
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what happened to them in 2002?
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what happened to The Tragically Hip in 2002?
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The Tragically Hip
|
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV). On May 12, 2012, a 90-second clip of the song "At Transformation", the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada. The full song premiered on Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) on May 16. The song was released to radio stations on May 17 and was officially released on iTunes on May 18. Band member Johnny Fay revealed that the title for the album is Now for Plan A. The second single, "Streets Ahead," was released on August 24. The album (their 12th studio album), produced by Gavin Brown, was released on October 2, 2012. The band played several live "Nashville" style shows that week at the Supermarket bar in Kensington market to promote the release of this record. On the evening of October 2, they played a full set to a packed bar with a live webcast through tdsmultimedia to livestream, and an audio simulcast on Sirius XM. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour's final concert, which would ultimately be the band's last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing compilation albums of previously unreleased songs from the band's archives.
History
Early history (1984–1991)
The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the Michael Nesmith movie Elephant Parts.
First album
By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the EP The Tragically Hip. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Boots or Hearts", and "38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Second Album: Road Apples
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("Little Bones", "Twist My Arm", and "Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The 2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The 6 unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020.
The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997
The Hip released another album, Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, both to act as a vehicle for their touring, and to promote other Canadian acts (as well as non-Canadians Ziggy Marley and Pere Ubu).
Many songs from Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "Nautical Disaster" and "Grace, Too". Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. The live album Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism."
On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on Saturday Night Live, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. The band's performance on the show was one of their highest profile media appearances in the United States.
In July 1996, the Hip headlined Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003
In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album, Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design. A single from the album, "Bobcaygeon", won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada.
In February 1999, the Hip played the very first concert at the brand new Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the Woodstock '99 festival in Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by Kid Rock.
2000 saw the release of Music @ Work. It won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts.
In 2002, In Violet Light, recorded by Hugh Padgham and Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. Later that year, the Hip made a cameo appearance in the Paul Gross film Men with Brooms, playing a curling team from their hometown of Kingston. Three of their songs appear in the film, and they backed Sarah Harmer on a fourth, the soundtrack's lead single, "Silver Roads".
On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967 12th Street Riot in Detroit, on Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008
In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies.
At the 92nd Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.
In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song It Can't Be Nashville Every Night from their In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers.
In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture.
On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD box set, Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004 That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005, Yer Favourites and That Night in Toronto were released individually.
In 2006, another studio album, entitled World Container, was released, being notably produced by Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year.
On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada.
On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV).
Single "At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album, Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October.
The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death
In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer.
The Hip's thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem, was released on June 17, 2016. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine".
The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Music, and YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "Ahead by a Century". The CBC's broadcast and live streaming of the concert, uninterrupted by advertisements, was watched by 11.7 million people (roughly one-third of the Canadian population).
On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. Downie also told Mansbridge that he was working with the Tragically Hip on new studio material, and that the band have up to four albums worth of unreleased material in the vaults.
Downie released his fifth solo album, Secret Path on October 18, 2016. The album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations boy who escaped from a Canadian Indian residential school in 1966 and died while attempting to make the 600 km walk back to his home.
On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press' Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title.
On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the Order of Canada by Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; the other four members of the band were invested on November 17.
The band and the tour are the subjects of Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film Long Time Running, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20.
Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. His death was widely mourned throughout Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life."
Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death), Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death
Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017.
In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, the remaining band members became investment partners in Newstrike, a cannabis company which has named several of its products after Tragically Hip songs.
In a July 2018 interview with the Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released.
On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too".
On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston.
The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire.
On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists Hugh Dillon and Tom Cochrane.
In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist, Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28.
In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release.
In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union.
The band released Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found). Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019. Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021.
At the Juno Awards of 2021, the surviving members of the Tragically Hip performed their 2002 single "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" with Feist on lead vocals, which marked the band's first televised performance since Downie's death. In a promotional interview on CBC Radio's Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada.
Legacy and influence
The Tragically Hip's music is extremely popular in their native Canada, and Downie's songwriting has been praised for frequently touching upon uniquely Canadian subjects not otherwise covered by mainstream rock groups. In The National Post, Dave Kaufman wrote "Although Downie sings of Canada, his songs are by no means patriotic, or no more than in the way that we're all influenced by where we're from. The band have never been so obvious as to drape themselves in a Canadian flag, but instead, they evoke that shared experience of what it's meant for many of us to grow up in Canada." The band was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on radio PSAs.
According to Nielsen BDS, the Tragically Hip were the fourth best-selling Canadian musical artist in Canada between 1996 and 2016. In that same period of time, "Ahead by a Century" was listed as the 67th most played song on Canadian radio across all formats, while 18 of their songs appeared in a list of the Top 150 most played songs on Canadian rock radio.
Despite their high popularity in Canada, the group was never able to cross over into the American rock music scene apart from a small, devoted fan-base centered in border cities like Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan. The band notched four entries on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks singles chart in the US; their highest-charting song on the chart being "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)", which reached No. 16 in 1993. Downie once complained that the band's lack of crossover to the American rock music market had been overexamined, stating "[Interviewers] always ask us about our success or lack of success in the States, which I find absurd. While that is a story of the band, there are so many other stories."
Numerous tribute and cover bands to the Tragically Hip have actively performed across Canada both before and after the band's dissolution. The band's music also provides the score for a full length contemporary ballet, Jean Grand-Maitre's All of Us.
The band were named as an influence by several Canadian musicians and bands across multiple genres, including Dallas Green, k-os, and Kevin Drew.
Members
Gord Downie – lead vocals, guitar (1984–2017; deceased)
Rob Baker – guitar (1984–2017)
Paul Langlois – guitar, backup vocals (1986–2017)
Gord Sinclair – bass, backup vocals (1984–2017)
Johnny Fay – drums, percussion (1984–2017)
Davis Manning – saxophone (1984–1986)
Awards and honours
SOCAN Awards
1997: National Achievement Award
Canada's Walk of Fame:
2002: Inducted in Toronto, Ontario
Canadian Music Hall of Fame:
2005: Inducted at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Royal Conservatory of Music:
2006: Presented with an honorary fellowship May 24 at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards:
2008: Presented the National Arts Centre Award in Ottawa, Ontario
Juno Awards
1990: Most Promising Group of the Year
1991: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1993: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1995: Entertainer of the Year
1995: Group of the Year
1997: Group of the Year
1997: Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse),
1997: North Star Rock Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse)
1999: Best Rock Album (Phantom Power)
1999: Best Album Design (Phantom Power)
2000: Best Single ("Bobcaygeon")
2001: Best Rock Album (Music at Work)
2006: CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2006: Music DVD of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2017: Rock Album of the Year (Man Machine Poem)
2017: Group of the Year
2021: Juno Humanitarian Award
Order of Canada
2017: Appointed to the Order of Canada
Homages:
In 2012, the city of Kingston Ontario renamed a prominent portion of Barrack Street, in front of the K-Rock Centre, to "The Tragically Hip Way".
In 2013, the Tragically Hip were one of four bands—alongside Rush, the Guess Who, and Beau Dommage—honoured by Canada Post in a series of postage stamps.
On January 1, 2017, CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show aired a special episode titled The Hip 30, which consisted of Canadian musicians performing live covers of the band's songs and sharing their thoughts on the band's impact on Canadian culture. Participating artists included Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Barenaked Ladies, Donovan Woods, Stars, Arkells and Rheostatics. The episode was already planned as a tribute to the band's 30th anniversary before Downie's cancer diagnosis was announced; several times during the show, host George Stroumboulopoulos reaffirmed that "this is not a eulogy; this is a celebration."
On January 28, 2017, the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League played against the Mississauga Steelheads in a special theme night game, in which the Frontenacs wore specially designed Tragically Hip sweaters. The band participated in the pregame show, in which the band members were presented with their own sweaters.
On February 2, 2017, the City of Kingston unveiled a commemorative stone in Springer Market Square with Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, recognizing the last concert of the Man Machine Poem tour. Lyrics "Everybody was in it from miles around..." from Blow at High Dough were selected in an online poll with over 11,000 votes cast.
On May 2, 2018, Alberta Ballet premiered All of Us, a full-length contemporary ballet featuring the music of the Tragically Hip. Discussions about the project began in early 2016 and had the support of all five band members. The ballet has since been performed in Calgary and Edmonton where Rob Baker attended in both cities on behalf of the band. In 2019 will tour to multiple Canadian cities.
Discography
The Tragically Hip (EP) (MCA, 1987)
Up to Here (MCA, 1989)
Road Apples (MCA, 1991)
Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)
Day for Night (MCA, 1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)
Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)
Music @ Work (Universal, 2000)
In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)
In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)
World Container (Universal, 2006)
We Are the Same (Universal, 2009)
Now for Plan A (Universal, 2012)
Man Machine Poem (Universal, 2016)
Saskadelphia (EP) (Universal, 2021)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of Canadian musicians
List of bands from Canada
References
External links
CanConRox entry
Watch the National Film Board of Canada short documentary Family Band, produced for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Requires Adobe Flash)
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups disestablished in 2017
Musical groups from Kingston, Ontario
Canadian alternative rock groups
Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees
Zoë Records artists
1983 establishments in Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners
Members of the Order of Canada
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Group of the Year 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"
] |
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"The Tragically Hip",
"2009-2015",
"what is the tragically hip?",
"band",
"what happened to them in 1998?",
"I don't know.",
"was their album a hit?",
"broadcast nationally",
"anything else interesting?",
"the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada.",
"what happened to them in 2002?",
"I don't know."
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C_5ac1f791cc3a4537be7b1c4e9eecb62f_0
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did they win any awards?
| 6 |
did The Tragically Hip win any awards?
|
The Tragically Hip
|
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada. On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV). On May 12, 2012, a 90-second clip of the song "At Transformation", the first single from the band's new album, premiered during Hockey Night in Canada. The full song premiered on Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) on May 16. The song was released to radio stations on May 17 and was officially released on iTunes on May 18. Band member Johnny Fay revealed that the title for the album is Now for Plan A. The second single, "Streets Ahead," was released on August 24. The album (their 12th studio album), produced by Gavin Brown, was released on October 2, 2012. The band played several live "Nashville" style shows that week at the Supermarket bar in Kensington market to promote the release of this record. On the evening of October 2, they played a full set to a packed bar with a live webcast through tdsmultimedia to livestream, and an audio simulcast on Sirius XM. The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
Following Downie's diagnosis with terminal brain cancer in 2015, the band undertook a tour of Canada in support of their thirteenth album Man Machine Poem. The tour's final concert, which would ultimately be the band's last show, was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston on August 20, 2016, and broadcast globally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a cross-platform television, radio and internet streaming special.
After Downie died on October 17, 2017, the band announced in July 2018 that they would no longer perform under the name. The surviving members have, however, continued to pursue other musical projects, and have begun releasing compilation albums of previously unreleased songs from the band's archives.
History
Early history (1984–1991)
The Tragically Hip formed in 1984 in Kingston, Ontario. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker were students at Kingston Collegiate and had performed together at the KCVI Variety Show as the Rodents. Baker and Sinclair joined with Downie and Fay in 1984 and began playing gigs around Kingston with some memorable stints at Clark Hall Pub and Alfie's, student bars on Queen's University campus. Guitarist Paul Langlois joined in 1986; saxophonist Davis Manning left that same year. They took their name from a skit in the Michael Nesmith movie Elephant Parts.
First album
By the mid-1980s, they performed in small music venues across Ontario until being seen by then-MCA Vice President Bruce Dickinson at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. They were then signed to a long-term record deal with MCA, and recorded the EP The Tragically Hip. The album produced two singles, "Small Town Bring-Down" and "Highway Girl". They followed up with 1989's Up to Here. This album produced four singles, "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", "Boots or Hearts", and "38 Years Old". All four of these songs found extensive rotation on modern rock radio play lists in Canada.
Second Album: Road Apples
Road Apples followed in 1991, producing three singles ("Little Bones", "Twist My Arm", and "Three Pistols") and reaching No. 1 on Canadian record charts. During the Road Apples tour, Downie became recognized for ranting and telling fictional stories during songs such as "Highway Girl" and "New Orleans Is Sinking". Road Apples was planned to be a double album but was rejected by Universal. The 2008 Universal Studios fire resulted in the destruction of the masters for the second album. The 6 unreleased songs were rediscovered in another collection in 2020.
The sound on these first two full-length albums is sometimes characterized as "blues-tinged", although there is definite acoustic punctuation throughout both discs. Although the band failed to achieve significant international success with these first two albums, their sales and dominance of modern rock radio in Canada gave them license to subsequently explore their sound.
1992–1997
The Hip released another album, Fully Completely in 1992, which produced the singles "Locked in the Trunk of a Car", "Courage", and "At the Hundredth Meridian" and three others. The sound on this album displayed less of a blues influence than previous albums. The Hip created and headlined the first Another Roadside Attraction tour at this time, both to act as a vehicle for their touring, and to promote other Canadian acts (as well as non-Canadians Ziggy Marley and Pere Ubu).
Many songs from Day For Night were first performed prior to their release during the 1993 Another Roadside Attraction Tour. "Nautical Disaster" was played frequently in the middle of "New Orleans Is Sinking", an early version of "Thugs" was tested, and Downie sang lyrics from many other Day For Night songs, such as "Grace, Too", "Scared", and "Emergency", during this tour.
Day for Night was then released in 1994, producing six singles, including "Nautical Disaster" and "Grace, Too". Trouble at the Henhouse followed in 1996, producing five singles starting with "Ahead by a Century", which reached number one on the RPM Canadian singles chart on 24 June and became their most successful single in their home country. "Butts Wigglin", the fifth single from Henhouse, also appeared on the soundtrack to the Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy. The live album Live Between Us was recorded on the subsequent tour at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
The band developed a unique sound and ethos, leaving behind its earlier blues influence. Downie's vocal style changed while the band experimented with song structures and chord progressions. Songs explored the themes of Canadian geography and history, water and land, all motifs that became heavily associated with the Hip. While Fully Completely began an exploration of deeper themes, many critics consider Day for Night to be the Hip's artistry most fully realized. The sound here is typically called "enigmatic" and "dark", while critic MacKenzie Wilson praises "the poignancy of Downie's minimalism."
On the follow-up tour for this album, the band made its only appearance on Saturday Night Live, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd, who appeared on the show just to introduce them. Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels to book them as a musical guest. The band's performance on the show was one of their highest profile media appearances in the United States.
In July 1996, the Hip headlined Edenfest. The three-day concert took place at Mosport Park, in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, just a few months after the LP Trouble at the Henhouse was released. The concert sold over 70,000 tickets total and was attended by an estimated 20,000 additional people who gained access to the concert site after the outside security broke down.
1998–2003
In 1998, the band released their sixth full-length album, Phantom Power, which produced five singles. It won the 1999 Juno Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Album Design. A single from the album, "Bobcaygeon", won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2000. The album has been certified platinum three times over in Canada.
In February 1999, the Hip played the very first concert at the brand new Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In July 1999, the band was part of the lineup for the Woodstock '99 festival in Rome, New York. On the second day of three, they were the first band to take the stage. They were followed by Kid Rock.
2000 saw the release of Music @ Work. It won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Rock Album. The album featured back-up vocals from Julie Doiron on a number of tracks, and reached No. 1 on the Canadian Billboard Charts.
In 2002, In Violet Light, recorded by Hugh Padgham and Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas was released, along with three singles from the album. It became certified platinum in Canada. Later that year, the Hip made a cameo appearance in the Paul Gross film Men with Brooms, playing a curling team from their hometown of Kingston. Three of their songs appear in the film, and they backed Sarah Harmer on a fourth, the soundtrack's lead single, "Silver Roads".
On October 10, 2002, the Tragically Hip performed two songs, "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" and "Poets", as part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. In 2003, the band recorded a cover of "Black Day in July", a song about the 1967 12th Street Riot in Detroit, on Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot.
2004–2008
In Between Evolution was released in 2004 in the No. 1 position in Canada. It has since sold over 100,000 copies.
At the 92nd Grey Cup held November 21, 2004, the band provided the halftime entertainment in front of a packed house at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa.
In 2004, in episode 15 ("Rock On"), season 2 of Canadian comedy TV series Corner Gas, the Tragically Hip gave a cameo appearance as an unnamed local band rehearsing in Brent's garage. They play a rough version of the song It Can't Be Nashville Every Night from their In Between Evolution album until interrupted and asked to leave by Brent, Wanda, and Hank. As they disappointedly go, Wanda demands that Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker leave behind their amplifiers.
In October 2005, several radio stations temporarily stopped playing "New Orleans Is Sinking", out of sensitivity to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which had devastated the city in early September of that year. However, it received considerable pirate radio and relief site play and gained some notoriety and praise in New Orleans due to its attitudinal proximity to the city's culture.
On November 1, 2005, the Hip released a double CD, double DVD box set, Hipeponymous, including all of their singles and music videos to date, a backstage documentary called "Macroscopic", an animated Hip-scored short film entitled "The Right Whale", two brand new songs ("No Threat" and "The New Maybe"), a full-length concert from November 2004 That Night in Toronto, and a 2-CD greatest hits collection Yer Favourites (selected on-line by 150,000 fans). On November 8, 2005, Yer Favourites and That Night in Toronto were released individually.
In 2006, another studio album, entitled World Container, was released, being notably produced by Bob Rock. It produced four singles, and reached the No. 1 spot on the Canadian rock music charts. The band toured concert dates in major Canadian cities, and then as an opening act for the Who on several US dates. A tour of Eastern Canada, Europe, and select cities in the United States occurred late in the year.
On February 23, 2008, the Hip returned to their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, where they were the first live act to perform at the new K-Rock Centre.
2009–2015
In 2009, the band again worked with producer Bob Rock, and We Are the Same was released in North America on April 7, 2009. It produced three singles. To promote We Are the Same, the band invited The Hour's George Stroumboulopoulos for a live interview at The Bathouse Recording Studio in Bath, Ontario (where most of the album was recorded), and they played seven new songs as well as unique versions of five other songs. The interview and performance were broadcast live in more than eighty theatres across Canada.
On January 22, 2010, the band performed "Fiddler's Green" at the "Canada for Haiti" telethon to aid earthquake victims in that country. This was broadcast nationally on all three of Canada's main networks (CBC, Global, and CTV).
Single "At Transformation" was released in May 2012 ahead of the band's twelfth studio album, Now for Plan A. A second single, "Streets Ahead" came out in August that year, and the album followed in October.
The Tragically Hip re-entered their studio in July 2014 to begin work on a new album. The following October, Fully Completely was re-released as a remastered deluxe edition, including two bonus tracks, a vinyl edition and a recording of a live show. To celebrate and promote the re-release, the band toured Canada and the United States from January to October 2015.
2016–2017: Downie's diagnosis, summer tour, and death
In December 2015, Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band announced his diagnosis on May 24, 2016. The band also announced that, despite his condition, they would tour that summer.
The Hip's thirteenth album, Man Machine Poem, was released on June 17, 2016. The album featured songs such as "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", "In Sarnia", and "Machine".
The final concert of the Man Machine Poem tour was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown of Kingston on August 20, 2016. The concert was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a live cross-platform broadcast on CBC Television, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Music, and YouTube. The concert featured 30 songs and three encore sets, with the band finishing with a performance of "Ahead by a Century". The CBC's broadcast and live streaming of the concert, uninterrupted by advertisements, was watched by 11.7 million people (roughly one-third of the Canadian population).
On October 13, 2016, Downie gave an interview, his first since his cancer diagnosis, to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, in which he reported experiencing memory loss. Downie also told Mansbridge that he was working with the Tragically Hip on new studio material, and that the band have up to four albums worth of unreleased material in the vaults.
Downie released his fifth solo album, Secret Path on October 18, 2016. The album is a concept album about Chanie Wenjack, a First Nations boy who escaped from a Canadian Indian residential school in 1966 and died while attempting to make the 600 km walk back to his home.
On December 22, 2016, Downie was selected as The Canadian Press' Canadian Newsmaker of the Year and was the first entertainer ever selected for the title.
On June 15, 2017, all five members of the Tragically Hip were announced as recipients of the Order of Canada by Governor General of Canada David Johnston. Downie received his honour on June 19; the other four members of the band were invested on November 17.
The band and the tour are the subjects of Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier's documentary film Long Time Running, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was slated to have its television premiere in November 2017 on CTV, but following Downie's death the network moved the broadcast up to October 20.
Gord Downie died on October 17, 2017. His death was widely mourned throughout Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is a fan of the Tragically Hip, released a tribute statement on his official website the morning after Downie's death. Later in the day, he held a press conference at Parliament Hill at which he eulogized Downie as "Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had—and not just loved it in a nebulous, 'Oh, I love Canada' way. He loved every hidden corner, every story, every aspect of this country that he celebrated his whole life."
Following Downie's death, many of the band's albums climbed the Billboard Canadian Albums chart, which is compiled by Neilsen Music. In the week ending October 19, 2017 (the day following the announcement of Downie's death), Yer Favourites rose to No. 2 in the chart, with another 10 albums moving to the Top 200. Streaming also increased 700 percent, and many of the Tragically Hip's top hits remained on the Spotify Canadian Viral 50 as of October 23, 2017.
2018–present: Activity following Downie's death
Before his death, Downie indicated in interviews that the band had unreleased material that may still be issued as one or more new albums; when accepting Downie's posthumous awards at the Juno Awards of 2018, his brothers Patrick and Mike also stated that more unreleased music is likely to be issued in the future.
A National Celebration, a concert film of the Tragically Hip's final concert, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 8, 2017.
In July 2018, guitarist Rob Baker told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the Tragically Hip were no longer active as a touring or recording entity following Downie's death. He stated "When I say The Tragically Hip doesn't exist as a performing unit anymore because a key member is gone, I think [fans] understand that. We wouldn't be The Hip without Gord [...] The Hip has played their last note." Baker also revealed that Downie had encouraged the group to audition replacement vocalists, but the other members did not seriously consider the idea. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, the remaining band members became investment partners in Newstrike, a cannabis company which has named several of its products after Tragically Hip songs.
In a July 2018 interview with the Toronto Sun, Baker confirmed that at least three albums' worth of unreleased material was recorded with Downie before his death, but stated that the band had yet to decide how it would be released.
On October 11, 2018, six days before the first anniversary of Downie's death, Fay and Baker joined Choir! Choir! Choir! at Yonge-Dundas Square for a live performance of the Tragically Hip's "Grace, Too".
On October 17, 2018, one year after Downie's death, a previously unreleased studio recording of the song "Wait So Long" was played on CIKR-FM, a radio station in the band's hometown of Kingston.
The Tragically Hip was among hundreds of artists whose material was reported to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire but it later emerged that the band's master tapes had been transferred back to Canada in 2001, and had escaped the fire.
On September 14, 2019, Langlois, Sinclair and Baker performed a set at Rockin' the Big House, a benefit concert on the grounds of the former Kingston Penitentiary, with guest vocalists Hugh Dillon and Tom Cochrane.
In January 2020, Sinclair announced that his own debut album as a solo artist, Taxi Dancers, would be released on February 28.
In June 2020, the band and manager Jake Gold announced that they were undertaking an "archaeological dig" to select music and memorabilia from the band's archives for future release.
In early 2021, Rob Baker released a new album with his side band project, Stripper's Union.
The band released Saskadelphia, an EP comprising five previously unreleased and recently found Road Apples outtakes and a live track (as the original version has yet to be found). Road Apples was planned to be a double album, but was rejected by the label. Many songs were presumed to be destroyed in the Universal fire in 2008, but the masters were found and transferred to new recordings in 2019. Saskadelphia was released on May 21, 2021.
At the Juno Awards of 2021, the surviving members of the Tragically Hip performed their 2002 single "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" with Feist on lead vocals, which marked the band's first televised performance since Downie's death. In a promotional interview on CBC Radio's Q before the ceremony, the band stated that they agreed to perform specifically because Feist had been proposed as the vocalist, with Langlois stating that "OK, so that's not going to be some guy trying to sing like Gord or some guy trying not to sing like Gord. It was a 'no' until Feist came up." The band also received the Juno Humanitarian Award at the ceremony for their history of philanthropic work in Canada.
Legacy and influence
The Tragically Hip's music is extremely popular in their native Canada, and Downie's songwriting has been praised for frequently touching upon uniquely Canadian subjects not otherwise covered by mainstream rock groups. In The National Post, Dave Kaufman wrote "Although Downie sings of Canada, his songs are by no means patriotic, or no more than in the way that we're all influenced by where we're from. The band have never been so obvious as to drape themselves in a Canadian flag, but instead, they evoke that shared experience of what it's meant for many of us to grow up in Canada." The band was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and worked with them on radio PSAs.
According to Nielsen BDS, the Tragically Hip were the fourth best-selling Canadian musical artist in Canada between 1996 and 2016. In that same period of time, "Ahead by a Century" was listed as the 67th most played song on Canadian radio across all formats, while 18 of their songs appeared in a list of the Top 150 most played songs on Canadian rock radio.
Despite their high popularity in Canada, the group was never able to cross over into the American rock music scene apart from a small, devoted fan-base centered in border cities like Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan. The band notched four entries on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks singles chart in the US; their highest-charting song on the chart being "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)", which reached No. 16 in 1993. Downie once complained that the band's lack of crossover to the American rock music market had been overexamined, stating "[Interviewers] always ask us about our success or lack of success in the States, which I find absurd. While that is a story of the band, there are so many other stories."
Numerous tribute and cover bands to the Tragically Hip have actively performed across Canada both before and after the band's dissolution. The band's music also provides the score for a full length contemporary ballet, Jean Grand-Maitre's All of Us.
The band were named as an influence by several Canadian musicians and bands across multiple genres, including Dallas Green, k-os, and Kevin Drew.
Members
Gord Downie – lead vocals, guitar (1984–2017; deceased)
Rob Baker – guitar (1984–2017)
Paul Langlois – guitar, backup vocals (1986–2017)
Gord Sinclair – bass, backup vocals (1984–2017)
Johnny Fay – drums, percussion (1984–2017)
Davis Manning – saxophone (1984–1986)
Awards and honours
SOCAN Awards
1997: National Achievement Award
Canada's Walk of Fame:
2002: Inducted in Toronto, Ontario
Canadian Music Hall of Fame:
2005: Inducted at the Juno Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Royal Conservatory of Music:
2006: Presented with an honorary fellowship May 24 at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards:
2008: Presented the National Arts Centre Award in Ottawa, Ontario
Juno Awards
1990: Most Promising Group of the Year
1991: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1993: Canadian Entertainer of the Year
1995: Entertainer of the Year
1995: Group of the Year
1997: Group of the Year
1997: Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse),
1997: North Star Rock Album of the Year (Trouble at the Henhouse)
1999: Best Rock Album (Phantom Power)
1999: Best Album Design (Phantom Power)
2000: Best Single ("Bobcaygeon")
2001: Best Rock Album (Music at Work)
2006: CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2006: Music DVD of the Year (Hipeponymous)
2017: Rock Album of the Year (Man Machine Poem)
2017: Group of the Year
2021: Juno Humanitarian Award
Order of Canada
2017: Appointed to the Order of Canada
Homages:
In 2012, the city of Kingston Ontario renamed a prominent portion of Barrack Street, in front of the K-Rock Centre, to "The Tragically Hip Way".
In 2013, the Tragically Hip were one of four bands—alongside Rush, the Guess Who, and Beau Dommage—honoured by Canada Post in a series of postage stamps.
On January 1, 2017, CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show aired a special episode titled The Hip 30, which consisted of Canadian musicians performing live covers of the band's songs and sharing their thoughts on the band's impact on Canadian culture. Participating artists included Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Barenaked Ladies, Donovan Woods, Stars, Arkells and Rheostatics. The episode was already planned as a tribute to the band's 30th anniversary before Downie's cancer diagnosis was announced; several times during the show, host George Stroumboulopoulos reaffirmed that "this is not a eulogy; this is a celebration."
On January 28, 2017, the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League played against the Mississauga Steelheads in a special theme night game, in which the Frontenacs wore specially designed Tragically Hip sweaters. The band participated in the pregame show, in which the band members were presented with their own sweaters.
On February 2, 2017, the City of Kingston unveiled a commemorative stone in Springer Market Square with Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, recognizing the last concert of the Man Machine Poem tour. Lyrics "Everybody was in it from miles around..." from Blow at High Dough were selected in an online poll with over 11,000 votes cast.
On May 2, 2018, Alberta Ballet premiered All of Us, a full-length contemporary ballet featuring the music of the Tragically Hip. Discussions about the project began in early 2016 and had the support of all five band members. The ballet has since been performed in Calgary and Edmonton where Rob Baker attended in both cities on behalf of the band. In 2019 will tour to multiple Canadian cities.
Discography
The Tragically Hip (EP) (MCA, 1987)
Up to Here (MCA, 1989)
Road Apples (MCA, 1991)
Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)
Day for Night (MCA, 1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)
Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)
Music @ Work (Universal, 2000)
In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)
In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)
World Container (Universal, 2006)
We Are the Same (Universal, 2009)
Now for Plan A (Universal, 2012)
Man Machine Poem (Universal, 2016)
Saskadelphia (EP) (Universal, 2021)
See also
Canadian rock
Music of Canada
List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
List of Canadian musicians
List of bands from Canada
References
External links
CanConRox entry
Watch the National Film Board of Canada short documentary Family Band, produced for the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Requires Adobe Flash)
Musical groups established in 1983
Musical groups disestablished in 2017
Musical groups from Kingston, Ontario
Canadian alternative rock groups
Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music
Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees
Zoë Records artists
1983 establishments in Ontario
Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners
Members of the Order of Canada
Juno Award for Single of the Year winners
Juno Award for Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year winners
Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year winners
Juno Award for Group of the Year winners
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"Le Cousin is a 1997 French film directed by Alain Corneau.\n\nPlot \nThe film deals with the relationship of the police and an informant in the drug scene.\n\nAwards and nominations\nLe Cousin was nominated for 5 César Awards but did not win in any category.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 films\n1997 crime films\nFilms about drugs\nFilms directed by Alain Corneau\nFrench crime films\nFrench films\nFrench-language films",
"The African National Congress was a political party in Trinidad and Tobago. The party first contested national elections in 1961, when it received just 0.5% of the vote and failed to win a seat. They did not put forward any candidates for the 1966 elections, but returned for the 1971 elections, in which they received 2.4% of the vote, but again failed to win a seat as the People's National Movement won all 36. The party did not contest any further elections.\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct political parties in Trinidad and Tobago"
] |
[
"M. G. Ramachandran",
"1967 Assassination attempt"
] |
C_b3a917cecf2f40a181d70840e5a54092_1
|
What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt
| 1 |
What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt of M.G Ramachandran?
|
M. G. Ramachandran
|
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself. After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred. Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly. CANNOTANSWER
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During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
|
Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist and filmmaker who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 till his death in 1987. He was the founder of AIADMK and mentor of J. Jayalalithaa. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.
M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography Naan Yaen Piranthaen (Why I was Born) was published in 2003.
Early life and background
Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.
It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.
The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.
In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.
M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.
Acting career
M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi (1936 film), directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he role to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaran in 1972.
His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Valiban broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.
Mentor
Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.
Political career
M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.
1967 assassination attempt
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, M.G.R. acted in Devar's film Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.
Petralthaan Pillaya was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.
Differences with Karunanidhi and birth of AIADMK
In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.
Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vikatan.com/government-and-politics/politics/48-years-history-of-admk-party|title=எம்.ஜி.ஆரை நீக்கியதன் விளைவை தி.மு.க சந்திக்கும்!" அப்போதே எச்சரித்த ராஜாஜி #48YearsOfADMK|website=Vikatan.com}}</ref> later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like Netru Indru Naalai (1974), Idhayakani (1975), Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga (1977), etc.
Continued success in TN Assembly elections
1977 Assembly elections
The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.
1980 Parliament and assembly elections
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.
Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.
Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.
1984 assembly elections
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.
Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "M.G.R.'s Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding saththurundai – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called M.G.R. Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1980s. He led the AIADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and AIADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.
Failed Merger Talks with DMK
Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.
Criticism and controversies
Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.
Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.
Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.
M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.
Bharat Ratna
After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.
Commemorative coins
To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".
Elections contested and positions held
Tamil Nadu Legislative elections
Posts in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Philanthropy
He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of Thai weekly magazine and Anna daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.
Illness and death
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.
M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.
His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.
This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.
In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.
Legacy
After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, Dr. M.G.R. Salai—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand and Omalur Main Road was renamed M.G.R. Salai in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand in Tirunelveli and two parks were named Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park and M.G.R. Park in Thoothukudi.
A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.
The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.
On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.
On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.
On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.
On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.
On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.
In popular cultureIruvar (1997) by Mani Rantham is based on rivalry between M.G.R. and M. Karunanidhi which Malayalam actor Mohanlal played Anandan (M.G.R.)
2019 web series Queen which he was renamed as G. M. Ravichandran which Indrajith Sukumaran portrayed him . Thalaivi (2021) portrayed by Arvind Swami based on Jayalalithaa's life
Filmography
As an actor
As producer and director
1958 Nadodi Mannan, producer and director
1969 Adimai Penn, producer
1973 Ulagam Sutrum Valiban, producer and director
1977 Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan'', director
Awards and honours
Honours
Other cinema awards
See also
M. G. Ramachandran's unrealized projects
First Ramachandran ministry
Second Ramachandran ministry
Third Ramachandran ministry
References
External links
M.G. Ramchandran: Jewel of the Masses
All about Dr MGR
MGR Memorial Charitable Trust
MGR monthly magazine+News portal
Kandy-born Actor-Politico "MGR" Reigned Supreme in Tamil Nadu Cinema and Politics-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
M. G. Ramachandran
1917 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Indian film directors
20th-century Indian male actors
Actors from Kandy
Actors in Hindi cinema
Actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Chennai
Film producers from Chennai
Filmfare Awards South winners
Indian actor-politicians
Indian Hindus
Indian male film actors
Indian political party founders
Indian Tamil politicians
Kidney transplant recipients
Malayali people
Male actors from Chennai
Members of the 4th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989
Politicians from Chennai
Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Sri Lankan emigrants to India
State funerals in India
Tamil film directors
Tamil film producers
Tamil-language film directors
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
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[
"Khioniya Kuzminichna Guseva ( – after 1919) was a townswoman (meshchanka) of Syzran. Starting in 1899 she lived in Tsaritsyn, now known as Volgograd. She became an adherent of the monk Iliodor until 1912. She attempted to kill Grigori Rasputin in 1914.\n\nBiography\nAccording to the records of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government, Khioniya Guseva was a peasant of Syzran district uyezd of Simbirsk guberniya. \nThe dates of Guseva's birth and death are unknown, but the police report indicates that she was 33 when she tried to assassinate Rasputin.\nShe was lacking a nose.\n\nAccording to her own testimony, she never suffered from syphilis but was \"damaged by medicines\" since she was 13.\n\nAssassination attempt on Rasputin\nShe attempted to assassinate Grigori Rasputin in his home village of Pokrovskoye, Tobolsk Governorate, where she arrived on 16 June 1914. Some historians have dated the assassination attempt to 29 June 1914 (New Style) or Monday 13 July.<ref>J.T. Fuhrmann (2013), The Untold Story, p. 119.</ref> According to historian Oleg Platonov, the assassination attempt was made on Sunday June 29 (Old Style).\n\nGrigori Rasputin, a friend of the tsar Nicholas II of Russia and the Tsarina, was visiting his wife and children in his village, along the Tura River, in Siberia. On the afternoon of Sunday having dined, he went out from the house. He had just received a telegram, and left his home to reply to it when he was attacked by Guseva, who drove a knife into his abdomen. Guseva purportedly screamed \"I have killed the Antichrist!\" after the attack. Still not dead, Rasputin was chased through the streets by Guseva in order to finish the task. He hit her in the face with a shaft, and a crowd quickly gathered, chanting \"Let's kill her!\" She turned herself over to the constable and was placed on trial. After seven weeks, Rasputin recovered. \n\nGuseva was found to be insane and was placed in an asylum in Tomsk until 15 March 1917. Then she was released on order of Alexander Kerensky. She is reported to have attempted and failed another assassination attempt, this time on Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, in 1919. What happened to Guseva after 1919 is unknown and her date of death is also unknown.\n\nReferences\n\nPeople acquitted by reason of insanity\n\nSources\nJoseph T. Fuhrmann, Rasputin: A Life(New York: Praeger, 1990).\nEdvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File'' (2000, Anchor, USA) (paperback)\n\n1914 crimes\nFailed assassins\nAssassins from the Russian Empire\nYear of birth uncertain\nYear of death missing\nGrigori Rasputin",
"The following lists events that happened during 1980 in Syria.\n\nIncumbents\nPresident: Hafez al-Assad\nPrime Minister: Muhammad Ali al-Halabi (until 9 January), Abdul Rauf al-Kasm (starting 9 January)\n\nEvents\n\nApril\n April 15 - Syria recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.\n\nJune\n June 25 - A Muslim Brotherhood assassination attempt against President Hafez al-Assad fails. Assad retaliates by sending the army against them.\n\nReferences\n\n \n1980s in Syria\nYears of the 20th century in Syria\nSyria\nSyria"
] |
[
"M. G. Ramachandran",
"1967 Assassination attempt",
"What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt",
"During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself."
] |
C_b3a917cecf2f40a181d70840e5a54092_1
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Was he arrested?
| 2 |
Was M. R. Radha arrested?
|
M. G. Ramachandran
|
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself. After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred. Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist and filmmaker who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 till his death in 1987. He was the founder of AIADMK and mentor of J. Jayalalithaa. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.
M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography Naan Yaen Piranthaen (Why I was Born) was published in 2003.
Early life and background
Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.
It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.
The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.
In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.
M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.
Acting career
M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi (1936 film), directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he role to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaran in 1972.
His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Valiban broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.
Mentor
Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.
Political career
M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.
1967 assassination attempt
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, M.G.R. acted in Devar's film Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.
Petralthaan Pillaya was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.
Differences with Karunanidhi and birth of AIADMK
In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.
Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vikatan.com/government-and-politics/politics/48-years-history-of-admk-party|title=எம்.ஜி.ஆரை நீக்கியதன் விளைவை தி.மு.க சந்திக்கும்!" அப்போதே எச்சரித்த ராஜாஜி #48YearsOfADMK|website=Vikatan.com}}</ref> later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like Netru Indru Naalai (1974), Idhayakani (1975), Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga (1977), etc.
Continued success in TN Assembly elections
1977 Assembly elections
The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.
1980 Parliament and assembly elections
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.
Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.
Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.
1984 assembly elections
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.
Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "M.G.R.'s Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding saththurundai – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called M.G.R. Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1980s. He led the AIADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and AIADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.
Failed Merger Talks with DMK
Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.
Criticism and controversies
Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.
Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.
Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.
M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.
Bharat Ratna
After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.
Commemorative coins
To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".
Elections contested and positions held
Tamil Nadu Legislative elections
Posts in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Philanthropy
He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of Thai weekly magazine and Anna daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.
Illness and death
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.
M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.
His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.
This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.
In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.
Legacy
After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, Dr. M.G.R. Salai—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand and Omalur Main Road was renamed M.G.R. Salai in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand in Tirunelveli and two parks were named Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park and M.G.R. Park in Thoothukudi.
A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.
The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.
On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.
On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.
On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.
On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.
On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.
In popular cultureIruvar (1997) by Mani Rantham is based on rivalry between M.G.R. and M. Karunanidhi which Malayalam actor Mohanlal played Anandan (M.G.R.)
2019 web series Queen which he was renamed as G. M. Ravichandran which Indrajith Sukumaran portrayed him . Thalaivi (2021) portrayed by Arvind Swami based on Jayalalithaa's life
Filmography
As an actor
As producer and director
1958 Nadodi Mannan, producer and director
1969 Adimai Penn, producer
1973 Ulagam Sutrum Valiban, producer and director
1977 Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan'', director
Awards and honours
Honours
Other cinema awards
See also
M. G. Ramachandran's unrealized projects
First Ramachandran ministry
Second Ramachandran ministry
Third Ramachandran ministry
References
External links
M.G. Ramchandran: Jewel of the Masses
All about Dr MGR
MGR Memorial Charitable Trust
MGR monthly magazine+News portal
Kandy-born Actor-Politico "MGR" Reigned Supreme in Tamil Nadu Cinema and Politics-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
M. G. Ramachandran
1917 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Indian film directors
20th-century Indian male actors
Actors from Kandy
Actors in Hindi cinema
Actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Chennai
Film producers from Chennai
Filmfare Awards South winners
Indian actor-politicians
Indian Hindus
Indian male film actors
Indian political party founders
Indian Tamil politicians
Kidney transplant recipients
Malayali people
Male actors from Chennai
Members of the 4th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989
Politicians from Chennai
Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Sri Lankan emigrants to India
State funerals in India
Tamil film directors
Tamil film producers
Tamil-language film directors
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
| false |
[
"Xie Shiguang (; June 1917 – 25 August 2005) was a bishop of People's Republic of China's underground Roman Catholic Church.\n\nCareer \nXie was ordained to the priesthood on May 3, 1949, and he became a bishop on January 25, 1984.\n\nArrests \nXie was arrested multiple times in China. The first arrest was in 1955, when he refused to enter the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. He was arrested again for the same reason in 1958, but he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. He was then arrested in 1984, released in 1987, and was arrested yet again in 1990.\n\nDeath \nXie died from leukemia on 25 August 2005 at the age of 88.\n\nHeritage \nA street has been named after him in 2021 in Budapest.\n\nSee also\n\nCatholicism in China\n\nReferences \n\n20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China\n1917 births\n2005 deaths\n21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in China\nDeaths from leukemia",
"M. A. Aziz (1921 - 11 January 1971) was an Awami League politician and the former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Kotwali-Double Mooring, Chittagong.\n\nEarly life\nAziz was born in 1921 in Halishahar, Bengal Presidency, British India. In 1940 he graduated from Pahartali Railway High School and then completed his IA in 1942 from Chittagong College. He was expelled from the college due to his activities with the All Bengal Muslim Students league. After which he joined the Awami Muslim League.\n\nCareer\nAziz was the first general secretary of Chittagong District. He was involved in the Bengali Language Movement and worked as the joint convener \"Sarba Daliya Rashtra Bhasha Sangram Committee\". He was arrested for his involvement. In 1953 he was elected to the central committee of Awami League. In 1954 he was arrested. In 1958 he was arrested again after Martial law was declared. In the 1960s, he started a business with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bhupati Bhushan Chowdhury named New Agency. The majority of the profits were to be used to finance Awami League.\n\nAziz played an important role in the Six point program led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 8 May 1966 he was arrested for his role in the program. On 18 July 1970 he was arrested for protesting martial law. In 1970 general elections he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, from Kotwali-Double Mooring constituency as a candidate of Awami League.\n\nDeath\nAziz died on 11 January 1971. M. A. Aziz Stadium in Chittagong was named after him.\n\nReferences\n\nAwami League politicians\n1921 births\n1971 deaths"
] |
[
"M. G. Ramachandran",
"1967 Assassination attempt",
"What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt",
"During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_b3a917cecf2f40a181d70840e5a54092_1
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What were the motives?
| 3 |
What were the motives for M. R. Radha's assasination attempt?
|
M. G. Ramachandran
|
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself. After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred. Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly. CANNOTANSWER
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On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project.
|
Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist and filmmaker who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 till his death in 1987. He was the founder of AIADMK and mentor of J. Jayalalithaa. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.
M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography Naan Yaen Piranthaen (Why I was Born) was published in 2003.
Early life and background
Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.
It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.
The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.
In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.
M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.
Acting career
M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi (1936 film), directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he role to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaran in 1972.
His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Valiban broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.
Mentor
Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.
Political career
M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.
1967 assassination attempt
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, M.G.R. acted in Devar's film Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.
Petralthaan Pillaya was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.
Differences with Karunanidhi and birth of AIADMK
In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.
Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vikatan.com/government-and-politics/politics/48-years-history-of-admk-party|title=எம்.ஜி.ஆரை நீக்கியதன் விளைவை தி.மு.க சந்திக்கும்!" அப்போதே எச்சரித்த ராஜாஜி #48YearsOfADMK|website=Vikatan.com}}</ref> later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like Netru Indru Naalai (1974), Idhayakani (1975), Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga (1977), etc.
Continued success in TN Assembly elections
1977 Assembly elections
The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.
1980 Parliament and assembly elections
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.
Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.
Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.
1984 assembly elections
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.
Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "M.G.R.'s Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding saththurundai – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called M.G.R. Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1980s. He led the AIADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and AIADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.
Failed Merger Talks with DMK
Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.
Criticism and controversies
Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.
Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.
Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.
M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.
Bharat Ratna
After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.
Commemorative coins
To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".
Elections contested and positions held
Tamil Nadu Legislative elections
Posts in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Philanthropy
He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of Thai weekly magazine and Anna daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.
Illness and death
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.
M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.
His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.
This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.
In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.
Legacy
After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, Dr. M.G.R. Salai—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand and Omalur Main Road was renamed M.G.R. Salai in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand in Tirunelveli and two parks were named Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park and M.G.R. Park in Thoothukudi.
A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.
The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.
On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.
On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.
On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.
On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.
On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.
In popular cultureIruvar (1997) by Mani Rantham is based on rivalry between M.G.R. and M. Karunanidhi which Malayalam actor Mohanlal played Anandan (M.G.R.)
2019 web series Queen which he was renamed as G. M. Ravichandran which Indrajith Sukumaran portrayed him . Thalaivi (2021) portrayed by Arvind Swami based on Jayalalithaa's life
Filmography
As an actor
As producer and director
1958 Nadodi Mannan, producer and director
1969 Adimai Penn, producer
1973 Ulagam Sutrum Valiban, producer and director
1977 Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan'', director
Awards and honours
Honours
Other cinema awards
See also
M. G. Ramachandran's unrealized projects
First Ramachandran ministry
Second Ramachandran ministry
Third Ramachandran ministry
References
External links
M.G. Ramchandran: Jewel of the Masses
All about Dr MGR
MGR Memorial Charitable Trust
MGR monthly magazine+News portal
Kandy-born Actor-Politico "MGR" Reigned Supreme in Tamil Nadu Cinema and Politics-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
M. G. Ramachandran
1917 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Indian film directors
20th-century Indian male actors
Actors from Kandy
Actors in Hindi cinema
Actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Chennai
Film producers from Chennai
Filmfare Awards South winners
Indian actor-politicians
Indian Hindus
Indian male film actors
Indian political party founders
Indian Tamil politicians
Kidney transplant recipients
Malayali people
Male actors from Chennai
Members of the 4th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989
Politicians from Chennai
Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Sri Lankan emigrants to India
State funerals in India
Tamil film directors
Tamil film producers
Tamil-language film directors
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
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[
"In algebraic geometry, motives (or sometimes motifs, following French usage) is a theory proposed by Alexander Grothendieck in the 1960s to unify the vast array of similarly behaved cohomology theories such as singular cohomology, de Rham cohomology, etale cohomology, and crystalline cohomology. Philosophically, a \"motif\" is the \"cohomology essence\" of a variety.\n\nIn the formulation of Grothendieck for smooth projective varieties, a motive is a triple , where X is a smooth projective variety, is an idempotent correspondence, and m an integer, however, such a triple contains almost no information outside the context of Grothendieck's category of pure motives, where a morphism from to is given by a correspondence of degree . A more object-focused approach is taken by Pierre Deligne in Le Groupe Fondamental de la Droite Projective Moins Trois Points. In that article, a motive is a \"system of realisations\" – that is, a tuple\n\nconsisting of modules\n\nover the rings\n\nrespectively, various comparison isomorphisms\n\nbetween the obvious base changes of these modules, filtrations , a -action on and a \"Frobenius\" automorphism of . This data is modeled on the cohomologies of a smooth projective -variety and the structures and compatibilities they admit, and gives an idea about what kind of information is contained a motive.\n\nIntroduction \nThe theory of motives was originally conjectured as an attempt to unify a rapidly multiplying array of cohomology theories, including Betti cohomology, de Rham cohomology, l-adic cohomology, and crystalline cohomology. The general hope is that equations like\n [projective line] = [line] + [point]\n [projective plane] = [plane] + [line] + [point]\ncan be put on increasingly solid mathematical footing with a deep meaning. Of course, the above equations are already known to be true in many senses, such as in the sense of CW-complex where \"+\" corresponds to attaching cells, and in the sense of various cohomology theories, where \"+\" corresponds to the direct sum.\n\nFrom another viewpoint, motives continue the sequence of generalizations from rational functions on varieties to divisors on varieties to Chow groups of varieties. The generalization happens in more than one direction, since motives can be considered with respect to more types of equivalence than rational equivalence. The admissible equivalences are given by the definition of an adequate equivalence relation.\n\nDefinition of pure motives \nThe category of pure motives often proceeds in three steps. Below we describe the case of Chow motives , where k is any field.\n\nFirst step: category of (degree 0) correspondences, Corr(k) \nThe objects of are simply smooth projective varieties over k. The morphisms are correspondences. They generalize morphisms of varieties , which can be associated with their graphs in , to fixed dimensional Chow cycles on .\n\nIt will be useful to describe correspondences of arbitrary degree, although morphisms in are correspondences of degree 0. In detail, let X and Y be smooth projective varieties and consider a decomposition of X into connected components:\n\nIf , then the correspondences of degree r from X to Y are\n\nwhere denotes the Chow-cycles of codimension k. Correspondences are often denoted using the \"⊢\"-notation, e.g., . For any and their composition is defined by\n\nwhere the dot denotes the product in the Chow ring (i.e., intersection).\n\nReturning to constructing the category notice that the composition of degree 0 correspondences is degree 0. Hence we define morphisms of to be degree 0 correspondences.\n\nThe following association is a functor (here denotes the graph of ):\n\nJust like the category has direct sums () and tensor products (). It is a preadditive category. The sum of morphisms is defined by\n\nSecond step: category of pure effective Chow motives, Choweff(k)\n\nThe transition to motives is made by taking the pseudo-abelian envelope of :\n\n.\n\nIn other words, effective Chow motives are pairs of smooth projective varieties X and idempotent correspondences α: X ⊢ X, and morphisms are of a certain type of correspondence:\n\nComposition is the above defined composition of correspondences, and the identity morphism of (X, α) is defined to be α : X ⊢ X.\n\nThe association,\n\n,\n\nwhere ΔX := [idX] denotes the diagonal of X × X, is a functor. The motive [X] is often called the motive associated to the variety X.\n\nAs intended, Choweff(k) is a pseudo-abelian category. The direct sum of effective motives is given by\n\nThe tensor product of effective motives is defined by\n\nwhere\n\nThe tensor product of morphisms may also be defined. Let f1 : (X1, α1) → (Y1, β1) and f2 : (X2, α2) → (Y2, β2) be morphisms of motives. Then let γ1 ∈ A(X1 × Y1) and γ2 ∈ A(X2 × Y2) be representatives of f1 and f2. Then\n\n,\n\nwhere πi : X1 × X2 × Y1 × Y2 → Xi × Yi are the projections.\n\nThird step: category of pure Chow motives, Chow(k) \nTo proceed to motives, we adjoin to Choweff(k) a formal inverse (with respect to the tensor product) of a motive called the Lefschetz motive. The effect is that motives become triples instead of pairs. The Lefschetz motive L is\n\n.\n\nIf we define the motive 1, called the trivial Tate motive, by 1 := h(Spec(k)), then the elegant equation\n\nholds, since\n\nThe tensor inverse of the Lefschetz motive is known as the Tate motive, T := L−1. Then we define the category of pure Chow motives by\n\n.\n\nA motive is then a triple\n\nsuch that morphisms are given by correspondences\n\nand the composition of morphisms comes from composition of correspondences.\n\nAs intended, is a rigid pseudo-abelian category.\n\nOther types of motives \nIn order to define an intersection product, cycles must be \"movable\" so we can intersect them in general position. Choosing a suitable equivalence relation on cycles will guarantee that every pair of cycles has an equivalent pair in general position that we can intersect. The Chow groups are defined using rational equivalence, but other equivalences are possible, and each defines a different sort of motive. Examples of equivalences, from strongest to weakest, are\n Rational equivalence\n Algebraic equivalence\n Smash-nilpotence equivalence (sometimes called Voevodsky equivalence)\n Homological equivalence (in the sense of Weil cohomology)\n Numerical equivalence\nThe literature occasionally calls every type of pure motive a Chow motive, in which case a motive with respect to algebraic equivalence would be called a Chow motive modulo algebraic equivalence.\n\nMixed motives \nFor a fixed base field k, the category of mixed motives is a conjectural abelian tensor category , together with a contravariant functor\n\ntaking values on all varieties (not just smooth projective ones as it was the case with pure motives). This should be such that motivic cohomology defined by\n\ncoincides with the one predicted by algebraic K-theory, and contains the category of Chow motives in a suitable sense (and other properties). The existence of such a category was conjectured by Alexander Beilinson.\n\nInstead of constructing such a category, it was proposed by Deligne to first construct a category DM having the properties one expects for the derived category\n\n.\n\nGetting MM back from DM would then be accomplished by a (conjectural) motivic t-structure.\n\nThe current state of the theory is that we do have a suitable category DM. Already this category is useful in applications. Vladimir Voevodsky's Fields Medal-winning proof of the Milnor conjecture uses these motives as a key ingredient.\n\nThere are different definitions due to Hanamura, Levine and Voevodsky. They are known to be equivalent in most cases and we will give Voevodsky's definition below. The category contains Chow motives as a full subcategory and gives the \"right\" motivic cohomology. However, Voevodsky also shows that (with integral coefficients) it does not admit a motivic t-structure.\n\nGeometric Mixed Motives\n\nNotation \nHere we will fix a field of characteristic and let be our coefficient ring. Set as the category of quasi-projective varieties over are separated schemes of finite type. We will also let be the subcategory of smooth varieties.\n\nSmooth varieties with correspondences \nGiven a smooth variety and a variety call an integral closed subscheme which is finite over and surjective over a component of a prime correspondence from to . Then, we can take the set of prime correspondences from to and construct a free -module . Its elements are called finite correspondences. Then, we can form an additive category whose objects are smooth varieties and morphisms are given by smooth correspondences. The only non-trivial part of this \"definition\" is the fact that we need to describe compositions. These are given by a push-pull formula from the theory of Chow rings.\n\nExamples of correspondences \nTypical examples of prime correspondences come from the graph of a morphism of varieties .\n\nLocalizing the homotopy category \nFrom here we can form the homotopy category of bounded complexes of smooth correspondences. Here smooth varieties will be denoted . If we localize this category with respect to the smallest thick subcategory (meaning it is closed under extensions) containing morphisms\n\nand\n\nthen we can form the triangulated category of effective geometric motives Note that the first class of morphisms are localizing -homotopies of varieties while the second will give the category of geometric mixed motives the Mayer–Vietoris sequence.\n\nAlso, note that this category has a tensor structure given by the product of varieties, so .\n\nInverting the Tate motive \nUsing the triangulated structure we can construct a triangle\n\nfrom the canonical map . We will set and call it the Tate motive. Taking the iterative tensor product lets us construct . If we have an effective geometric motive we let denote Moreover, this behaves functorially and forms a triangulated functor. Finally, we can define the category of geometric mixed motives as the category of pairs for an effective geometric mixed motive and an integer representing the twist by the Tate motive. The hom-groups are then the colimit\n\nExamples of motives\n\nTate motives \nThere are several elementary examples of motives which are readily accessible. One of them being the Tate motives, denoted , , or , depending on the coefficients used in the construction of the category of Motives. These are fundamental building blocks in the category of motives because they form the \"other part\" besides Abelian varieties.\n\nMotives of curves \n\nThe motive of a curve can be explicitly understood with relative ease: their Chow ring is justfor any smooth projective curve , hence Jacobians embed into the category of motives.\n\nExplanation for non-specialists\nA commonly applied technique in mathematics is to study objects carrying a particular structure by introducing a category whose morphisms preserve this structure. Then one may ask when two given objects are isomorphic, and ask for a \"particularly nice\" representative in each isomorphism class. The classification of algebraic varieties, i.e. application of this idea in the case of algebraic varieties, is very difficult due to the highly non-linear structure of the objects. The relaxed question of studying varieties up to birational isomorphism has led to the field of birational geometry. Another way to handle the question is to attach to a given variety X an object of more linear nature, i.e. an object amenable to the techniques of linear algebra, for example a vector space. This \"linearization\" goes usually under the name of cohomology.\n\nThere are several important cohomology theories, which reflect different structural aspects of varieties. The (partly conjectural) theory of motives is an attempt to find a universal way to linearize algebraic varieties, i.e. motives are supposed to provide a cohomology theory that embodies all these particular cohomologies. For example, the genus of a smooth projective curve C which is an interesting invariant of the curve, is an integer, which can be read off the dimension of the first Betti cohomology group of C. So, the motive of the curve should contain the genus information. Of course, the genus is a rather coarse invariant, so the motive of C is more than just this number.\n\nThe search for a universal cohomology \nEach algebraic variety X has a corresponding motive [X], so the simplest examples of motives are:\n\n [point]\n [projective line] = [point] + [line]\n [projective plane] = [plane] + [line] + [point]\n\nThese 'equations' hold in many situations, namely for de Rham cohomology and Betti cohomology, l-adic cohomology, the number of points over any finite field, and in multiplicative notation for local zeta-functions.\n\nThe general idea is that one motive has the same structure in any reasonable cohomology theory with good formal properties; in particular, any Weil cohomology theory will have such properties. There are different Weil cohomology theories, they apply in different situations and have values in different categories, and reflect different structural aspects of the variety in question:\n\n Betti cohomology is defined for varieties over (subfields of) the complex numbers, it has the advantage of being defined over the integers and is a topological invariant\n de Rham cohomology (for varieties over ) comes with a mixed Hodge structure, it is a differential-geometric invariant\n l-adic cohomology (over any field of characteristic ≠ l) has a canonical Galois group action, i.e. has values in representations of the (absolute) Galois group\n crystalline cohomology\n\nAll these cohomology theories share common properties, e.g. existence of Mayer-Vietoris sequences, homotopy invariance the product of X with the affine line) and others. Moreover, they are linked by comparison isomorphisms, for example Betti cohomology of a smooth variety X over with finite coefficients is isomorphic to l-adic cohomology with finite coefficients.\n\nThe theory of motives is an attempt to find a universal theory which embodies all these particular cohomologies and their structures and provides a framework for \"equations\" like\n\n[projective line] = [line]+[point].\n\nIn particular, calculating the motive of any variety X directly gives all the information about the several Weil cohomology theories HBetti(X), HDR(X) etc.\n\nBeginning with Grothendieck, people have tried to precisely define this theory for many years.\n\nMotivic cohomology \nMotivic cohomology itself had been invented before the creation of mixed motives by means of algebraic K-theory. The above category provides a neat way to (re)define it by\n\nwhere n and m are integers and is the m-th tensor power of the Tate object which in Voevodsky's setting is the complex shifted by –2, and [n] means the usual shift in the triangulated category.\n\nConjectures related to motives \nThe standard conjectures were first formulated in terms of the interplay of algebraic cycles and Weil cohomology theories. The category of pure motives provides a categorical framework for these conjectures.\n\nThe standard conjectures are commonly considered to be very hard and are open in the general case. Grothendieck, with Bombieri, showed the depth of the motivic approach by producing a conditional (very short and elegant) proof of the Weil conjectures (which are proven by different means by Deligne), assuming the standard conjectures to hold.\n\nFor example, the Künneth standard conjecture, which states the existence of algebraic cycles πi ⊂ X × X inducing the canonical projectors H(X) → Hi(X) ↣ H(X) (for any Weil cohomology H) implies that every pure motive M decomposes in graded pieces of weight n: M = ⨁GrnM. The terminology weights comes from a similar decomposition of, say, de-Rham cohomology of smooth projective varieties, see Hodge theory.\n\nConjecture D, stating the concordance of numerical and homological equivalence, implies the equivalence of pure motives with respect to homological and numerical equivalence. (In particular the former category of motives would not depend on the choice of the Weil cohomology theory). Jannsen (1992) proved the following unconditional result: the category of (pure) motives over a field is abelian and semisimple if and only if the chosen equivalence relation is numerical equivalence.\n\nThe Hodge conjecture, may be neatly reformulated using motives: it holds iff the Hodge realization mapping any pure motive with rational coefficients (over a subfield of ) to its Hodge structure is a full functor (rational Hodge structures). Here pure motive means pure motive with respect to homological equivalence.\n\nSimilarly, the Tate conjecture is equivalent to: the so-called Tate realization, i.e. ℓ-adic cohomology, is a full functor (pure motives up to homological equivalence, continuous representations of the absolute Galois group of the base field k), which takes values in semi-simple representations. (The latter part is automatic in the case of the Hodge analogue).\n\nTannakian formalism and motivic Galois group\nTo motivate the (conjectural) motivic Galois group, fix a field k and consider the functor\n\nfinite separable extensions K of k → non-empty finite sets with a (continuous) transitive action of the absolute Galois group of k\n\nwhich maps K to the (finite) set of embeddings of K into an algebraic closure of k. In Galois theory this functor is shown to be an equivalence of categories. Notice that fields are 0-dimensional. Motives of this kind are called Artin motives. By -linearizing the above objects, another way of expressing the above is to say that Artin motives are equivalent to finite -vector spaces together with an action of the Galois group.\n\nThe objective of the motivic Galois group is to extend the above equivalence to higher-dimensional varieties. In order to do this, the technical machinery of Tannakian category theory (going back to Tannaka–Krein duality, but a purely algebraic theory) is used. Its purpose is to shed light on both the Hodge conjecture and the Tate conjecture, the outstanding questions in algebraic cycle theory. Fix a Weil cohomology theory H. It gives a functor from Mnum (pure motives using numerical equivalence) to finite-dimensional -vector spaces. It can be shown that the former category is a Tannakian category. Assuming the equivalence of homological and numerical equivalence, i.e. the above standard conjecture D, the functor H is an exact faithful tensor-functor. Applying the Tannakian formalism, one concludes that Mnum is equivalent to the category of representations of an algebraic group G, known as the motivic Galois group.\n\nThe motivic Galois group is to the theory of motives what the Mumford–Tate group is to Hodge theory. Again speaking in rough terms, the Hodge and Tate conjectures are types of invariant theory (the spaces that are morally the algebraic cycles are picked out by invariance under a group, if one sets up the correct definitions). The motivic Galois group has the surrounding representation theory. (What it is not, is a Galois group; however in terms of the Tate conjecture and Galois representations on étale cohomology, it predicts the image of the Galois group, or, more accurately, its Lie algebra.)\n\nSee also\n Ring of periods\nMotivic cohomology\nPresheaf with transfers\nMixed Hodge module\nL-functions of motives\n\nReferences\n\nSurvey Articles \n\n (technical introduction with comparatively short proofs)\nMotives over Finite Fields - J.S. Milne\n (motives-for-dummies text).\n (high-level introduction to motives in French).\n\nBooks \n \n \n L. Breen: Tannakian categories.\n S. Kleiman: The standard conjectures.\n A. Scholl: Classical motives. (detailed exposition of Chow motives)\n\nReference Literature \n\n \n (adequate equivalence relations on cycles).\n Milne, James S. Motives — Grothendieck’s Dream\n (Voevodsky's definition of mixed motives. Highly technical).\n\nFuture directions \n\n Musings on : Arithmetic spin structures on elliptic curves\n What are \"Fractional Motives\"?\n\nExternal links \n \n\nAlgebraic geometry\nTopological methods of algebraic geometry\nHomological algebra",
"The Stilklassen (German, lit. \"style classes\") are located in two schools in Berndorf, Lower Austria.\n\nHistory\nAfter a two-year construction phase, the schools were opened in 1909. What is special about these schools is their furnishing, which was funded by Arthur Krupp. The architect of these unique buildings is Ludwig Baumann. Each of the classrooms is furnished and designed in a different historical style.\nKrupp's aim was to teach his workers' children the knowledge about foreign cultures that he was able to obtain on his journeys.\n\nThe Classrooms\n the Egyptian classroom: The entrance to this classroom is a replica of the burial chamber in Eimisi. The ceiling and the walls display typical Egyptian images.\n the Doric classroom: The bronze portal is a copy of the door of the tower of Mykena.\n the Moorish classroom: The door is a replica of the Porta aurea in Córdoba. The original pillars can be found at the Alhambra, whereas the motives on the ceiling are a faithful reproduction of the ceiling in the church Alkalda de Heinares.\n the Pompeian classroom\n the Byzantine classroom with motives from St. Sergius' church in Constantinople \n the Gothic classroom, which displays motives of the churches in Steinakirchen am Forst, Lower Austria and Ptuj, Slovenia\n the Roman classroom by the example of the church of castle Třebíč, Czech Republic\n the Roman Renaissance classroom with a replica of the ceiling of the Palazzo Massimo in Rome\n the Baroque classroom with its reproduction of the entrance of Vienna's Belvedere palace\n the classroom built in the style of Louis XIV\n the Rococo classroom \n the Empire classroom, built after motives in Palais Modena, Vienna\n\nInteresting facts\nEven in Krupp's time, when the schools were founded, parents were concerned that the pupils might be distracted by the colours and ornaments. \n\nAdditionally to this extravagant interior design, Krupp also provided the school with a central heating system, showers and a dental surgery, which was paid for by Krupp himself for a year.\n\nNowadays, these two buildings do not only still serve as schools but also as tourist attractions.\n\nLiterature\n Ilg, Christine: Berndorf und seine Schulen - ein Streifzug durch Berndorf,\n\nExternal links\n Stilklassen, German and English\n\nEducational institutions established in 1909\nSchools in Austria\n1909 establishments in Austria"
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[
"M. G. Ramachandran",
"1967 Assassination attempt",
"What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt",
"During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know.",
"What were the motives?",
"On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project."
] |
C_b3a917cecf2f40a181d70840e5a54092_1
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What was the project
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What was Radha's future film project?
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M. G. Ramachandran
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The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself. After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred. Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly. CANNOTANSWER
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Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist and filmmaker who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 till his death in 1987. He was the founder of AIADMK and mentor of J. Jayalalithaa. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.
M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography Naan Yaen Piranthaen (Why I was Born) was published in 2003.
Early life and background
Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.
It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.
The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.
In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.
M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.
Acting career
M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi (1936 film), directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he role to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaran in 1972.
His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Valiban broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.
Mentor
Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.
Political career
M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.
1967 assassination attempt
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, M.G.R. acted in Devar's film Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.
Petralthaan Pillaya was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.
Differences with Karunanidhi and birth of AIADMK
In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.
Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vikatan.com/government-and-politics/politics/48-years-history-of-admk-party|title=எம்.ஜி.ஆரை நீக்கியதன் விளைவை தி.மு.க சந்திக்கும்!" அப்போதே எச்சரித்த ராஜாஜி #48YearsOfADMK|website=Vikatan.com}}</ref> later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like Netru Indru Naalai (1974), Idhayakani (1975), Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga (1977), etc.
Continued success in TN Assembly elections
1977 Assembly elections
The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.
1980 Parliament and assembly elections
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.
Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.
Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.
1984 assembly elections
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.
Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "M.G.R.'s Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding saththurundai – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called M.G.R. Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1980s. He led the AIADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and AIADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.
Failed Merger Talks with DMK
Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.
Criticism and controversies
Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.
Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.
Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.
M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.
Bharat Ratna
After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.
Commemorative coins
To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".
Elections contested and positions held
Tamil Nadu Legislative elections
Posts in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Philanthropy
He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of Thai weekly magazine and Anna daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.
Illness and death
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.
M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.
His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.
This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.
In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.
Legacy
After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, Dr. M.G.R. Salai—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand and Omalur Main Road was renamed M.G.R. Salai in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand in Tirunelveli and two parks were named Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park and M.G.R. Park in Thoothukudi.
A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.
The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.
On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.
On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.
On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.
On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.
On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.
In popular cultureIruvar (1997) by Mani Rantham is based on rivalry between M.G.R. and M. Karunanidhi which Malayalam actor Mohanlal played Anandan (M.G.R.)
2019 web series Queen which he was renamed as G. M. Ravichandran which Indrajith Sukumaran portrayed him . Thalaivi (2021) portrayed by Arvind Swami based on Jayalalithaa's life
Filmography
As an actor
As producer and director
1958 Nadodi Mannan, producer and director
1969 Adimai Penn, producer
1973 Ulagam Sutrum Valiban, producer and director
1977 Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan'', director
Awards and honours
Honours
Other cinema awards
See also
M. G. Ramachandran's unrealized projects
First Ramachandran ministry
Second Ramachandran ministry
Third Ramachandran ministry
References
External links
M.G. Ramchandran: Jewel of the Masses
All about Dr MGR
MGR Memorial Charitable Trust
MGR monthly magazine+News portal
Kandy-born Actor-Politico "MGR" Reigned Supreme in Tamil Nadu Cinema and Politics-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
M. G. Ramachandran
1917 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Indian film directors
20th-century Indian male actors
Actors from Kandy
Actors in Hindi cinema
Actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Chennai
Film producers from Chennai
Filmfare Awards South winners
Indian actor-politicians
Indian Hindus
Indian male film actors
Indian political party founders
Indian Tamil politicians
Kidney transplant recipients
Malayali people
Male actors from Chennai
Members of the 4th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989
Politicians from Chennai
Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Sri Lankan emigrants to India
State funerals in India
Tamil film directors
Tamil film producers
Tamil-language film directors
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
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[
"The Project is the third studio album and major label debut by Canadian country music artist Lindsay Ell. It was released by Stoney Creek Records on August 11, 2017. The Project was the number-one selling country album the week of its release. The album was released in physical format in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2018.\n\nSingles\n\"Waiting on You\", the album's lead single, was released on March 24, 2017 as part of Ell's EP, Worth the Wait. The song was released to American country radio on May 29, 2017.\n\nThe second single, \"Criminal\", was released to American country radio on December 11, 2017.\n\nPromotional singles\n\"Champagne\" was released as the album's first promotional single on July 21, 2017. \"Good\" was released as the second promotional single on July 28, 2017.\n\nProduction\nBefore recording the album, Ell was worried about what sort of music she wanted to make and brought her concerns to producer Bush. Upon being asked what her favourite album was, she replied with Continuum by John Mayer. Bush then tasked her with recording the entire album by herself in under three weeks so that she could determine what sounds and production elements she liked, resulting in The Continuum Project which was released separately in 2018.\n\nCritical reception\nMatt Bjorke of Roughstock wrote that Kristian Bush's production \"allowed Lindsay to shine in a way that accentuates every nuanced talent she has as a singer, songwriter and guitarist,\" and called The Project \"a beautiful collection worthy of revisiting time and time again.\" Cillea Houghton of Sounds Like Nashville praised Ell's artistry, writing that \"what makes The Project so compelling is not just the songs themselves, but the fact that they are so unique from one another but still work cohesively.\"\n\nCommercial performance\nThe Project debuted at number 40 on the Billboard 200 chart dated September 2, 2017. On the Top Album Sales component chart, the album debuted at number seven. It also debuted at number four on the Top Country Albums chart, and at number one on the Country Album Sales component chart. The album sold 10,000 copies and 1,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. As of September 2017, the album has sold 14,600 copies in the US.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2017 debut albums\nLindsay Ell albums\nBBR Music Group albums",
"What Was Done, Vol. 1: A Decade Revisited is an acoustic album by rock band the Classic Crime released on October 28, 2014 via BadChristian Music. Like their previous effort, Phoenix (2012), the album was funded through the website Kickstarter. Kickstarter backers were able to digitally download the album one week prior to its release date.\n\nA Kickstarter project entitled \"Help The Classic Crime Make 'What Was Done: Volume One'\" was created on October 15, 2013, with a funding goal of $15,000. The goal was met within the first two days of the project being posted. Crowdfunding process successfully finished on November 13, 2013, with $50,457 pledged.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \n\n Matt MacDonald – vocals, guitars\n Robbie Negrin – guitar, group vocals\n Alan Clark – bass, group vocals\n Paul \"Skip\" Erickson – drums, group vocals\n\nReferences\n\n2014 albums\nThe Classic Crime albums"
] |
[
"M. G. Ramachandran",
"1967 Assassination attempt",
"What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt",
"During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know.",
"What were the motives?",
"On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project.",
"What was the project",
"future film project."
] |
C_b3a917cecf2f40a181d70840e5a54092_1
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Any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Any there any other interesting aspects about this article other than M. R. Radha's assassination attempt?
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M. G. Ramachandran
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The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself. After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred. Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly. CANNOTANSWER
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After the operation, MGR's voice changed.
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Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist and filmmaker who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 till his death in 1987. He was the founder of AIADMK and mentor of J. Jayalalithaa. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.
M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography Naan Yaen Piranthaen (Why I was Born) was published in 2003.
Early life and background
Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.
It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.
The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.
In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.
M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.
Acting career
M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi (1936 film), directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he role to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaran in 1972.
His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Valiban broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.
Mentor
Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.
Political career
M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.
1967 assassination attempt
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, M.G.R. acted in Devar's film Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.
Petralthaan Pillaya was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.
Differences with Karunanidhi and birth of AIADMK
In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.
Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vikatan.com/government-and-politics/politics/48-years-history-of-admk-party|title=எம்.ஜி.ஆரை நீக்கியதன் விளைவை தி.மு.க சந்திக்கும்!" அப்போதே எச்சரித்த ராஜாஜி #48YearsOfADMK|website=Vikatan.com}}</ref> later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like Netru Indru Naalai (1974), Idhayakani (1975), Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga (1977), etc.
Continued success in TN Assembly elections
1977 Assembly elections
The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.
1980 Parliament and assembly elections
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.
Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.
Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.
1984 assembly elections
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.
Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "M.G.R.'s Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding saththurundai – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called M.G.R. Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1980s. He led the AIADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and AIADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.
Failed Merger Talks with DMK
Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.
Criticism and controversies
Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.
Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.
Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.
M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.
Bharat Ratna
After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.
Commemorative coins
To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".
Elections contested and positions held
Tamil Nadu Legislative elections
Posts in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Philanthropy
He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of Thai weekly magazine and Anna daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.
Illness and death
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.
M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.
His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.
This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.
In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.
Legacy
After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, Dr. M.G.R. Salai—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand and Omalur Main Road was renamed M.G.R. Salai in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand in Tirunelveli and two parks were named Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park and M.G.R. Park in Thoothukudi.
A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.
The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.
On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.
On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.
On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.
On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.
On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.
In popular cultureIruvar (1997) by Mani Rantham is based on rivalry between M.G.R. and M. Karunanidhi which Malayalam actor Mohanlal played Anandan (M.G.R.)
2019 web series Queen which he was renamed as G. M. Ravichandran which Indrajith Sukumaran portrayed him . Thalaivi (2021) portrayed by Arvind Swami based on Jayalalithaa's life
Filmography
As an actor
As producer and director
1958 Nadodi Mannan, producer and director
1969 Adimai Penn, producer
1973 Ulagam Sutrum Valiban, producer and director
1977 Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan'', director
Awards and honours
Honours
Other cinema awards
See also
M. G. Ramachandran's unrealized projects
First Ramachandran ministry
Second Ramachandran ministry
Third Ramachandran ministry
References
External links
M.G. Ramchandran: Jewel of the Masses
All about Dr MGR
MGR Memorial Charitable Trust
MGR monthly magazine+News portal
Kandy-born Actor-Politico "MGR" Reigned Supreme in Tamil Nadu Cinema and Politics-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
M. G. Ramachandran
1917 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Indian film directors
20th-century Indian male actors
Actors from Kandy
Actors in Hindi cinema
Actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Chennai
Film producers from Chennai
Filmfare Awards South winners
Indian actor-politicians
Indian Hindus
Indian male film actors
Indian political party founders
Indian Tamil politicians
Kidney transplant recipients
Malayali people
Male actors from Chennai
Members of the 4th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989
Politicians from Chennai
Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Sri Lankan emigrants to India
State funerals in India
Tamil film directors
Tamil film producers
Tamil-language film directors
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
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"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",
"Interesting Times: The Secret of My Success is a 2002 Chinese documentary film by director Duan Jinchuan about China's contemporary politics of democracy and the realities of the one child policy. The director shows how this policy is being implemented in Fanshen, a rural village in Northeast China.\n\nThis film is part of the 2002 series 'Interesting Times' showing different aspects of modern life in China:\nThe secret of my success - shows how Chinese politics are implemented in the countryside.\nThe war of love Directors: Duan Jinchuan & Jiang Yue - is a portrait of a marriage broker.\nXiao’s long march Director: Wu Gong - about the People's Liberation Army.\nThis happy life Director: Jiang Yue - aims to define the concept of political education in China.\n\nAwards\nIDFA Award for best Mid-Length Documentary (2002)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Interesting times: the secrets of my success documentary online\n\nChinese documentary films\n2002 films\n2002 documentary films\nChinese films\nOne-child policy"
] |
[
"M. G. Ramachandran",
"1967 Assassination attempt",
"What happened in the 1967 assassination attempt",
"During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know.",
"What were the motives?",
"On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project.",
"What was the project",
"future film project.",
"Any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"After the operation, MGR's voice changed."
] |
C_b3a917cecf2f40a181d70840e5a54092_1
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How did it change?
| 6 |
How did MGR's voice change?
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M. G. Ramachandran
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The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself. After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred. Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly. CANNOTANSWER
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Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems.
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Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist and filmmaker who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 till his death in 1987. He was the founder of AIADMK and mentor of J. Jayalalithaa. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.
In his youth, M.G.R. and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family. Influenced by Gandhian ideals, M.G.R. joined the Indian National Congress. After a few years of acting in plays, he made his film debut in the 1936 film Sathi Leelavathi in a supporting role. By the late 1940s, he had graduated to lead roles.
M.G.R. became a member of the C. N. Annadurai-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK party) and rose through its ranks, using his popularity as a film star to build a political base. In 1972, three years after Annadurai's death, he left the DMK, then led by M. Karunanidhi to form his own party—the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Five years later, M.G.R. steered an AIADMK-led alliance to victory in the 1977 election, routing the DMK in the process. He became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the first film actor to become a chief minister in India. Except for a four-month interregnum in 1980, when his government was overthrown by the Union government, he remained as chief minister till his death in 1987, leading the AIADMK to two more electoral wins in 1980 and 1984.
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of diabetes. He died on 24 December 1987 in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after a prolonged illness. M.G.R. is regarded as a cultural icon in Tamil Nadu and is regarded as one of the most influential actors of Tamil cinema. His autobiography Naan Yaen Piranthaen (Why I was Born) was published in 2003.
Early life and background
Maruthur Gopala Ramachandran was born in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in the Malayali family of Melakkath Gopalan Menon, a Palakkad Mannadiyar Nair and Maruthur Satyabhama, a Vadavannur Vellalar from Palakkad, in the modern-day state of Kerala. Gopalan Menon died when M.G.R. was just two and a half years old. Just after the death of his father, his sister too died due to ill health. His mother had to struggle alone to bring up M.G.R. and his brother. She took the decision to return to India and went back to Kerala where she failed to get the support of her relatives. With the support of Velu Nair of Kumbakonam, Satyabhama put both her sons in school.
It was in school that M.G.R. started his acting career and joined the Boys Company drama troupe taking part in the rigorous training programmes conducted by the troupe in the areas of singing, dancing, sword fighting, diction and memory with active interest and involvement.
The challenges faced by him during his early life and childhood played an important role in shaping his character and political career. After a brief acting stint overseas with the help of Madras Kandasamy Mudaliar, during which he had played female roles, he returned to India and rejoined the Boys Company and started playing lead roles for the first time.
In his early days, M.G.R. was a devout Hindu and a devotee of Lord Sri Murugan, and his mother's favourite god Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. After joining the DMK, he turned a rationalist.
M.G.R.'s first marriage was to Chitarikulam Bargavi, also known as Thangamani, who died early due to an illness. He later married for the second time, to Satyanandavati, who also died soon after marriage due to tuberculosis. Later M.G.R. married for the third time, this time to V. N. Janaki a former Tamil film actress who was once his leading lady and a future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. had no children from any of his marriages.
Acting career
M.G.R. made his film debut in 1936, in the film Sathi Leelavathi (1936 film), directed by Ellis R. Dungan, an American-born film director. Generally starring in romance or action films, M.G.R. got his breakthrough in the 1950 film written by M. Karunanidhi. Soon he role to popularity with the 1954 film Malaikkallan. He acted as hero in the Tamil film industry's first ever full length Gevacolor film, the 1955 Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum. He won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the film Rickshawkaran in 1972.
His 1973 blockbuster Ulagam Sutrum Valiban broke the previous box office records of his films. It was one of the few films filmed abroad in those days. It was shot in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. His acting career ended in 1987 with his last film Ullagam Suthi Paru, in which he acted even though he had been diagnosed with kidney failure. M.G.R. said there was no question of ‘retirement’ for anyone associated in whichever capacity with the cine field.
Mentor
Kali N. Rathnam, a pioneer of Tamil stage drama, and K.P. Kesavan were mentors of M.G.R. in his acting career.
Political career
M.G.R. was a member of the Congress Party till 1953, and he used to wear khādī. In 1953 M.G.R. joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), or Dravidian Progressive Federation, attracted by founder C. N. Annadurai. He became a vocal Tamil and Dravidian nationalist and prominent member of DMK. He added glamour to the Dravidian movement which was sweeping Tamil Nadu. M.G.R. became a member of the state Legislative Council in 1962. At the age of 50, he was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1967. After the death of his mentor, Annadurai, M.G.R. became the treasurer of DMK in 1969 after Muthuvel Karunanidhi became the Chief Minister.
1967 assassination attempt
The actor and politician M. R. Radha and M.G.R. had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited M.G.R. to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot M.G.R. in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.
After the operation, M.G.R.'s voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, M.G.R. lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing problems in the ear. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see M.G.R. at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid M.G.R. an advance for M.G.R.'s next film. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, M.G.R. acted in Devar's film Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, M.G.R.'s speaking parts in the film Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only film in which M.G.R. spoke with old and new voices between scenes: M.G.R. was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.
Petralthaan Pillaya was the last film of M.G.R.-M. R. Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before M.G.R. was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where M.G.R. had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.
Differences with Karunanidhi and birth of AIADMK
In 1972, DMK leader Karunanidhi started to project his first son M. K. Muthu in a big way in film and politics, around the same time M.G.R. was accusing that corruption had grown in the party after the demise of C. N. Annadurai. Consequently, M.G.R. was expelled from the party.
Upon his ouster from DMK,his volunteer Anakaputhur Ramalingam started a new party called the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Joined as a member of that party and became its leader and generel secretary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vikatan.com/government-and-politics/politics/48-years-history-of-admk-party|title=எம்.ஜி.ஆரை நீக்கியதன் விளைவை தி.மு.க சந்திக்கும்!" அப்போதே எச்சரித்த ராஜாஜி #48YearsOfADMK|website=Vikatan.com}}</ref> later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the only powerful opponent of the DMK. He mobilised between 1972 and 1977 to spread and preach his party ambition with films like Netru Indru Naalai (1974), Idhayakani (1975), Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga (1977), etc.
Continued success in TN Assembly elections
1977 Assembly elections
The AIADMK contested the 1977 Tamil Nadu Legislative. The election was a four cornered contest between the AIADMK, DMK, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Janata Party. The AIADMK allied itself with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), while INC(I) and Communist Party (CPI) contested as allies. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and Janata Party (JNP) contested the elections alone. The AIADMK did not field any candidate in the Usilampatti Constituency in support of the All India Forward Bloc leader P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Similarly, the AIADMK also supported the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) candidate M. Abdul Latheef in the Vaniyambadi Constituency. In the parliamentary elections that occurred just three months prior to these elections, there had been two major alliances – the AIADMK led AIADMK-INC-CPI coalition and the DMK led DMK-NCO-JNP-CPM coalition. But in the months that followed the parliamentary election, these coalitions fell apart. The AIADMK alliance won the elections by winning 144 seats out of 234 and M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Upon winning the 1977 state elections, M.G.R. became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 30 June 1977, remaining in office till his death in 1987. In 1979, members of his party Satyavani Muthu and Aravinda Bala Pajanor became the first non-Congress politicians from Tamil Nadu to be ministers in the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK won every state assembly election as long as M.G.R. was alive. Although Annadurai and Karunanidhi had acted in stage plays in trivial roles, in their younger days, before becoming chief minister, M.G.R. was the first popular film actor to be a Chief Minister in India.
1980 Parliament and assembly elections
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam allied with Indian National Congress (Indira) in the 1977 parliamentary election. However, when Janata Party won the election and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, M.G.R. extended unconditional support to the Janata party Government. He continued his support to the Charan Singh Government in 1979. After the fall of the Charan Singh government, fresh parliamentary elections were conducted in 1980. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam struck alliance with INC(I). AIADMK and Janata Party alliance won only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu in that parliamentary election. INC(I) won the election and Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister.
Congress-DMK victory in the 1980 parliamentary election emboldened their alliance and made them think that people lost their faith in M.G.R. government. DMK pressed the central government to dismiss the Tamil Nadu government using similar allegations used by M.G.R. to dismiss DMK government in 1976. The AIADMK ministry and the assembly were dismissed by the central government and fresh elections conducted in 1980.
Despite their victory at the 1980 Lok Sabha polls, DMK and Indira Congress failed to win the legislative assembly election. AIADMK won the election and its leader and incumbent Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran was sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time.
1984 assembly elections
Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984. During the same time, M. G. Ramachandran was diagnosed with kidney failure and admitted into a hospital in New York City. Rajiv Gandhi assumed office immediately and this required a fresh mandate from the people. Indian National Congress (Indira) and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam formed an alliance and contested the election. M. G. Ramachandran was confined to the hospital. Video coverage of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital along with Indira Gandhi's assassination were stitched together by the AIADMK man in charge of campaigning, R. M. Veerappan. The video was distributed and played across all over Tamil Nadu. Rajiv Gandhi visited cyclone-hit areas in Tamil Nadu, which also boosted the alliance. The sympathy wave created by Indira's assassination, M.G.R.'s illness and Rajiv Gandhi's charisma helped the alliance sweep the election.DMK leader M. Karunanidhi did not contest this election, due to the fact that the AIADMK leader M.G.R. was admitted to a hospital in the U.S. and Indira Gandhi being assassinated. It was a landslide victory for AIADMK-Congress combine which won 195 seats in assembly polls. The electoral victory proved the undying charisma of M.G.R. upon the masses.
Achievements as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Once he became Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, he placed great emphasis on social development, especially education. One of his most successful policies was the conversion of the "Midday Meal Scheme", introduced by the popular Congress Chief Minister and kingmaker K Kamaraj, which already was encouraging underprivileged children to attend school, into "M.G.R.'s Nutritious Meal Scheme" in the government-run and -aided schools in Tamil Nadu by adding saththurundai – a nutritious sugary flour dumpling. This scheme was at a cost of Rs. 1 billion and was imposed in 1982. A little more than 120,000 children of the state were benefited. He also introduced Women's Special buses. He introduced a liquor ban in the state and preservation of old temples and historical monuments, ultimately increasing the state's tourist income. He set up a free school for the cinema technicians children in Kodambakkam called M.G.R. Primary & Higher Secondary School which provided free mid-day meals in the 1980s. He led the AIADMK to victory in the 1984 assembly elections, despite not taking part in the campaigning. At that time he was undergoing medical treatment in America and his images were broadcast in Tamil Nadu through cinema halls. This was an effective campaign tactic and AIADMK won the elections claiming around 56% of assembly seats, indicating the depth of his popular support. He won his seat in a double landslide victory in 1984. He still holds the record of being the chief minister with the highest consistent longevity of more than a decade.
Failed Merger Talks with DMK
Karunanidhi claimed on 1 April 2009 and again on 13 May 2012 that M.G.R. was ready for the merger of his party with the DMK in September 1979, with former chief minister of Odisha Biju Patnaik acting as the mediator. The plan failed, because Panruti Ramachandran, who was close to M.G.R. acted as a spoiler and M.G.R. changed his mind.
Criticism and controversies
Even after his death, M.G.R. proved to be very popular in the state and his rule has been cited by many of his contemporaries as best in the country. However, his rule is not without criticism. Economic data under his rule showed that annual growth and per capita income was lower than the national average and the state went from being second among 25 industrialised states in development after Kamaraj's rule to tenth. This decline, according to critics has been due to shift of government resources from power and irrigation to social and agriculture sector according to Madras Institute of Development Studies reported in 1988. In addition, the emphasis on "welfare schemes" such as free electricity to farmers, mid-day meal schemes, etc. has been seen by many as taking money away from infrastructure development that could have benefited the poor. In addition, the liquor tax imposed during his rule was considered to contribute to a regressive tax mostly affecting the poor.
Other criticisms have been on M.G.R.'s centralised decision-making, which many blame for inefficiency and corruption taking hold of his administration. Some examples stated by the critics include Goondas act in 1982 and other acts that limited political criticism in the media, which led to a "police state" during his administration. While these criticisms have been in the minority, supporters of M.G.R. counter that most of these problems were a result of the party members serving M.G.R. rather than the leader himself. While he is not considered a divisive figure in the state, critics and supporters alike agree that his charisma and popularity trumped policy decisions that led to his eventual success during his tenure as chief minister.
Natwar Singh in his autobiography One Life is Not Enough alleges that M.G.R. covertly supported the cause of independent Tamil Eelam and financed the LTTE and their cadres were being given military training in Tamil Nadu. He also alleges that M.G.R. considered Jaffna an extension of Tamil Nadu and without informing the Indian Government at the time, had gifted 40 million rupees to the LTTE.
M.G.R. has been accused of being intolerant towards the media. In April 1987, the Editor of Ananda Vikatan S. Balasubramanian was sentenced to 3 months in jail by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for publishing a cartoon, depicting government ministers as bandits and lawmakers as pickpockets, though specific legislature was not specified. But due to media outcry, he was released and S. Balasubramanian later won a case against his arrest. Earlier, Vaniga Otrumai editor A.M. Paulraj was sentenced to 2 weeks imprisonment by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for his writing.
Bharat Ratna
After his death in 1987, he became the third Chief Minister from the state of Tamil Nadu to receive the Bharat Ratna after C. Rajagopalachari and K. Kamaraj. The timing of the award was controversial, due to the fact that it was given so quickly after his death and he was elected as Chief Minister only 11 years before the award. Many opponents, mostly outside Tamil Nadu, criticised then ruling party INC, under Rajiv Gandhi to have influenced the selection committee to give the award to help win the upcoming 1989 Lok Sabha election. The ruling party forming a coalition with J. Jayalalithaa, the successor to M.G.R. at that time, were able to sweep Tamil Nadu, winning 38 out of 39 seats, INC were however unable to win nationally.
Commemorative coins
To commemorate M.G.R.'s Birth centenary in 2017, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India decided to issue ₹100 and ₹5 coins that would bear his image as a portrait along with an inscription of "Dr. M. G. Ramachandran Birth Centenary".
Elections contested and positions held
Tamil Nadu Legislative elections
Posts in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Philanthropy
He personally offered relief in disasters and calamities like fire, flood, drought, and cyclones. He was the first donor during the war with China in 1962 (Sino-Indian War), donating Rs. 75,000 to the war fund. He was the founder and editor of Thai weekly magazine and Anna daily newspaper in Tamil. He was the owner of Sathya Studios and Emgeeyar Pictures (willed to charity) which produced many of the films he acted in. He had gifted a golden sword weighing half a Kilogram to Mookambika temple in Kollur, Udupi district.
Illness and death
In October 1984, M.G.R. was diagnosed with kidney failure as a result of uncontrolled diabetes, which was soon followed by a mild heart attack and a massive stroke. He was rushed to the Downstate Medical Center in New York City, United States for treatment, undergoing a kidney transplant. Despite his poor health, he did contest the assembly election held later that year while still confined to the hospital, winning from Andipatti. During the election, photos of M.G.R. recuperating in hospital were published, creating a sympathy wave among the people. M.G.R. returned to Madras on 4 February 1985 following his recovery. He was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the third consecutive term on 10 February 1985. The next two years and 10 months were spent in frequent trips to the United States for treatment.
M.G.R. never fully recovered from his multiple health problems and died on 24 December 1987 at 3:30 am in his Ramavaram Gardens residence in Manapakkam after his prolonged illness. He was 70 years old, just a month away before his 71st birthday. His death sparked off a frenzy of looting and rioting all over the state. Shops, cinemas, buses and other public and private property became the target of violence let loose. The police had to resort issuing shoot-at-sight orders. Schools and colleges immediately announced holidays till the situation came under control. Violence during the funeral alone left 29 people dead and 47 police personnel badly wounded.
His remains were buried in the northern end of Marina Beach is now called MGR Memorial which is adjacent to the Anna Memorial.
This state of affairs continued for almost a month across Tamil Nadu. Around one million people followed his remains, around 30 followers committed suicide and people had their heads tonsured. After his death, his political party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, split between his wife V. N. Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa; they merged in 1989.
In 1989 Dr. M. G. R. Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired was established at the erstwhile residence M.G.R. Thottam, Ramapuram, in accordance with his last will & testament written in January 1987. His official residence at 27, Arcot Street, T. Nagar is now M.G.R. Memorial House and is open for public viewing. His film studio, Sathya Studios, has been converted into a women's college.
Legacy
After his electoral success with in 1977, the DMK has not yet returned to power in Tamil Nadu until his death. On 19 March 1988, M.G.R. was posthumously honoured with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. He is widely acknowledged as "Puratchi Thalaivar" (Revolutionary Leader) in Tamil Nadu. One of the major roads in Chennai was named in his honour, Dr. M.G.R. Salai—it was previously called Gokula Kannan Road, and a statue of M. G. Ramachandran now stands there and M.G.R. Nagar, a residential neighbourhood was named after him in Chennai, Salem Central Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Central Bus Stand and Omalur Main Road was renamed M.G.R. Salai in Salem, Tirunelveli New Bus Stand was renamed Bharat Ratna Dr. M.G.R. Bus Stand in Tirunelveli and two parks were named Bharat Ratna Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Park and M.G.R. Park in Thoothukudi.
A life-size statue of M. G. Ramachandran was unveiled on 7 December 2006 in the Parliament House by then Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee in his honour and the function was attended by the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa and notable politicians.
The central government issued a commemorative coin of ₹ 100 and ₹ 5 denomination to mark the centenary celebrations of him on 17 January 2017 in Chennai.
On 31 October 2017, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Mattuthavani Bus Terminus in Madurai as M.G.R. Bus Stand to honour him.
On 9 October 2018, Government of Tamil Nadu renamed the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. Bus Terminus to honour him.
On 5 April 2019, Government of India renamed the Chennai Central railway station as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station to honour him.
On 31 July 2020, Chennai Central metro station in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Metro by Government of Tamil Nadu to honour him.
On 17 October 2021, the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has been renamed as Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai by party leaders in memory of the party's founder.
In popular cultureIruvar (1997) by Mani Rantham is based on rivalry between M.G.R. and M. Karunanidhi which Malayalam actor Mohanlal played Anandan (M.G.R.)
2019 web series Queen which he was renamed as G. M. Ravichandran which Indrajith Sukumaran portrayed him . Thalaivi (2021) portrayed by Arvind Swami based on Jayalalithaa's life
Filmography
As an actor
As producer and director
1958 Nadodi Mannan, producer and director
1969 Adimai Penn, producer
1973 Ulagam Sutrum Valiban, producer and director
1977 Madhuraiyai Meetta Sundharapandiyan'', director
Awards and honours
Honours
Other cinema awards
See also
M. G. Ramachandran's unrealized projects
First Ramachandran ministry
Second Ramachandran ministry
Third Ramachandran ministry
References
External links
M.G. Ramchandran: Jewel of the Masses
All about Dr MGR
MGR Memorial Charitable Trust
MGR monthly magazine+News portal
Kandy-born Actor-Politico "MGR" Reigned Supreme in Tamil Nadu Cinema and Politics-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
M. G. Ramachandran
1917 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Indian film directors
20th-century Indian male actors
Actors from Kandy
Actors in Hindi cinema
Actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Malayalam cinema
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Chief ministers from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Chennai
Film producers from Chennai
Filmfare Awards South winners
Indian actor-politicians
Indian Hindus
Indian male film actors
Indian political party founders
Indian Tamil politicians
Kidney transplant recipients
Malayali people
Male actors from Chennai
Members of the 4th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1971–1976
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1977–1980
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1980–1984
Tamil Nadu MLAs 1985–1989
Politicians from Chennai
Recipients of the Bharat Ratna
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Sri Lankan emigrants to India
State funerals in India
Tamil film directors
Tamil film producers
Tamil-language film directors
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
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[
"A Different Shade is the debut studio album from Swedish singer Erik Segerstedt, released on February 1, 2007. It debuted at number two on the Swedish Albums Chart. The album spawned two singles, \"Can't Say I'm Sorry\", a number-one single, and \"How Did we Change\", a number-two single.\n\nTrack listing\n\"2 Happy 2 Soon\"\n\"How Did We Change\"\n\"I Can't Say I'm Sorry\"\n\"When I Hear You Say My Name\"\n\"Wherever You Are\"\n\"I'm Not Alone\"\n\"Bring My Baby Back\"\n\"She's So\"\n\"Freeway\"\n\"Knockin' on Heaven's Door\"\n\"Everything Changes\"\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2007 albums\nErik Segerstedt albums",
"A Change of Heart may refer to:\n\n \"A Change of Heart\" (How I Met Your Mother), an episode of the TV series How I Met Your Mother\n A Change of Heart (TV series), a Hong Kong television series\n A Change of Heart (album), a 1987 album by David Sanborn\n \"A Change of Heart\" (Bernard Butler song), 1998\n \"A Change of Heart\" (The 1975 song), 2016\n A Father for Brittany (also known as A Change of Heart), a 1998 Lifetime television film\n A Change of Heart, a 1998 TV movie starring Jean Smart\n A Change of Heart (film), a 2017 comedy film starring Jim Belushi\n\nSee also\n Change of Heart (disambiguation)"
] |
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"Hey! Say! JUMP",
"2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs, singles and dramas"
] |
C_e859161ff1f54b10a21b92826f5f6b4e_1
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what happened in 2011?
| 1 |
what happened in 2011?
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Hey! Say! JUMP
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Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011. It begins at 6:30 JST every Saturday. The name and theme of the show are based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, a program that aired roughly 20 years previously, featuring some of the senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates. The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright," that it was, "no big deal." The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa himself made an official announcement on the issue. He stated that Morimoto now has ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of him returning. On June 29, 2011, the group released a new single with the name of "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day with 113,554 sales. This has made it Hey! Say! JUMP's highest selling single since "Ultra Music Power" as their debut song back in 2007. On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power". This was their first solo without Morimoto, due to the smoking scandal and suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of the 3D movie The Smurfs, in which members Ryosuke Yamada and Yuri Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf respectively. Hikaru Yaotome was cast in Ikemen Desu Ne, alongside fellow Johnny's idol from Kis-My-Ft2, Yuta Tamamori and Taisuke Fujigaya. CANNOTANSWER
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Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011.
|
Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an eight-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more than 10 million physical copies.
Hey! Say! JUMP originally debuted with ten members, the largest group in Johnny's history. In 2011, Ryutaro Morimoto was indefinitely suspended from the group following an underage smoking scandal. On April 11, Keito Okamoto announced that he will leave the group in order to pursue a career in acting, but remained under Johnny & Associates.
History
Formation
During a KAT-TUN spring concert on April 3, 2007, Yuya Takaki, Daiki Arioka, Ryosuke Yamada, Yuto Nakajima and Yuri Chinen were announced to become part of a temporary group called Hey! Say! 7. The name refers to the Heisei period during which all members were born, as well as to the year 2007 as the group's formation year.
On June 16, 2007, it was announced that Hey! Say! 7 would release "Hey! Say!" as a single on August 1. This later became Hey! Say! JUMP's single. The song and the single's B-side, "Bon Bon", were used as the second opening and closing themes for the anime Lovely Complex. The single sold 120,520 copies in its first week, making the group the youngest male group to top the Oricon singles chart.
On September 24, the five members of Hey! Say! 7 were joined by Kota Yabu, Kei Inoo, Hikaru Yaotome, Keito Okamoto and Ryutaro Morimoto, all represented by Johnny's Jr's. The ten-member group was organized into two sub-groups of five, with the older members forming Hey! Say! BEST and the younger members in Hey! Say! 7.
Early releases
It was announced that they would release their first CD on November 14, 2007, including the song "Ultra Music Power", which was used as the theme at Japan's Volleyball World Cup Relay 2007.
On December 22, the group held their debut concert: Debut Concert Ikinari! in Tokyo Dome. With an average age of 15.7, they were the youngest group to perform in the Tokyo Dome. A concert DVD was released on April 30, 2008.
The group released their third single "Dreams Come True" on May 21, which topped the Oricon Chart. In July 2008, it was announced that the group's fourth new single "Your Seed" would be used as the title song for the Japanese release of the animated film Kung-Fu Panda.
In October 2008, the group released the single "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy". It was used as the theme song for the drama Scrap Teacher, which starred members Arioka, Yamada, Nakajima, and Chinen.
After the full group's tour, junior division Hey! Say! 7 had their first concert series called Hey! Say! 7 Spring Concert 09 MONKEY. Following this, the entire group toured their concert Hey! Say! JUMP CONCERT TOUR Spring '09. A second concert DVD, Hey! Say! JUMP-ing Tour '08–'09, was released in April 2009.
On February 24, 2010, after a year and a half of touring, the group released their sixth single "Hitomi no Screen", which topped the Oricon weekly single charts with 202,000 sales.
The group released its first album, JUMP No. 1, on July 7, 2010. On December 15, the group released the single "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)". It reached number one on the Oricon singles chart and sold 64,206 albums on its first day.
2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members starred in the 2011 variety show Yan Yan JUMP. It was based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, which had aired two decades earlier, featuring senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates.
The group was surrounded by controversy in June 2011 after photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking while underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright" and that it was "no big deal". In response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology the following day and planned to indefinitely suspend Morimoto from all of his activities. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa stated that Morimoto had ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of his returning to the group.
On June 29, the group released the new single "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day, and was the group's highest-selling single since "Ultra Music Power" in 2007.
On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power", their first release after Morimoto's suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of The Smurfs, in which members Yamada and Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf.
2012: Asia tour, musical, second album
The group held their first Asian concert tour from March to June 2012, performing in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. However, on March 15, it was announced that the Hong Kong leg would be postponed until May and that the Bangkok tour was cancelled for unstated reasons. The tour was launched at the Yokohama Arena on May 3.
Their tenth single, "SUPER DELICATE", was released on February 22, and was used as a theme song for Risou no Musuko.
On March 22, it was announced that a new musical called Johnny's World would be produced and directed by Johnny Kitagawa and start its run at the Imperial Garden Theater in November 2012. Hey! Say! JUMP would be the main cast while one hundred others made an appearance including Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone, A.B.C-Z and Johnny's Jr., and guest appearances by Kamenashi Kazuya, Takizawa Hideaki and Domoto Koichi.
On April 25, the group announced that they would be releasing their second album, JUMP World, with their singles from "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)" onwards.
At the end of 2012, it was announced that Ryosuke Yamada would be making his solo debut with the single "Mystery Virgin" on January 9, 2013. The song was first solicited to mainstream on the radio on November 30, 2012 and was available for digital download on December 26, 2012.
2013–2014: S3ART, LIVE With Me, shows
JUMP held another nationwide tour, Hey! Say! JUMP Zenkoku e JUMP Tour 2013, from April to August 2013. Both of the singles that they released in 2013, "Come On A My House" and "Ride With Me", went to number one on the Oricon chart. The latter was the theme song of the 2014 sequel to Kindaichi Case Files, with Yamada reprising his role.
In January 2014, the group released "AinoArika". The song was used as the theme for Dark System Koi no Ouza Ketteisen, starring Yaotome and Inoo. The single topped the Oricon chart.
Other acting appearances by the group's members include Yamada and Arioka in the drama Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Neo, Nakajima and Takaki in Suikyu Yankees, with Takaki also appearing in Dr. DMAT and HAMU. The group released a double A-side single called "Weekender/Asu e no YELL", which was the theme song for Yamada's and Nakajima's dramas, and topped the Oricon chart.
The group's third album S3ART went to number one on the Oricon chart the week it was released. The group embarked on an accompanying tour for the album titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2014 S3ART including a show in Tokyo Dome.
2015: JUMPing CAR, "Chau#", Itadaki High JUMP, 24 hour television, JUMPing CARnival, "Kimi Attraction"
In 2015, the group started their first TV show called Itadaki High JUMP and hosted Little Tokyo Life with Johnny's WEST, another Johnny's group. They were also the main personalities of 24 Hour Television.
In March, Yamada made his film debut as Nagisa Shiota in the live action adaptation of Assassination Classroom. The movie topped the box office of Japan on its first opening week.
The group released the single Sensations, which was used as the image song of the movie Koro Sensations. It topped the Oricon chart as did following singles "Chau#/我 I Need You" and "Kimi Attraction", and their fourth album JUMPing CAR. They promoted the album with a tour titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2015 JUMPing CARnival and collaborated with the annual Johnny's Countdown Concert which was broadcast live.
JUMP held their own 2015–2016 countdown concert at Kyocera Dome, making them the youngest group of Johnny's Entertainment to ever hold their own countdown concert.
2016: DEAR, "Sayonara Sensation", "Maji SUNSHINE", "Fantastic Time", "Give Me Love", FNS 27Hour Festival
Hey! Say! JUMP returned as their sub unit, Sensations, and released the single for the movie titled "Sayonara Sensation". It was released for the film Assassination Classroom: Graduation, starring Yamada.
The group also released the single "Maji SUNSHINE". It topped the Oricon charts in its first week, and was used for the group's CM for KOSE Cosmeport Cosmetics. They were one of the main personalities of Fuji Television's FNS 27Hour Festival, with Inoo being one of the main MCs. During this, their show Itadaki High JUMP also had a crossover with Kis-My-Ft2's show Kisumai Busaiku in which the two groups competed in various activities.
On July 27, the group released their fifth album titled DEAR which sold 141,079 copies on its first day. It landed on the No. 1 spot at the Oricon Weekly Album Chart. In support of the album, a tour started on July 28 at the Osaka-jō Hall called Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2016 DEAR.
On October 26, the group released a new single called "Fantastic Time", which was used as the opening theme for anime Time Bokan 24.
On December 14, the group released a new single called "Give Me Love", which was used for the drama Cain and Abel starring member Yamada. It was described as a mellow R&B song about life's troubles and love.
2017–present
The song "Over the Top" was announced as the new opening theme song for the anime タイムボカン24 (Time Bokan 24).
To honor the group's tenth anniversary, the greatest hits album Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O was released on July 26, 2017, featuring all 23 singles from their first ten years.
"Maeomuke" was released on February 14, 2018, and was the theme song for the drama The Kitazawas: We Mind Our Own Business, which starred Yamada.
Members
Hey! Say! BEST
Kota Yabu
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Hey! Say! 7
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Units
Hey! Say! 7 (a temporary group before Hey! Say! JUMP was formed)
Yuya Takaki
Daiki Arioka
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
S3ART Units
Kaito y-ELLOW-voice (怪盗y-ELLOW-voice)
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Ryosuke Yamada
Night Style People
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Aioitai (愛追I隊)
Kei Inoo
Daiki Arioka
Keito Okamoto
Sensations
Kota Yabu as Scope (スコープ)
Yuya Takaki as Rapid Fire (ラピッドファイヤー)
Kei Inoo as Geek (ギーク)
Hikaru Yaotome as Sonic Hunter (ソニックハンター)
Daiki Arioka as Falcon Jr. (ファルコンJr.)
Keito Okamoto as Shinobi (SHINOBI)
Ryosuke Yamada as Commander (コマンダー)
Yuto Nakajima as Bullet (弾丸)
Yuri Chinen as Doctor (ドクター)
JUMPing Carnival Units
UNION
Kota Yabu
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Pet Shop Love Motion
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Sangatsu Juuyokka ~ Tokei
Yamada Ryosuke
Okamoto Keito
A.Y.T.
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Discography
Singles
2007: "Hey! Say!" – Hey! Say! 7 (Temporary group)
2007: "Ultra Music Power"
2008: "Dreams Come True"
2008: "Your Seed/Bōken Rider"
2008: "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy"
2010: "Hitomi no Screen"
2010: "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)"
2011: "OVER"
2011: "Magic Power"
2012: "SUPER DELICATE"
2013: "Come On A My House"
2013: "Ride With Me"
2014: "AinoArika/Aisureba Motto Happy Life"
2014: "Weekender/Asu e no YELL"
2015: "Koro Sensations" – Sensations
2015: "Chau#/我 I Need You"
2015: "Kimi Attraction"
2016: "Sayonara Sensation" - Sensations
2016: "Maji SUNSHINE"
2016: "Fantastic Time"
2016: "Give Me Love"
2017: "OVER THE TOP"
2017: "Precious Girl/Are You There? (A.Y.T)"
2017: "White Love"
2018: "Maeomuke"
2018: "COSMIC☆HUMAN"
2019: "Lucky-Unlucky / Oh! My Darling"
2019: "Fanfare!"
2020: "I AM / Muah Muah"
2020: "Last Mermaid..."
2020: "Your Song"
2021 "Negative Fighter"
2021 "Gunjo Runaway"
2021 "Sing-Along"
Albums
2010: JUMP No. 1
2012: JUMP World
2014: S3ART
2015: JUMPing CAR
2016: DEAR
2017: Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O (10th Anniversary Album)
2018: SENSE or LOVE
2019: Parade
2020: ''Fab! -Music Speaks.-
DVDs
2019: "Ai Dake Ga Subete / What Do You Want?"
Awards
Japan Gold Disc Awards
The Recording Industry Association of Japan recognized the group with the following Japan Gold Disc Awards for music sales:
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|rowspan="2"| 2008
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| The Best 10 New Artists
|
|-
| "Ultra Music Power"
| The Best 10 Singles
|
|-
| 2015
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| Yahoo! Search Awards: Idol Award
|
References
External links
Hey! Say! JUMP
Living people
Johnny & Associates
2007 establishments in Japan
Musical groups established in 2007
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese musical groups
Year of birth missing (living people)
| false |
[
"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"
] |
[
"Hey! Say! JUMP",
"2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs, singles and dramas",
"what happened in 2011?",
"Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011."
] |
C_e859161ff1f54b10a21b92826f5f6b4e_1
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was the show a success?
| 2 |
Was the show Yan Yan JUMP a success?
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Hey! Say! JUMP
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Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011. It begins at 6:30 JST every Saturday. The name and theme of the show are based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, a program that aired roughly 20 years previously, featuring some of the senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates. The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright," that it was, "no big deal." The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa himself made an official announcement on the issue. He stated that Morimoto now has ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of him returning. On June 29, 2011, the group released a new single with the name of "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day with 113,554 sales. This has made it Hey! Say! JUMP's highest selling single since "Ultra Music Power" as their debut song back in 2007. On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power". This was their first solo without Morimoto, due to the smoking scandal and suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of the 3D movie The Smurfs, in which members Ryosuke Yamada and Yuri Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf respectively. Hikaru Yaotome was cast in Ikemen Desu Ne, alongside fellow Johnny's idol from Kis-My-Ft2, Yuta Tamamori and Taisuke Fujigaya. CANNOTANSWER
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The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked.
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Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an eight-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more than 10 million physical copies.
Hey! Say! JUMP originally debuted with ten members, the largest group in Johnny's history. In 2011, Ryutaro Morimoto was indefinitely suspended from the group following an underage smoking scandal. On April 11, Keito Okamoto announced that he will leave the group in order to pursue a career in acting, but remained under Johnny & Associates.
History
Formation
During a KAT-TUN spring concert on April 3, 2007, Yuya Takaki, Daiki Arioka, Ryosuke Yamada, Yuto Nakajima and Yuri Chinen were announced to become part of a temporary group called Hey! Say! 7. The name refers to the Heisei period during which all members were born, as well as to the year 2007 as the group's formation year.
On June 16, 2007, it was announced that Hey! Say! 7 would release "Hey! Say!" as a single on August 1. This later became Hey! Say! JUMP's single. The song and the single's B-side, "Bon Bon", were used as the second opening and closing themes for the anime Lovely Complex. The single sold 120,520 copies in its first week, making the group the youngest male group to top the Oricon singles chart.
On September 24, the five members of Hey! Say! 7 were joined by Kota Yabu, Kei Inoo, Hikaru Yaotome, Keito Okamoto and Ryutaro Morimoto, all represented by Johnny's Jr's. The ten-member group was organized into two sub-groups of five, with the older members forming Hey! Say! BEST and the younger members in Hey! Say! 7.
Early releases
It was announced that they would release their first CD on November 14, 2007, including the song "Ultra Music Power", which was used as the theme at Japan's Volleyball World Cup Relay 2007.
On December 22, the group held their debut concert: Debut Concert Ikinari! in Tokyo Dome. With an average age of 15.7, they were the youngest group to perform in the Tokyo Dome. A concert DVD was released on April 30, 2008.
The group released their third single "Dreams Come True" on May 21, which topped the Oricon Chart. In July 2008, it was announced that the group's fourth new single "Your Seed" would be used as the title song for the Japanese release of the animated film Kung-Fu Panda.
In October 2008, the group released the single "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy". It was used as the theme song for the drama Scrap Teacher, which starred members Arioka, Yamada, Nakajima, and Chinen.
After the full group's tour, junior division Hey! Say! 7 had their first concert series called Hey! Say! 7 Spring Concert 09 MONKEY. Following this, the entire group toured their concert Hey! Say! JUMP CONCERT TOUR Spring '09. A second concert DVD, Hey! Say! JUMP-ing Tour '08–'09, was released in April 2009.
On February 24, 2010, after a year and a half of touring, the group released their sixth single "Hitomi no Screen", which topped the Oricon weekly single charts with 202,000 sales.
The group released its first album, JUMP No. 1, on July 7, 2010. On December 15, the group released the single "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)". It reached number one on the Oricon singles chart and sold 64,206 albums on its first day.
2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members starred in the 2011 variety show Yan Yan JUMP. It was based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, which had aired two decades earlier, featuring senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates.
The group was surrounded by controversy in June 2011 after photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking while underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright" and that it was "no big deal". In response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology the following day and planned to indefinitely suspend Morimoto from all of his activities. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa stated that Morimoto had ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of his returning to the group.
On June 29, the group released the new single "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day, and was the group's highest-selling single since "Ultra Music Power" in 2007.
On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power", their first release after Morimoto's suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of The Smurfs, in which members Yamada and Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf.
2012: Asia tour, musical, second album
The group held their first Asian concert tour from March to June 2012, performing in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. However, on March 15, it was announced that the Hong Kong leg would be postponed until May and that the Bangkok tour was cancelled for unstated reasons. The tour was launched at the Yokohama Arena on May 3.
Their tenth single, "SUPER DELICATE", was released on February 22, and was used as a theme song for Risou no Musuko.
On March 22, it was announced that a new musical called Johnny's World would be produced and directed by Johnny Kitagawa and start its run at the Imperial Garden Theater in November 2012. Hey! Say! JUMP would be the main cast while one hundred others made an appearance including Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone, A.B.C-Z and Johnny's Jr., and guest appearances by Kamenashi Kazuya, Takizawa Hideaki and Domoto Koichi.
On April 25, the group announced that they would be releasing their second album, JUMP World, with their singles from "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)" onwards.
At the end of 2012, it was announced that Ryosuke Yamada would be making his solo debut with the single "Mystery Virgin" on January 9, 2013. The song was first solicited to mainstream on the radio on November 30, 2012 and was available for digital download on December 26, 2012.
2013–2014: S3ART, LIVE With Me, shows
JUMP held another nationwide tour, Hey! Say! JUMP Zenkoku e JUMP Tour 2013, from April to August 2013. Both of the singles that they released in 2013, "Come On A My House" and "Ride With Me", went to number one on the Oricon chart. The latter was the theme song of the 2014 sequel to Kindaichi Case Files, with Yamada reprising his role.
In January 2014, the group released "AinoArika". The song was used as the theme for Dark System Koi no Ouza Ketteisen, starring Yaotome and Inoo. The single topped the Oricon chart.
Other acting appearances by the group's members include Yamada and Arioka in the drama Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Neo, Nakajima and Takaki in Suikyu Yankees, with Takaki also appearing in Dr. DMAT and HAMU. The group released a double A-side single called "Weekender/Asu e no YELL", which was the theme song for Yamada's and Nakajima's dramas, and topped the Oricon chart.
The group's third album S3ART went to number one on the Oricon chart the week it was released. The group embarked on an accompanying tour for the album titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2014 S3ART including a show in Tokyo Dome.
2015: JUMPing CAR, "Chau#", Itadaki High JUMP, 24 hour television, JUMPing CARnival, "Kimi Attraction"
In 2015, the group started their first TV show called Itadaki High JUMP and hosted Little Tokyo Life with Johnny's WEST, another Johnny's group. They were also the main personalities of 24 Hour Television.
In March, Yamada made his film debut as Nagisa Shiota in the live action adaptation of Assassination Classroom. The movie topped the box office of Japan on its first opening week.
The group released the single Sensations, which was used as the image song of the movie Koro Sensations. It topped the Oricon chart as did following singles "Chau#/我 I Need You" and "Kimi Attraction", and their fourth album JUMPing CAR. They promoted the album with a tour titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2015 JUMPing CARnival and collaborated with the annual Johnny's Countdown Concert which was broadcast live.
JUMP held their own 2015–2016 countdown concert at Kyocera Dome, making them the youngest group of Johnny's Entertainment to ever hold their own countdown concert.
2016: DEAR, "Sayonara Sensation", "Maji SUNSHINE", "Fantastic Time", "Give Me Love", FNS 27Hour Festival
Hey! Say! JUMP returned as their sub unit, Sensations, and released the single for the movie titled "Sayonara Sensation". It was released for the film Assassination Classroom: Graduation, starring Yamada.
The group also released the single "Maji SUNSHINE". It topped the Oricon charts in its first week, and was used for the group's CM for KOSE Cosmeport Cosmetics. They were one of the main personalities of Fuji Television's FNS 27Hour Festival, with Inoo being one of the main MCs. During this, their show Itadaki High JUMP also had a crossover with Kis-My-Ft2's show Kisumai Busaiku in which the two groups competed in various activities.
On July 27, the group released their fifth album titled DEAR which sold 141,079 copies on its first day. It landed on the No. 1 spot at the Oricon Weekly Album Chart. In support of the album, a tour started on July 28 at the Osaka-jō Hall called Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2016 DEAR.
On October 26, the group released a new single called "Fantastic Time", which was used as the opening theme for anime Time Bokan 24.
On December 14, the group released a new single called "Give Me Love", which was used for the drama Cain and Abel starring member Yamada. It was described as a mellow R&B song about life's troubles and love.
2017–present
The song "Over the Top" was announced as the new opening theme song for the anime タイムボカン24 (Time Bokan 24).
To honor the group's tenth anniversary, the greatest hits album Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O was released on July 26, 2017, featuring all 23 singles from their first ten years.
"Maeomuke" was released on February 14, 2018, and was the theme song for the drama The Kitazawas: We Mind Our Own Business, which starred Yamada.
Members
Hey! Say! BEST
Kota Yabu
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Hey! Say! 7
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Units
Hey! Say! 7 (a temporary group before Hey! Say! JUMP was formed)
Yuya Takaki
Daiki Arioka
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
S3ART Units
Kaito y-ELLOW-voice (怪盗y-ELLOW-voice)
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Ryosuke Yamada
Night Style People
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Aioitai (愛追I隊)
Kei Inoo
Daiki Arioka
Keito Okamoto
Sensations
Kota Yabu as Scope (スコープ)
Yuya Takaki as Rapid Fire (ラピッドファイヤー)
Kei Inoo as Geek (ギーク)
Hikaru Yaotome as Sonic Hunter (ソニックハンター)
Daiki Arioka as Falcon Jr. (ファルコンJr.)
Keito Okamoto as Shinobi (SHINOBI)
Ryosuke Yamada as Commander (コマンダー)
Yuto Nakajima as Bullet (弾丸)
Yuri Chinen as Doctor (ドクター)
JUMPing Carnival Units
UNION
Kota Yabu
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Pet Shop Love Motion
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Sangatsu Juuyokka ~ Tokei
Yamada Ryosuke
Okamoto Keito
A.Y.T.
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Discography
Singles
2007: "Hey! Say!" – Hey! Say! 7 (Temporary group)
2007: "Ultra Music Power"
2008: "Dreams Come True"
2008: "Your Seed/Bōken Rider"
2008: "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy"
2010: "Hitomi no Screen"
2010: "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)"
2011: "OVER"
2011: "Magic Power"
2012: "SUPER DELICATE"
2013: "Come On A My House"
2013: "Ride With Me"
2014: "AinoArika/Aisureba Motto Happy Life"
2014: "Weekender/Asu e no YELL"
2015: "Koro Sensations" – Sensations
2015: "Chau#/我 I Need You"
2015: "Kimi Attraction"
2016: "Sayonara Sensation" - Sensations
2016: "Maji SUNSHINE"
2016: "Fantastic Time"
2016: "Give Me Love"
2017: "OVER THE TOP"
2017: "Precious Girl/Are You There? (A.Y.T)"
2017: "White Love"
2018: "Maeomuke"
2018: "COSMIC☆HUMAN"
2019: "Lucky-Unlucky / Oh! My Darling"
2019: "Fanfare!"
2020: "I AM / Muah Muah"
2020: "Last Mermaid..."
2020: "Your Song"
2021 "Negative Fighter"
2021 "Gunjo Runaway"
2021 "Sing-Along"
Albums
2010: JUMP No. 1
2012: JUMP World
2014: S3ART
2015: JUMPing CAR
2016: DEAR
2017: Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O (10th Anniversary Album)
2018: SENSE or LOVE
2019: Parade
2020: ''Fab! -Music Speaks.-
DVDs
2019: "Ai Dake Ga Subete / What Do You Want?"
Awards
Japan Gold Disc Awards
The Recording Industry Association of Japan recognized the group with the following Japan Gold Disc Awards for music sales:
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2008
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| The Best 10 New Artists
|
|-
| "Ultra Music Power"
| The Best 10 Singles
|
|-
| 2015
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| Yahoo! Search Awards: Idol Award
|
References
External links
Hey! Say! JUMP
Living people
Johnny & Associates
2007 establishments in Japan
Musical groups established in 2007
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese musical groups
Year of birth missing (living people)
| false |
[
"Adamseplene (The Adam's Apples) is a Trondheim-based review and musical group that was established in 1997. It consists of Ivar Nergaard, Klaus Joacim Sonstad, and Hans Petter Nilsen.\n\nHistory\nThe group's first show was called Om mens og menn (About Menstruation and Men). The show premiered at Trindheim's Veita Scene concert venue in May 1998. It was a success, and it played for an additional two months in Trondheim that fall. In 1999, the group released the album .no on the record label Norske Gram. For this, the trio was the trio was expanded with three musicians: Sola Jonsen (from DumDum Boys), Truls Waagø (from the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra), and Jostein Ansnes (from Dadafon).\n\nIn March 2000, Adamseplene premiered the show Full Pupp (Full Ti(l)t), which was also a success in the Trondheim area. In 2001 the show was made into a six-episode television series that was broadcast on NRK that fall: Adamseplene: Full pupp. The group also appeared on NRK radio.\n\nIn the fall of 2006, the group performed the show Alle tiders julebord (The Christmas Table of All Time) at the Trøndelag Theater.\n\nReferences\n\nRevues\n1997 establishments in Norway\nCulture in Trondheim",
"Für alle Fälle Stefanie is a German medical drama television series created by Werner Krämer that aired on Sat.1 from 15 May 1995 to 29 August 2005. It was produced by Novafilm Fernsehproduktion. Für alle Fälle Stefanie follows the professional and personal life of nurse Stefanie Engel, then Stephanie Wilde and for a short time Fanny 'Stephanie' Stephan. The show was a giant success for the network and had around seven, in later years, five million viewers on a weekly basis. It won the Goldene Kamera award in 1997 and the Bavarian TV Award in 1996.\n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment\nThe show premiered in 1995 and soon became a hit for the network. In the beginning, the show's working title was Stefanie - Schwester mit Herz, which was later used for a rerun of the early seasons. Kathrin Waligura leaves the show after the first two seasons as the show's title role Stefanie Engel. Her successor, Stephanie Wilde played by Claudia Schmutzler, was introduced in the last episodes of the second season and took over as the show's lead in season three. Schmutzler became the identification of the show and was wildly popular. She carried Für alle Fälle Stefanie through its best years and decided to leave in early 1999. Julia Hentschel took over as Fanny Stephan who was soon nicknamed Stephanie. However, under Hentschel the show started to do poorly in ratings. The network offered Schmutzler a new contract, which allowed her many amenities. The show was brought back to new success and stayed a strong performer through the end of season ten. The season finale featured Stephanie Wilde's death and resulted in Schmutzler leaving the show for a second time. It followed a reboot attempt with the start of the 11th season, which saw the return of Kathrin Waligura as the original Stefanie. She was now a doctor and changed the tone of the show. Much of the show's cast was changed with the focus on the doctors rather than the nurses as it has been in the previous years. The production changed the show's title into Stefanie - Eine Frau startet durch. The show couldn't reach to former success, only having three million viewers left at the peak. Sat.1 decided to cancel the show. The series finale, intended to be a season finale, aired in March 2004 as the last season ended its rerun with a few new episodes in the morning hours.\n\nBroadcasting\nIt premiered on Monday nights at 8:00 pm at a time where Sat.1 tried to challenge Das Erste's Tagesschau. The attempt failed and Sat.1 later returned to start their primetime at 8:15 pm after the Tagesschau was over. The third season premiered on a new night, Thursdays at 9:15 pm. The show regularly won its time slot. In April 1999, the show started suffering in ratings after Schmutzler left the show. As ratings fell under five million viewers, Schmutzler was brought back. The show recovered and was back to its former success in the end of 2000. The 10th season premiered on 8 July 2004 as a spinoff in its new time slot at 8:15 pm on Thursday nights. The ratings dropped to a new low and Sat.1 put the season on a break in September 2004, then returning in its old time slot in December. However, as ratings didn't recover the network put the show on another hiatus while announcing that the 11th season is the series finale. The last episodes of the final season were then part of a rerun with the series finale airing on 10 March 2005 at 11:00 am.\n\nExternal links\n \n\nGerman medical television series\n1995 German television series debuts\n2005 German television series endings\nGerman-language television shows\nSat.1 original programming"
] |
[
"Hey! Say! JUMP",
"2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs, singles and dramas",
"what happened in 2011?",
"Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011.",
"was the show a success?",
"The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked."
] |
C_e859161ff1f54b10a21b92826f5f6b4e_1
|
what were people's opinions of these photos?
| 3 |
What were people's opinions of the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage?
|
Hey! Say! JUMP
|
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011. It begins at 6:30 JST every Saturday. The name and theme of the show are based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, a program that aired roughly 20 years previously, featuring some of the senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates. The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright," that it was, "no big deal." The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa himself made an official announcement on the issue. He stated that Morimoto now has ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of him returning. On June 29, 2011, the group released a new single with the name of "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day with 113,554 sales. This has made it Hey! Say! JUMP's highest selling single since "Ultra Music Power" as their debut song back in 2007. On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power". This was their first solo without Morimoto, due to the smoking scandal and suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of the 3D movie The Smurfs, in which members Ryosuke Yamada and Yuri Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf respectively. Hikaru Yaotome was cast in Ikemen Desu Ne, alongside fellow Johnny's idol from Kis-My-Ft2, Yuta Tamamori and Taisuke Fujigaya. CANNOTANSWER
|
When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright," that it was, "no big deal.
|
Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an eight-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more than 10 million physical copies.
Hey! Say! JUMP originally debuted with ten members, the largest group in Johnny's history. In 2011, Ryutaro Morimoto was indefinitely suspended from the group following an underage smoking scandal. On April 11, Keito Okamoto announced that he will leave the group in order to pursue a career in acting, but remained under Johnny & Associates.
History
Formation
During a KAT-TUN spring concert on April 3, 2007, Yuya Takaki, Daiki Arioka, Ryosuke Yamada, Yuto Nakajima and Yuri Chinen were announced to become part of a temporary group called Hey! Say! 7. The name refers to the Heisei period during which all members were born, as well as to the year 2007 as the group's formation year.
On June 16, 2007, it was announced that Hey! Say! 7 would release "Hey! Say!" as a single on August 1. This later became Hey! Say! JUMP's single. The song and the single's B-side, "Bon Bon", were used as the second opening and closing themes for the anime Lovely Complex. The single sold 120,520 copies in its first week, making the group the youngest male group to top the Oricon singles chart.
On September 24, the five members of Hey! Say! 7 were joined by Kota Yabu, Kei Inoo, Hikaru Yaotome, Keito Okamoto and Ryutaro Morimoto, all represented by Johnny's Jr's. The ten-member group was organized into two sub-groups of five, with the older members forming Hey! Say! BEST and the younger members in Hey! Say! 7.
Early releases
It was announced that they would release their first CD on November 14, 2007, including the song "Ultra Music Power", which was used as the theme at Japan's Volleyball World Cup Relay 2007.
On December 22, the group held their debut concert: Debut Concert Ikinari! in Tokyo Dome. With an average age of 15.7, they were the youngest group to perform in the Tokyo Dome. A concert DVD was released on April 30, 2008.
The group released their third single "Dreams Come True" on May 21, which topped the Oricon Chart. In July 2008, it was announced that the group's fourth new single "Your Seed" would be used as the title song for the Japanese release of the animated film Kung-Fu Panda.
In October 2008, the group released the single "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy". It was used as the theme song for the drama Scrap Teacher, which starred members Arioka, Yamada, Nakajima, and Chinen.
After the full group's tour, junior division Hey! Say! 7 had their first concert series called Hey! Say! 7 Spring Concert 09 MONKEY. Following this, the entire group toured their concert Hey! Say! JUMP CONCERT TOUR Spring '09. A second concert DVD, Hey! Say! JUMP-ing Tour '08–'09, was released in April 2009.
On February 24, 2010, after a year and a half of touring, the group released their sixth single "Hitomi no Screen", which topped the Oricon weekly single charts with 202,000 sales.
The group released its first album, JUMP No. 1, on July 7, 2010. On December 15, the group released the single "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)". It reached number one on the Oricon singles chart and sold 64,206 albums on its first day.
2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members starred in the 2011 variety show Yan Yan JUMP. It was based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, which had aired two decades earlier, featuring senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates.
The group was surrounded by controversy in June 2011 after photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking while underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright" and that it was "no big deal". In response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology the following day and planned to indefinitely suspend Morimoto from all of his activities. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa stated that Morimoto had ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of his returning to the group.
On June 29, the group released the new single "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day, and was the group's highest-selling single since "Ultra Music Power" in 2007.
On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power", their first release after Morimoto's suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of The Smurfs, in which members Yamada and Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf.
2012: Asia tour, musical, second album
The group held their first Asian concert tour from March to June 2012, performing in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. However, on March 15, it was announced that the Hong Kong leg would be postponed until May and that the Bangkok tour was cancelled for unstated reasons. The tour was launched at the Yokohama Arena on May 3.
Their tenth single, "SUPER DELICATE", was released on February 22, and was used as a theme song for Risou no Musuko.
On March 22, it was announced that a new musical called Johnny's World would be produced and directed by Johnny Kitagawa and start its run at the Imperial Garden Theater in November 2012. Hey! Say! JUMP would be the main cast while one hundred others made an appearance including Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone, A.B.C-Z and Johnny's Jr., and guest appearances by Kamenashi Kazuya, Takizawa Hideaki and Domoto Koichi.
On April 25, the group announced that they would be releasing their second album, JUMP World, with their singles from "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)" onwards.
At the end of 2012, it was announced that Ryosuke Yamada would be making his solo debut with the single "Mystery Virgin" on January 9, 2013. The song was first solicited to mainstream on the radio on November 30, 2012 and was available for digital download on December 26, 2012.
2013–2014: S3ART, LIVE With Me, shows
JUMP held another nationwide tour, Hey! Say! JUMP Zenkoku e JUMP Tour 2013, from April to August 2013. Both of the singles that they released in 2013, "Come On A My House" and "Ride With Me", went to number one on the Oricon chart. The latter was the theme song of the 2014 sequel to Kindaichi Case Files, with Yamada reprising his role.
In January 2014, the group released "AinoArika". The song was used as the theme for Dark System Koi no Ouza Ketteisen, starring Yaotome and Inoo. The single topped the Oricon chart.
Other acting appearances by the group's members include Yamada and Arioka in the drama Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Neo, Nakajima and Takaki in Suikyu Yankees, with Takaki also appearing in Dr. DMAT and HAMU. The group released a double A-side single called "Weekender/Asu e no YELL", which was the theme song for Yamada's and Nakajima's dramas, and topped the Oricon chart.
The group's third album S3ART went to number one on the Oricon chart the week it was released. The group embarked on an accompanying tour for the album titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2014 S3ART including a show in Tokyo Dome.
2015: JUMPing CAR, "Chau#", Itadaki High JUMP, 24 hour television, JUMPing CARnival, "Kimi Attraction"
In 2015, the group started their first TV show called Itadaki High JUMP and hosted Little Tokyo Life with Johnny's WEST, another Johnny's group. They were also the main personalities of 24 Hour Television.
In March, Yamada made his film debut as Nagisa Shiota in the live action adaptation of Assassination Classroom. The movie topped the box office of Japan on its first opening week.
The group released the single Sensations, which was used as the image song of the movie Koro Sensations. It topped the Oricon chart as did following singles "Chau#/我 I Need You" and "Kimi Attraction", and their fourth album JUMPing CAR. They promoted the album with a tour titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2015 JUMPing CARnival and collaborated with the annual Johnny's Countdown Concert which was broadcast live.
JUMP held their own 2015–2016 countdown concert at Kyocera Dome, making them the youngest group of Johnny's Entertainment to ever hold their own countdown concert.
2016: DEAR, "Sayonara Sensation", "Maji SUNSHINE", "Fantastic Time", "Give Me Love", FNS 27Hour Festival
Hey! Say! JUMP returned as their sub unit, Sensations, and released the single for the movie titled "Sayonara Sensation". It was released for the film Assassination Classroom: Graduation, starring Yamada.
The group also released the single "Maji SUNSHINE". It topped the Oricon charts in its first week, and was used for the group's CM for KOSE Cosmeport Cosmetics. They were one of the main personalities of Fuji Television's FNS 27Hour Festival, with Inoo being one of the main MCs. During this, their show Itadaki High JUMP also had a crossover with Kis-My-Ft2's show Kisumai Busaiku in which the two groups competed in various activities.
On July 27, the group released their fifth album titled DEAR which sold 141,079 copies on its first day. It landed on the No. 1 spot at the Oricon Weekly Album Chart. In support of the album, a tour started on July 28 at the Osaka-jō Hall called Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2016 DEAR.
On October 26, the group released a new single called "Fantastic Time", which was used as the opening theme for anime Time Bokan 24.
On December 14, the group released a new single called "Give Me Love", which was used for the drama Cain and Abel starring member Yamada. It was described as a mellow R&B song about life's troubles and love.
2017–present
The song "Over the Top" was announced as the new opening theme song for the anime タイムボカン24 (Time Bokan 24).
To honor the group's tenth anniversary, the greatest hits album Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O was released on July 26, 2017, featuring all 23 singles from their first ten years.
"Maeomuke" was released on February 14, 2018, and was the theme song for the drama The Kitazawas: We Mind Our Own Business, which starred Yamada.
Members
Hey! Say! BEST
Kota Yabu
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Hey! Say! 7
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Units
Hey! Say! 7 (a temporary group before Hey! Say! JUMP was formed)
Yuya Takaki
Daiki Arioka
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
S3ART Units
Kaito y-ELLOW-voice (怪盗y-ELLOW-voice)
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Ryosuke Yamada
Night Style People
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Aioitai (愛追I隊)
Kei Inoo
Daiki Arioka
Keito Okamoto
Sensations
Kota Yabu as Scope (スコープ)
Yuya Takaki as Rapid Fire (ラピッドファイヤー)
Kei Inoo as Geek (ギーク)
Hikaru Yaotome as Sonic Hunter (ソニックハンター)
Daiki Arioka as Falcon Jr. (ファルコンJr.)
Keito Okamoto as Shinobi (SHINOBI)
Ryosuke Yamada as Commander (コマンダー)
Yuto Nakajima as Bullet (弾丸)
Yuri Chinen as Doctor (ドクター)
JUMPing Carnival Units
UNION
Kota Yabu
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Pet Shop Love Motion
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Sangatsu Juuyokka ~ Tokei
Yamada Ryosuke
Okamoto Keito
A.Y.T.
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Discography
Singles
2007: "Hey! Say!" – Hey! Say! 7 (Temporary group)
2007: "Ultra Music Power"
2008: "Dreams Come True"
2008: "Your Seed/Bōken Rider"
2008: "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy"
2010: "Hitomi no Screen"
2010: "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)"
2011: "OVER"
2011: "Magic Power"
2012: "SUPER DELICATE"
2013: "Come On A My House"
2013: "Ride With Me"
2014: "AinoArika/Aisureba Motto Happy Life"
2014: "Weekender/Asu e no YELL"
2015: "Koro Sensations" – Sensations
2015: "Chau#/我 I Need You"
2015: "Kimi Attraction"
2016: "Sayonara Sensation" - Sensations
2016: "Maji SUNSHINE"
2016: "Fantastic Time"
2016: "Give Me Love"
2017: "OVER THE TOP"
2017: "Precious Girl/Are You There? (A.Y.T)"
2017: "White Love"
2018: "Maeomuke"
2018: "COSMIC☆HUMAN"
2019: "Lucky-Unlucky / Oh! My Darling"
2019: "Fanfare!"
2020: "I AM / Muah Muah"
2020: "Last Mermaid..."
2020: "Your Song"
2021 "Negative Fighter"
2021 "Gunjo Runaway"
2021 "Sing-Along"
Albums
2010: JUMP No. 1
2012: JUMP World
2014: S3ART
2015: JUMPing CAR
2016: DEAR
2017: Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O (10th Anniversary Album)
2018: SENSE or LOVE
2019: Parade
2020: ''Fab! -Music Speaks.-
DVDs
2019: "Ai Dake Ga Subete / What Do You Want?"
Awards
Japan Gold Disc Awards
The Recording Industry Association of Japan recognized the group with the following Japan Gold Disc Awards for music sales:
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2008
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| The Best 10 New Artists
|
|-
| "Ultra Music Power"
| The Best 10 Singles
|
|-
| 2015
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| Yahoo! Search Awards: Idol Award
|
References
External links
Hey! Say! JUMP
Living people
Johnny & Associates
2007 establishments in Japan
Musical groups established in 2007
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese musical groups
Year of birth missing (living people)
| false |
[
"This page serves as an index of lists of United States Supreme Court cases. The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court of the United States.\n\nBy Chief Justice \nCourt historians and other legal scholars consider each Chief Justice of the United States who presides over the Supreme Court of the United States to be the head of an era of the Court. These lists are sorted chronologically by Chief Justice and include most major cases decided by the Court.\n Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth Courts (October 19, 1789 – December 15, 1800)\n\n Marshall Court (February 4, 1801 – July 6, 1835)\n Taney Court (March 28, 1836 – October 12, 1864)\n Chase Court (December 15, 1864 – May 7, 1873)\n Waite Court (March 4, 1874 – March 23, 1888)\n Fuller Court (October 8, 1888 – July 4, 1910)\n White Court (December 19, 1910 – May 19, 1921)\n Taft Court (July 11, 1921 – February 3, 1930)\n Hughes Court (February 24, 1930 – June 30, 1941)\n Stone Court (July 3, 1941 – April 22, 1946)\n Vinson Court (June 24, 1946 – September 8, 1953)\n Warren Court (October 5, 1953 – June 23, 1969)\n Burger Court (June 23, 1969 – September 26, 1986)\n Rehnquist Court (September 26, 1986 – September 3, 2005)\n Roberts Court (September 29, 2005, to the present)\n\nBy volume \n\nDecisions of the Supreme Court of the United States are officially published in the United States Reports.\n\n Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume.\n\nBy term (since 1999)\nThese lists contain detailed tables about each term, including which Justices filed the Court's opinion, dissenting and concurring opinions in each case, and information about Justices joining opinions. The tables conclude with term statistics and concordance data.\n\n 1999 term opinions\n 2000 term opinions\n 2001 term opinions\n 2002 term opinions\n 2003 term opinions\n 2004 term opinions\n 2005 term opinions\n 2006 term opinions\n 2007 term opinions\n 2008 term opinions\n 2009 term opinions\n 2010 term opinions\n 2011 term opinions\n 2012 term opinions\n 2013 term opinions\n 2014 term opinions\n 2015 term opinions\n 2016 term opinions\n 2017 term opinions\n 2018 term opinions\n 2019 term opinions\n 2020 term opinions\n 2021 term opinions\n\nBy subject matter \n\n Arbitration\n Capital punishment\n Copyright\n First Amendment\n Immigration\n Jehovah's Witnesses\n Legal standing\n LGBTQ rights\n Mental health\n Native American tribes\n Patents\n Trademarks\n\nOther lists \n List of pending United States Supreme Court cases\n List of landmark court decisions in the United States (most frequently from the Supreme Court)\n\nSee also\n List of United States courts of appeals cases\n List of United States state supreme court cases\n List of sources of law in the United States\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n Opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States at supremecourt.gov\n\n \n \nSupreme Court cases\nUnited States Supreme Court\nUnited States Supreme Court cases",
"Course of Popular Lectures is a published collection of 19th century lectures given in the United States on religion, church influence in politics, morality, slavery, and sexism. The lectures were written and given in 1828 by Frances Wright.\n\nThe collection includes two volumes:\n\n Volume I - With three addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French Reformers of 1789. It includes seven lectures and three addresses. It was published in 1829.\n Volume 2 - Historical and political, being an introductory to a course on the nature and object of America's political institutions. It was published in 1836\n\nOverview \nWright delivered these lectures in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and several other cities. In the preface, Wright addresses the People of the United States as her audience, giving them permission to “examine…judge…adopt…or to discard the views” set forth in her work.\n\nWright's objective in these lectures was to “[attempt] reform by means of instructional improvement”. She further stated that, “I have…applied myself to develop what is true [rather] than to expose what is false”.\n\nVolume I \nVolume I contained the following lectures and addresses:\n\nLectures I-III \n On the nature of knowledge\n Of free inquiry, considered as a means of obtaining just knowledge\n Of the more important divisions and essential parts of knowledge\n\nThe first three lectures focus on knowledge in the epistemological sense. Wright begins by acknowledging that all men, from savage to statesmen, will practice and preach what they hold to be true without regard for their potential ignorance. In other words, men believe that what they think is true, is indeed true solely based on the fact that they are the ones believing it. Wright cites ignorance being the greatest contributor to this logical fallacy. From here, Wright explains her conception of knowledge by explaining, “[knowledge is] what there is for us to know, the means we possess for acquiring such knowledge as is of possible attainment…and to seek in our knowledge the test of our opinions”.\n\nIn general, Wright posits that the knowledge we accumulate takes two distinct forms: knowledge that is taught and knowledge that is accumulated through experience. The knowledge that is taught to us is not necessarily known. To her, a more appropriate word for this type of information would be belief. This is in contrast to the form of knowledge that we know from our direct experience. Wright says that this kind of knowledge is more accurate because it comes from our own experience; therefore, it is more familiar to us. Wright summarizes by saying that, “Knowledge signifies things known” .\n\nLectures IV-V \n Religion \n Morals\n\nIn the following two lectures, Wright examines her conception of knowledge in relation to religion and morality. As stated in Lectures I-III, Wright posits that knowledge implies that things are known; therefore, for any subject to have truth, it must be built on empirical foundations. Wright sees religion, as a subject, lacking on these factual foundations.\n\nTo provide clarity to her readers, Wright attempts to outline what she deems an appropriate subject, or science, containing truth. In the beginning, Wright acknowledges that there must be facts that are known through our experience and direct observation. With these empirical foundations, Wright explains that we have our premises from which we can build an appropriate science. Without these factual premises, the science would be built on false foundations. Wright compares this to building a castle in the air.\n\nReligion, to Wright, is a science built on false foundations. With much disagreement among people as to the appropriate practices of religion, the falsehood of religion should be evident. If religion were built on empirical foundations, Wright suggests the truth should be evident and there would be no disagreements therefore. Furthermore, Wright explains that the mere fact that the knowledge gained through religion is primarily belief, as opposed to experiential knowledge, exposes religion's falsehood.\n\nLectures VI-VII \n Opinions \n On existing evils and their remedy\n\nWright begins the last two lectures by critiquing the role that opinions have played in our history. She begins by suggesting that an appropriate and mature understanding of opinions could have prevented many of the problems that were being faced during her time. Again, Wright cites ignorance as the greatest contributor to error.\n\nAnger, Wright suggests, is an unwarranted, but often felt emotion in response to differing opinions. To solve this problem, Wright explains that an individual receiving the opinion must simply inquire as to what facts the opinion was derived. From there, the individual can determine whether the opinion is true or false. Neither of these results should spur hostility or anger. From this position, Wright continues on to explain how the existing evils, such as slavery and sexism, had come into existence. She explains these grievances in relation to her conception on knowledge as well as her position on opinions.\n\nAddresses \n Address I. - delivered in the New Harmony Hall, on the fourth of July, 1828\n Address II. - delivered in the Walnut-street Theatre, Philadelphia, on the fourth of July, 1829\n Address III. - delivered at the opening of the Hall of Science, New-York, Sunday, April 26, 1829\n\nThe book concludes with a Reply to the traducers of the French Reformers of the year 1789.\n\nVolume II\n\nThe lectures\n\nFurther reading\n\nReferences\n\n1829 books\nAmerican non-fiction books\nEnglish-language books\n\nLectures"
] |
[
"Hey! Say! JUMP",
"2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs, singles and dramas",
"what happened in 2011?",
"Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011.",
"was the show a success?",
"The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked.",
"what were people's opinions of these photos?",
"When he was asked about the photos, he said \"it was alright,\" that it was, \"no big deal."
] |
C_e859161ff1f54b10a21b92826f5f6b4e_1
|
what else was said?
| 4 |
other than saying it was alright, what else was said by Morimoto?
|
Hey! Say! JUMP
|
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011. It begins at 6:30 JST every Saturday. The name and theme of the show are based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, a program that aired roughly 20 years previously, featuring some of the senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates. The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright," that it was, "no big deal." The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa himself made an official announcement on the issue. He stated that Morimoto now has ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of him returning. On June 29, 2011, the group released a new single with the name of "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day with 113,554 sales. This has made it Hey! Say! JUMP's highest selling single since "Ultra Music Power" as their debut song back in 2007. On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power". This was their first solo without Morimoto, due to the smoking scandal and suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of the 3D movie The Smurfs, in which members Ryosuke Yamada and Yuri Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf respectively. Hikaru Yaotome was cast in Ikemen Desu Ne, alongside fellow Johnny's idol from Kis-My-Ft2, Yuta Tamamori and Taisuke Fujigaya. CANNOTANSWER
|
The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely.
|
Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an eight-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more than 10 million physical copies.
Hey! Say! JUMP originally debuted with ten members, the largest group in Johnny's history. In 2011, Ryutaro Morimoto was indefinitely suspended from the group following an underage smoking scandal. On April 11, Keito Okamoto announced that he will leave the group in order to pursue a career in acting, but remained under Johnny & Associates.
History
Formation
During a KAT-TUN spring concert on April 3, 2007, Yuya Takaki, Daiki Arioka, Ryosuke Yamada, Yuto Nakajima and Yuri Chinen were announced to become part of a temporary group called Hey! Say! 7. The name refers to the Heisei period during which all members were born, as well as to the year 2007 as the group's formation year.
On June 16, 2007, it was announced that Hey! Say! 7 would release "Hey! Say!" as a single on August 1. This later became Hey! Say! JUMP's single. The song and the single's B-side, "Bon Bon", were used as the second opening and closing themes for the anime Lovely Complex. The single sold 120,520 copies in its first week, making the group the youngest male group to top the Oricon singles chart.
On September 24, the five members of Hey! Say! 7 were joined by Kota Yabu, Kei Inoo, Hikaru Yaotome, Keito Okamoto and Ryutaro Morimoto, all represented by Johnny's Jr's. The ten-member group was organized into two sub-groups of five, with the older members forming Hey! Say! BEST and the younger members in Hey! Say! 7.
Early releases
It was announced that they would release their first CD on November 14, 2007, including the song "Ultra Music Power", which was used as the theme at Japan's Volleyball World Cup Relay 2007.
On December 22, the group held their debut concert: Debut Concert Ikinari! in Tokyo Dome. With an average age of 15.7, they were the youngest group to perform in the Tokyo Dome. A concert DVD was released on April 30, 2008.
The group released their third single "Dreams Come True" on May 21, which topped the Oricon Chart. In July 2008, it was announced that the group's fourth new single "Your Seed" would be used as the title song for the Japanese release of the animated film Kung-Fu Panda.
In October 2008, the group released the single "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy". It was used as the theme song for the drama Scrap Teacher, which starred members Arioka, Yamada, Nakajima, and Chinen.
After the full group's tour, junior division Hey! Say! 7 had their first concert series called Hey! Say! 7 Spring Concert 09 MONKEY. Following this, the entire group toured their concert Hey! Say! JUMP CONCERT TOUR Spring '09. A second concert DVD, Hey! Say! JUMP-ing Tour '08–'09, was released in April 2009.
On February 24, 2010, after a year and a half of touring, the group released their sixth single "Hitomi no Screen", which topped the Oricon weekly single charts with 202,000 sales.
The group released its first album, JUMP No. 1, on July 7, 2010. On December 15, the group released the single "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)". It reached number one on the Oricon singles chart and sold 64,206 albums on its first day.
2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members starred in the 2011 variety show Yan Yan JUMP. It was based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, which had aired two decades earlier, featuring senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates.
The group was surrounded by controversy in June 2011 after photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking while underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright" and that it was "no big deal". In response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology the following day and planned to indefinitely suspend Morimoto from all of his activities. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa stated that Morimoto had ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of his returning to the group.
On June 29, the group released the new single "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day, and was the group's highest-selling single since "Ultra Music Power" in 2007.
On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power", their first release after Morimoto's suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of The Smurfs, in which members Yamada and Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf.
2012: Asia tour, musical, second album
The group held their first Asian concert tour from March to June 2012, performing in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. However, on March 15, it was announced that the Hong Kong leg would be postponed until May and that the Bangkok tour was cancelled for unstated reasons. The tour was launched at the Yokohama Arena on May 3.
Their tenth single, "SUPER DELICATE", was released on February 22, and was used as a theme song for Risou no Musuko.
On March 22, it was announced that a new musical called Johnny's World would be produced and directed by Johnny Kitagawa and start its run at the Imperial Garden Theater in November 2012. Hey! Say! JUMP would be the main cast while one hundred others made an appearance including Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone, A.B.C-Z and Johnny's Jr., and guest appearances by Kamenashi Kazuya, Takizawa Hideaki and Domoto Koichi.
On April 25, the group announced that they would be releasing their second album, JUMP World, with their singles from "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)" onwards.
At the end of 2012, it was announced that Ryosuke Yamada would be making his solo debut with the single "Mystery Virgin" on January 9, 2013. The song was first solicited to mainstream on the radio on November 30, 2012 and was available for digital download on December 26, 2012.
2013–2014: S3ART, LIVE With Me, shows
JUMP held another nationwide tour, Hey! Say! JUMP Zenkoku e JUMP Tour 2013, from April to August 2013. Both of the singles that they released in 2013, "Come On A My House" and "Ride With Me", went to number one on the Oricon chart. The latter was the theme song of the 2014 sequel to Kindaichi Case Files, with Yamada reprising his role.
In January 2014, the group released "AinoArika". The song was used as the theme for Dark System Koi no Ouza Ketteisen, starring Yaotome and Inoo. The single topped the Oricon chart.
Other acting appearances by the group's members include Yamada and Arioka in the drama Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Neo, Nakajima and Takaki in Suikyu Yankees, with Takaki also appearing in Dr. DMAT and HAMU. The group released a double A-side single called "Weekender/Asu e no YELL", which was the theme song for Yamada's and Nakajima's dramas, and topped the Oricon chart.
The group's third album S3ART went to number one on the Oricon chart the week it was released. The group embarked on an accompanying tour for the album titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2014 S3ART including a show in Tokyo Dome.
2015: JUMPing CAR, "Chau#", Itadaki High JUMP, 24 hour television, JUMPing CARnival, "Kimi Attraction"
In 2015, the group started their first TV show called Itadaki High JUMP and hosted Little Tokyo Life with Johnny's WEST, another Johnny's group. They were also the main personalities of 24 Hour Television.
In March, Yamada made his film debut as Nagisa Shiota in the live action adaptation of Assassination Classroom. The movie topped the box office of Japan on its first opening week.
The group released the single Sensations, which was used as the image song of the movie Koro Sensations. It topped the Oricon chart as did following singles "Chau#/我 I Need You" and "Kimi Attraction", and their fourth album JUMPing CAR. They promoted the album with a tour titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2015 JUMPing CARnival and collaborated with the annual Johnny's Countdown Concert which was broadcast live.
JUMP held their own 2015–2016 countdown concert at Kyocera Dome, making them the youngest group of Johnny's Entertainment to ever hold their own countdown concert.
2016: DEAR, "Sayonara Sensation", "Maji SUNSHINE", "Fantastic Time", "Give Me Love", FNS 27Hour Festival
Hey! Say! JUMP returned as their sub unit, Sensations, and released the single for the movie titled "Sayonara Sensation". It was released for the film Assassination Classroom: Graduation, starring Yamada.
The group also released the single "Maji SUNSHINE". It topped the Oricon charts in its first week, and was used for the group's CM for KOSE Cosmeport Cosmetics. They were one of the main personalities of Fuji Television's FNS 27Hour Festival, with Inoo being one of the main MCs. During this, their show Itadaki High JUMP also had a crossover with Kis-My-Ft2's show Kisumai Busaiku in which the two groups competed in various activities.
On July 27, the group released their fifth album titled DEAR which sold 141,079 copies on its first day. It landed on the No. 1 spot at the Oricon Weekly Album Chart. In support of the album, a tour started on July 28 at the Osaka-jō Hall called Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2016 DEAR.
On October 26, the group released a new single called "Fantastic Time", which was used as the opening theme for anime Time Bokan 24.
On December 14, the group released a new single called "Give Me Love", which was used for the drama Cain and Abel starring member Yamada. It was described as a mellow R&B song about life's troubles and love.
2017–present
The song "Over the Top" was announced as the new opening theme song for the anime タイムボカン24 (Time Bokan 24).
To honor the group's tenth anniversary, the greatest hits album Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O was released on July 26, 2017, featuring all 23 singles from their first ten years.
"Maeomuke" was released on February 14, 2018, and was the theme song for the drama The Kitazawas: We Mind Our Own Business, which starred Yamada.
Members
Hey! Say! BEST
Kota Yabu
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Hey! Say! 7
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Units
Hey! Say! 7 (a temporary group before Hey! Say! JUMP was formed)
Yuya Takaki
Daiki Arioka
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
S3ART Units
Kaito y-ELLOW-voice (怪盗y-ELLOW-voice)
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Ryosuke Yamada
Night Style People
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Aioitai (愛追I隊)
Kei Inoo
Daiki Arioka
Keito Okamoto
Sensations
Kota Yabu as Scope (スコープ)
Yuya Takaki as Rapid Fire (ラピッドファイヤー)
Kei Inoo as Geek (ギーク)
Hikaru Yaotome as Sonic Hunter (ソニックハンター)
Daiki Arioka as Falcon Jr. (ファルコンJr.)
Keito Okamoto as Shinobi (SHINOBI)
Ryosuke Yamada as Commander (コマンダー)
Yuto Nakajima as Bullet (弾丸)
Yuri Chinen as Doctor (ドクター)
JUMPing Carnival Units
UNION
Kota Yabu
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Pet Shop Love Motion
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Sangatsu Juuyokka ~ Tokei
Yamada Ryosuke
Okamoto Keito
A.Y.T.
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Discography
Singles
2007: "Hey! Say!" – Hey! Say! 7 (Temporary group)
2007: "Ultra Music Power"
2008: "Dreams Come True"
2008: "Your Seed/Bōken Rider"
2008: "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy"
2010: "Hitomi no Screen"
2010: "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)"
2011: "OVER"
2011: "Magic Power"
2012: "SUPER DELICATE"
2013: "Come On A My House"
2013: "Ride With Me"
2014: "AinoArika/Aisureba Motto Happy Life"
2014: "Weekender/Asu e no YELL"
2015: "Koro Sensations" – Sensations
2015: "Chau#/我 I Need You"
2015: "Kimi Attraction"
2016: "Sayonara Sensation" - Sensations
2016: "Maji SUNSHINE"
2016: "Fantastic Time"
2016: "Give Me Love"
2017: "OVER THE TOP"
2017: "Precious Girl/Are You There? (A.Y.T)"
2017: "White Love"
2018: "Maeomuke"
2018: "COSMIC☆HUMAN"
2019: "Lucky-Unlucky / Oh! My Darling"
2019: "Fanfare!"
2020: "I AM / Muah Muah"
2020: "Last Mermaid..."
2020: "Your Song"
2021 "Negative Fighter"
2021 "Gunjo Runaway"
2021 "Sing-Along"
Albums
2010: JUMP No. 1
2012: JUMP World
2014: S3ART
2015: JUMPing CAR
2016: DEAR
2017: Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O (10th Anniversary Album)
2018: SENSE or LOVE
2019: Parade
2020: ''Fab! -Music Speaks.-
DVDs
2019: "Ai Dake Ga Subete / What Do You Want?"
Awards
Japan Gold Disc Awards
The Recording Industry Association of Japan recognized the group with the following Japan Gold Disc Awards for music sales:
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2008
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| The Best 10 New Artists
|
|-
| "Ultra Music Power"
| The Best 10 Singles
|
|-
| 2015
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| Yahoo! Search Awards: Idol Award
|
References
External links
Hey! Say! JUMP
Living people
Johnny & Associates
2007 establishments in Japan
Musical groups established in 2007
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese musical groups
Year of birth missing (living people)
| false |
[
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer",
"The 2011 Chişinău explosion was a car explosion in the center of Chişinău, the capital of Moldova. The explosion killed the Moldovan tennis federation chief, Igor Turcan. He was heading the campaign for an independent candidate in last weekend's mayoral election.\n\nTurcan was passing by a model Lada automobile, which had Russian number plates, when it blew up. Turcan was sent to hospital and later died of serious injuries. The police said no one else was killed or injured in the explosion. An earlier eyewitness report had said three people were killed.\n\nTurcan's deputy described the explosion as an \"assassination\" but the Prime Minister of Moldova, Vlad Filat, said it was too early to draw conclusions about what happened.\n\nReferences \n\nMurder in 2011\nCar and truck bombings in Europe\n2011 in Moldova\nAssassinations\nExplosions in Moldova\n21st century in Chișinău\nJune 2011 events in Europe"
] |
[
"Hey! Say! JUMP",
"2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs, singles and dramas",
"what happened in 2011?",
"Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011.",
"was the show a success?",
"The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked.",
"what were people's opinions of these photos?",
"When he was asked about the photos, he said \"it was alright,\" that it was, \"no big deal.",
"what else was said?",
"The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely."
] |
C_e859161ff1f54b10a21b92826f5f6b4e_1
|
did they end up actually suspending him?
| 5 |
Did Johnny's Entertainment end up actually suspending Morimoto?
|
Hey! Say! JUMP
|
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members are currently starring in new variety show called Yan Yan JUMP. The show- started on April 16, 2011. It begins at 6:30 JST every Saturday. The name and theme of the show are based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, a program that aired roughly 20 years previously, featuring some of the senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates. The group was surrounded by much controversy on June 28, 2011 after the photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright," that it was, "no big deal." The following day, in response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology and planned to suspend Morimoto from all of his activities indefinitely. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa himself made an official announcement on the issue. He stated that Morimoto now has ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of him returning. On June 29, 2011, the group released a new single with the name of "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day with 113,554 sales. This has made it Hey! Say! JUMP's highest selling single since "Ultra Music Power" as their debut song back in 2007. On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power". This was their first solo without Morimoto, due to the smoking scandal and suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of the 3D movie The Smurfs, in which members Ryosuke Yamada and Yuri Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf respectively. Hikaru Yaotome was cast in Ikemen Desu Ne, alongside fellow Johnny's idol from Kis-My-Ft2, Yuta Tamamori and Taisuke Fujigaya. CANNOTANSWER
|
He stated that Morimoto now has ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of him returning.
|
Hey! Say! JUMP (HSJ or JUMP) is an eight-member Japanese boy band under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. The group is split into two sub-groups: Hey! Say! BEST and Hey! Say! 7. In Japan they sold more than 10 million physical copies.
Hey! Say! JUMP originally debuted with ten members, the largest group in Johnny's history. In 2011, Ryutaro Morimoto was indefinitely suspended from the group following an underage smoking scandal. On April 11, Keito Okamoto announced that he will leave the group in order to pursue a career in acting, but remained under Johnny & Associates.
History
Formation
During a KAT-TUN spring concert on April 3, 2007, Yuya Takaki, Daiki Arioka, Ryosuke Yamada, Yuto Nakajima and Yuri Chinen were announced to become part of a temporary group called Hey! Say! 7. The name refers to the Heisei period during which all members were born, as well as to the year 2007 as the group's formation year.
On June 16, 2007, it was announced that Hey! Say! 7 would release "Hey! Say!" as a single on August 1. This later became Hey! Say! JUMP's single. The song and the single's B-side, "Bon Bon", were used as the second opening and closing themes for the anime Lovely Complex. The single sold 120,520 copies in its first week, making the group the youngest male group to top the Oricon singles chart.
On September 24, the five members of Hey! Say! 7 were joined by Kota Yabu, Kei Inoo, Hikaru Yaotome, Keito Okamoto and Ryutaro Morimoto, all represented by Johnny's Jr's. The ten-member group was organized into two sub-groups of five, with the older members forming Hey! Say! BEST and the younger members in Hey! Say! 7.
Early releases
It was announced that they would release their first CD on November 14, 2007, including the song "Ultra Music Power", which was used as the theme at Japan's Volleyball World Cup Relay 2007.
On December 22, the group held their debut concert: Debut Concert Ikinari! in Tokyo Dome. With an average age of 15.7, they were the youngest group to perform in the Tokyo Dome. A concert DVD was released on April 30, 2008.
The group released their third single "Dreams Come True" on May 21, which topped the Oricon Chart. In July 2008, it was announced that the group's fourth new single "Your Seed" would be used as the title song for the Japanese release of the animated film Kung-Fu Panda.
In October 2008, the group released the single "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy". It was used as the theme song for the drama Scrap Teacher, which starred members Arioka, Yamada, Nakajima, and Chinen.
After the full group's tour, junior division Hey! Say! 7 had their first concert series called Hey! Say! 7 Spring Concert 09 MONKEY. Following this, the entire group toured their concert Hey! Say! JUMP CONCERT TOUR Spring '09. A second concert DVD, Hey! Say! JUMP-ing Tour '08–'09, was released in April 2009.
On February 24, 2010, after a year and a half of touring, the group released their sixth single "Hitomi no Screen", which topped the Oricon weekly single charts with 202,000 sales.
The group released its first album, JUMP No. 1, on July 7, 2010. On December 15, the group released the single "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)". It reached number one on the Oricon singles chart and sold 64,206 albums on its first day.
2011: Yan Yan JUMP, Morimoto's suspension, The Smurfs
Hey! Say! JUMP and other Johnny's Jr. members starred in the 2011 variety show Yan Yan JUMP. It was based on Yan Yan Utau Studio, which had aired two decades earlier, featuring senior celebrities of Johnny & Associates.
The group was surrounded by controversy in June 2011 after photos of Ryutaro Morimoto smoking while underage were leaked. When he was asked about the photos, he said "it was alright" and that it was "no big deal". In response to the scandal, Johnny's Entertainment issued a statement of apology the following day and planned to indefinitely suspend Morimoto from all of his activities. Following the removal of Morimoto's profile from the official Johnny & Associates website, Johnny Kitagawa stated that Morimoto had ambitions to focus on studying and denied any possibility of his returning to the group.
On June 29, the group released the new single "OVER". It peaked at number one on the Oricon singles chart on its first day, and was the group's highest-selling single since "Ultra Music Power" in 2007.
On September 21, 2011, they released their ninth single, "Magic Power", their first release after Morimoto's suspension. "Magic Power" was used as the theme for the Japanese dub of The Smurfs, in which members Yamada and Chinen provided the voices for Clumsy Smurf and Brainy Smurf.
2012: Asia tour, musical, second album
The group held their first Asian concert tour from March to June 2012, performing in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. However, on March 15, it was announced that the Hong Kong leg would be postponed until May and that the Bangkok tour was cancelled for unstated reasons. The tour was launched at the Yokohama Arena on May 3.
Their tenth single, "SUPER DELICATE", was released on February 22, and was used as a theme song for Risou no Musuko.
On March 22, it was announced that a new musical called Johnny's World would be produced and directed by Johnny Kitagawa and start its run at the Imperial Garden Theater in November 2012. Hey! Say! JUMP would be the main cast while one hundred others made an appearance including Kis-My-Ft2, Sexy Zone, A.B.C-Z and Johnny's Jr., and guest appearances by Kamenashi Kazuya, Takizawa Hideaki and Domoto Koichi.
On April 25, the group announced that they would be releasing their second album, JUMP World, with their singles from "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)" onwards.
At the end of 2012, it was announced that Ryosuke Yamada would be making his solo debut with the single "Mystery Virgin" on January 9, 2013. The song was first solicited to mainstream on the radio on November 30, 2012 and was available for digital download on December 26, 2012.
2013–2014: S3ART, LIVE With Me, shows
JUMP held another nationwide tour, Hey! Say! JUMP Zenkoku e JUMP Tour 2013, from April to August 2013. Both of the singles that they released in 2013, "Come On A My House" and "Ride With Me", went to number one on the Oricon chart. The latter was the theme song of the 2014 sequel to Kindaichi Case Files, with Yamada reprising his role.
In January 2014, the group released "AinoArika". The song was used as the theme for Dark System Koi no Ouza Ketteisen, starring Yaotome and Inoo. The single topped the Oricon chart.
Other acting appearances by the group's members include Yamada and Arioka in the drama Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Neo, Nakajima and Takaki in Suikyu Yankees, with Takaki also appearing in Dr. DMAT and HAMU. The group released a double A-side single called "Weekender/Asu e no YELL", which was the theme song for Yamada's and Nakajima's dramas, and topped the Oricon chart.
The group's third album S3ART went to number one on the Oricon chart the week it was released. The group embarked on an accompanying tour for the album titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2014 S3ART including a show in Tokyo Dome.
2015: JUMPing CAR, "Chau#", Itadaki High JUMP, 24 hour television, JUMPing CARnival, "Kimi Attraction"
In 2015, the group started their first TV show called Itadaki High JUMP and hosted Little Tokyo Life with Johnny's WEST, another Johnny's group. They were also the main personalities of 24 Hour Television.
In March, Yamada made his film debut as Nagisa Shiota in the live action adaptation of Assassination Classroom. The movie topped the box office of Japan on its first opening week.
The group released the single Sensations, which was used as the image song of the movie Koro Sensations. It topped the Oricon chart as did following singles "Chau#/我 I Need You" and "Kimi Attraction", and their fourth album JUMPing CAR. They promoted the album with a tour titled Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2015 JUMPing CARnival and collaborated with the annual Johnny's Countdown Concert which was broadcast live.
JUMP held their own 2015–2016 countdown concert at Kyocera Dome, making them the youngest group of Johnny's Entertainment to ever hold their own countdown concert.
2016: DEAR, "Sayonara Sensation", "Maji SUNSHINE", "Fantastic Time", "Give Me Love", FNS 27Hour Festival
Hey! Say! JUMP returned as their sub unit, Sensations, and released the single for the movie titled "Sayonara Sensation". It was released for the film Assassination Classroom: Graduation, starring Yamada.
The group also released the single "Maji SUNSHINE". It topped the Oricon charts in its first week, and was used for the group's CM for KOSE Cosmeport Cosmetics. They were one of the main personalities of Fuji Television's FNS 27Hour Festival, with Inoo being one of the main MCs. During this, their show Itadaki High JUMP also had a crossover with Kis-My-Ft2's show Kisumai Busaiku in which the two groups competed in various activities.
On July 27, the group released their fifth album titled DEAR which sold 141,079 copies on its first day. It landed on the No. 1 spot at the Oricon Weekly Album Chart. In support of the album, a tour started on July 28 at the Osaka-jō Hall called Hey! Say! JUMP LIVE TOUR 2016 DEAR.
On October 26, the group released a new single called "Fantastic Time", which was used as the opening theme for anime Time Bokan 24.
On December 14, the group released a new single called "Give Me Love", which was used for the drama Cain and Abel starring member Yamada. It was described as a mellow R&B song about life's troubles and love.
2017–present
The song "Over the Top" was announced as the new opening theme song for the anime タイムボカン24 (Time Bokan 24).
To honor the group's tenth anniversary, the greatest hits album Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O was released on July 26, 2017, featuring all 23 singles from their first ten years.
"Maeomuke" was released on February 14, 2018, and was the theme song for the drama The Kitazawas: We Mind Our Own Business, which starred Yamada.
Members
Hey! Say! BEST
Kota Yabu
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Hey! Say! 7
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Units
Hey! Say! 7 (a temporary group before Hey! Say! JUMP was formed)
Yuya Takaki
Daiki Arioka
Ryosuke Yamada
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
S3ART Units
Kaito y-ELLOW-voice (怪盗y-ELLOW-voice)
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Ryosuke Yamada
Night Style People
Kota Yabu
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Aioitai (愛追I隊)
Kei Inoo
Daiki Arioka
Keito Okamoto
Sensations
Kota Yabu as Scope (スコープ)
Yuya Takaki as Rapid Fire (ラピッドファイヤー)
Kei Inoo as Geek (ギーク)
Hikaru Yaotome as Sonic Hunter (ソニックハンター)
Daiki Arioka as Falcon Jr. (ファルコンJr.)
Keito Okamoto as Shinobi (SHINOBI)
Ryosuke Yamada as Commander (コマンダー)
Yuto Nakajima as Bullet (弾丸)
Yuri Chinen as Doctor (ドクター)
JUMPing Carnival Units
UNION
Kota Yabu
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Pet Shop Love Motion
Yuya Takaki
Kei Inoo
Yuto Nakajima
Yuri Chinen
Sangatsu Juuyokka ~ Tokei
Yamada Ryosuke
Okamoto Keito
A.Y.T.
Yuya Takaki
Hikaru Yaotome
Daiki Arioka
Discography
Singles
2007: "Hey! Say!" – Hey! Say! 7 (Temporary group)
2007: "Ultra Music Power"
2008: "Dreams Come True"
2008: "Your Seed/Bōken Rider"
2008: "Mayonaka no Shadow Boy"
2010: "Hitomi no Screen"
2010: "Arigatō (Sekai no Doko ni Ite mo)"
2011: "OVER"
2011: "Magic Power"
2012: "SUPER DELICATE"
2013: "Come On A My House"
2013: "Ride With Me"
2014: "AinoArika/Aisureba Motto Happy Life"
2014: "Weekender/Asu e no YELL"
2015: "Koro Sensations" – Sensations
2015: "Chau#/我 I Need You"
2015: "Kimi Attraction"
2016: "Sayonara Sensation" - Sensations
2016: "Maji SUNSHINE"
2016: "Fantastic Time"
2016: "Give Me Love"
2017: "OVER THE TOP"
2017: "Precious Girl/Are You There? (A.Y.T)"
2017: "White Love"
2018: "Maeomuke"
2018: "COSMIC☆HUMAN"
2019: "Lucky-Unlucky / Oh! My Darling"
2019: "Fanfare!"
2020: "I AM / Muah Muah"
2020: "Last Mermaid..."
2020: "Your Song"
2021 "Negative Fighter"
2021 "Gunjo Runaway"
2021 "Sing-Along"
Albums
2010: JUMP No. 1
2012: JUMP World
2014: S3ART
2015: JUMPing CAR
2016: DEAR
2017: Hey! Say! JUMP 2007-2017 I/O (10th Anniversary Album)
2018: SENSE or LOVE
2019: Parade
2020: ''Fab! -Music Speaks.-
DVDs
2019: "Ai Dake Ga Subete / What Do You Want?"
Awards
Japan Gold Disc Awards
The Recording Industry Association of Japan recognized the group with the following Japan Gold Disc Awards for music sales:
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2008
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| The Best 10 New Artists
|
|-
| "Ultra Music Power"
| The Best 10 Singles
|
|-
| 2015
| Hey! Say! JUMP
| Yahoo! Search Awards: Idol Award
|
References
External links
Hey! Say! JUMP
Living people
Johnny & Associates
2007 establishments in Japan
Musical groups established in 2007
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese musical groups
Year of birth missing (living people)
| false |
[
"The Kentucky Bisons were a basketball team in the American Basketball Association which began play in 2008–09, play in the South Central division. Although the management office for the Bisons was based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Bisons actually played their home games at the Owensboro Sportscenter, 60 miles north of Bowling Green. On December 14, 2010, the Bisons stated they would be suspending operations due to lack of support from the city of Owensboro, KY.\n\nTeam history\n\n2008\nWith a 19-3 regular-season record, they qualified for the ABA's Elite Eight Championship tournament at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium (home to Southeast division rival the Nashville Broncs). After defeating Beijing Aoshen Olympian 106–104 in the first round, the Bisons would pull off an upset win over the top-seeded Southeast Texas Mustangs 107–89 to advance to the ABA title game. Finally, with their 127–120 win over the Maywood Buzz, the Bisons wrapped up the ABA title in their first year of existence.\n\n2009\nIn 2009, they returned to the title series again, and faced top-seeded Southeast Texas. After winning game one, they lost both games two and three and the Mavericks were crowned champions.\n\n2010\nShortly before the 2010 season both the head coach and assistant coach resigned their positions. On December 14, 2010, the Bisons announced that they would be suspending operations. The reason stated was the lack of support from the City of Owensboro and their businesses and fans.\n\nRoster\n\nHead Coach: Otis Key\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website\n\nDefunct American Basketball Association (2000–present) teams\nOwensboro, Kentucky\nDefunct basketball teams in Kentucky\nBasketball teams established in 2008\nBasketball teams disestablished in 2010\n2008 establishments in Kentucky\n2010 disestablishments in Kentucky",
"The 2013 Kane County Dawgs season was a short-lived season for the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) franchise.\n\nThe franchise was originally to be called the DeKalb Dawgs, and were to play in the American Professional Football League in 2013, before announcing that they would be joining the Continental Indoor Football League as its tenth member in October 2012. On October 10, 2012, the franchise announced that former National Football League and Arena Football League player Matt Griebel was named the team's first head coach. The team also announced that they would be playing their home games at the Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge, Illinois.\n\nAfter having the first two weeks of the season off with a bye weeks, the Dawgs forfeit their first game, when the turf they purchased did not adequately fit the Seven Bridges Ice Arena. The following week, the Dawgs would lose their first ever played game in franchise history, with a 13-69 loss to the Erie Explosion.\n\nThe loss to the Explosion, would end up being the team's only game, as the following week the league announced on their website that the Dawgs franchise was \"indefinitely suspending operations\" to protect the integrity of the league. Players and coaches were all released and free to sign with other teams in the CIFL or elsewhere.\n\nRoster\n\nSchedule\n\nRegular season\n\nStandings\n\nCoaching staff\n\nReferences\n\n2013 Continental Indoor Football League season\nKane County Dawgs"
] |
[
"Doris Duke",
"Philanthropy"
] |
C_a8d3b77ceb364955a76feff6ba1eb1da_0
|
What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?
| 1 |
What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?
|
Doris Duke
|
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. CANNOTANSWER
|
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town.
|
Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
Duke's passions varied wildly. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation.
Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.
Early life
Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter, along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $ million to $ billion in ), the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.
Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Adult life
When she turned 18, in 1930, the tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante, at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.
When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke French fluently. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.
While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter.
Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name.
At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. Display construction began in 1958.
Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Duke cultivated an extensive art collection, principally of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, sixty objects from her collection (including ceramics, textiles, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements) were displayed temporarily at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the exhibition "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art", organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Homes
Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, a public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America.
Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.
She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. The plane included a bedroom decorated to resemble a bedroom in a real house. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else.
Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La, and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available.
Death of Eduardo Tirella
In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. He flew to Newport, where she was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave.
In Doris Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Tirella was found trapped under the car on Bellevue Avenue and was pronounced dead of serious injuries soon after.
After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. Tirella's family sued Doris Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Doris Duke's lawyers. ($ in today's dollars), divided among his eight siblings, when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding.
In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege).
What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. This evidence would be more consistent with Doris Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death.
Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money".
Personal life
Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate like his wife, used her fortune to finance his political career. In 1940 he served several months as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who was born prematurely on July 13, 1940, in Hawaii and died on the following day. They divorced in 1943. In 1988 Duke adopted 32-year-old Chandi Heffner in Hawaii.
On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris.
She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro and Louis Bromfield.
Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.
Death
In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman.
Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Rumors and accusations swirled after Duke's death, ranging from suicide to murder, and controversy was exacerbated by Duke's habit of regularly changing her last will and testament, but no court case was ever filed in the case.
Net worth
When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million, with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Nanaline was a shrewd businesswoman, often compared to Hetty Green, and when she died in 1962, she left her daughter an estate then estimated to be worth $250 million.
Duke also owned numerous shares in big-name companies, such as General Motors, and had a large financial team of bankers and accountants to manage her holdings (since, despite rumors, Duke had little to no interest in money matters). In addition, Duke had a collection of artwork, which was said to include works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet, as well as her valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asia art and furniture. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion.
Philanthropy
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.
In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. As the Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, the ashram became the focus of global attention five years later when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom Duke was friends, was the vice president and publicly supported the foundation. Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums.
Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Trusts and wills
Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940.
The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.
In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.
However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.
Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play.
Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing).
Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, performance arts, wildlife, and ecology.
The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption." Recently, these foundations have sold some assets and have closed Duke Gardens. Christie's, New York, published a heavily illustrated catalog of over 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation" which was held in New York City over three days in 2004.
The last living heirs to Duke's vast Industrial Age fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew. Their childhood has been documented as a tragedy of grotesque neglect, abuse, parental violence and addiction.
In popular culture
Biographies
Stephanie Mansfield's The Richest Girl in The World (Putnam 1994).
Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke (1996).
Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, Trust No One (1997).
Sallie Bingham's The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (2020).
Films and television
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (1999), based on Mansfield's book, a television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall as Duke, and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty.
Bernard and Doris (2007), an HBO film starring Susan Sarandon as Duke, and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.
Rubirosa (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring Katarina Čas as Doris Duke.
On American Horror Story: Freakshow, Gloria Mott dresses up as Doris Duke for Halloween.
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)
Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century art collectors
20th-century botanists
American art collectors
American billionaires
American debutantes
American horticulturists
American magazine writers
American socialites
American women philanthropists
Collectors of Asian art
Deaths from pulmonary edema
Duke family
Female billionaires
Islamic art
People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Transcendental Meditation exponents
Writers from Newport, Rhode Island
Writers from Manhattan
Women art collectors
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[
"Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke is a 1999 American four-part television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall and Richard Chamberlain which was first broadcast on CBS on February 21 and 23, 1999. It was based primarily on the book The Richest Girl in the World by Stephanie Mansfield (Pinnacle Books issued a special movie tie-in edition of the book in February 1999) as well as Bob Colacello's two in-depth articles about Ms. Duke in Vanity Fair. Colacello was the magazine's authority on Doris Duke.\n\nThe title of the series was derived from the book Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke by Pony Duke and Jason Thomas. Manfield's book was the first to be obtained by CBS, which optioned it for a planned miniseries in early 1995. The Duke-Thomas book, which was \"being peddled as a miniseries\" by the authors months before publication (it was not published until December 1995), was originally optioned earlier that year by the producer Doris Keating, who planned a miniseries of her own.\n\nToo Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke presents a dramatized account of the life of the heiress, philanthropist, and once richest woman in the world, Doris Duke. It has since been re-broadcast on The Hallmark Channel, and on Lifetime combined and presented as a 192-minute movie. The film stars Hayden Panettiere as young Doris Duke, Lindsay Frost as 20- to 50-year-old Doris Duke, and Lauren Bacall as an elderly Doris Duke. Bacall, who had met Doris Duke a few times, was pleased to have been able to appear in a TV miniseries, devoting a few paragraphs to the experience in her autobiography.\n\nWhile Bacall, Chamberlain and Frost were highly praised for their roles, most reviews of the miniseries were generally unfavorable. The Orlando Sentinel went so far as to say: \"If the real Duke were talking, a curse on the filmmakers would be likely.\"\n\nAnother film about the relationship between Duke and her butler, Bernard Lafferty, Bernard and Doris, directed by Bob Balaban and starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes, was released in 2007 to much greater critical acclaim, receiving three Golden Globe and ten Emmy nominations.\n\nPlot outline\nDoris Duke, the famous real-life billionairess, is seen going over her life as she prepares to die. Her life includes the early death of her loving father, being raised by a cold mother, two marriages and numerous affairs that still leave her hungry for love, a fascination with mystics and reincarnation, and a disastrous adoption late in life. Even now as she is dying, her roller-coaster life has one last bump in it: her butler, Bernard Lafferty, is suspected of arranging her death so he can get all her money.\n\nCast\n Lauren Bacall as Doris Duke (elderly)\nHayden Panettiere as Young Doris Duke\n Lindsay Frost as Doris Duke (age 20s to 50s)\n Richard Chamberlain as Bernard Lafferty\n Mare Winningham as Chandi Heffner\n Kathleen Quinlan as Nanaline Duke\n Michael Nouri as Porfirio Rubirosa\n Joe Don Baker as Buck Duke\n Roberta Maxwell as Myra\n Sheila McCarthy as Tammy\n Lisa Banes as Barbara Hutton\n Brian Stokes Mitchell as Duke Kahanamoku\n Brian Dennehy as Louis Bromfield\n Liam Cunningham as Alec Cunningham-Reid\n\nAccolades\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1999 American television series debuts\n1999 American television series endings\n1990s American television miniseries\n1990s biographical drama films\nAmerican biographical drama films\nAmerican films\nBiographical television films\nFilms directed by John Erman\nCBS original programming",
"Doris Willingham ( Curry, May 18, 1941 – March 21, 2019), known for much of her singing career as Doris Duke, was an American gospel and soul singer, best known for her 1969 album I'm a Loser.\n\nBiography\nDuke was born in Sandersville, Georgia, and reportedly started singing with gospel groups including the Queen of Gospel Albertina Walker and The Caravans, though this has been questioned. By 1963 she was working in New York City on sessions and as a backing singer at the Apollo Theatre. She also recorded some demos for Motown Records, but none were ever released.\n\nShe married Johnathan Augustus \"Gus\" Willingham, an original member of The Cadillacs, and under her married name of Doris Willingham recorded her first single, \"Running Away from Loneliness\" in 1966. This release on Jay Boy Records was not a success, so she continued working as a session singer, mainly in Philadelphia. She also sang back-up on Nina Simone's live album, A Very Rare Evening, recorded in Germany in 1969.\n\nIn 1969, former Atlantic Records producer Jerry 'Swamp Dogg' Williams Jr. signed her as a solo artist, renaming her Doris Duke and recording the album I'm a Loser at the Capricorn studio in Macon, Georgia. The album was eventually issued on Canyon Records, and over the years became regarded, by Dave Godin and others, as one of the finest deep soul records of all time. The first single, \"To the Other Woman (I'm the Other Woman)\", reached no. 7 in the Billboard R&B chart and no. 50 on the pop chart in early 1970, and the follow-up \"Feet Start Walking\" also made the R&B chart, but success was cut short when the record company collapsed.\n\nDuke recorded a second album, A Legend in Her Own Time, with Swamp Dogg, issued on the Mankind label in 1971. However, it was not commercially successful, and her career at one point became confused with that of \"the real\" Doris Duke, a white heiress, who began performing with a gospel choir in New Jersey. Having remarried, and using the name Doris Logan, she temporarily retired to bring up her young children, before undergoing another divorce. In 1973, Duke recorded unsuccessfully for Bob Shad's Mainstream label, before being signed to the British Contempo label in 1974. Her subsequent album Woman, recorded in London and arranged by Gerry Shury, received good reviews but few sales, and thereafter she retired from the music business.\n\nAn album called Funky Fox, issued on the Manhattan label in 1981, was credited to \"Sister Doris Duke\", although the tracks are in fact by other artists. However, Duke did make one further single, \"I'll Make a Sweet Man (Out of You)\", on the Beantown label in Boston, in 1981. Later efforts by music fans to rediscover Duke were fruitless. She was also sister to Jeraldine and Joyce Curry, who recorded as The Heartstoppers for the All Platinum label in the early 1970s.\n\nA CD coupling I'm a Loser and A Legend in Her Own Time, with several non-album tracks, was released by Ace Records in 2005.\n\nDoris Curry Willingham, known as Doris Duke, died aged 77 in 2019.\n\nReferences\n\n1941 births\n2019 deaths\n20th-century American singers\n20th-century African-American women singers\nAmerican soul musicians\nSAM Records artists\nSingers from Georgia (U.S. state)\nPeople from Sandersville, Georgia\n20th-century American women singers\n21st-century African-American people\n21st-century African-American women"
] |
[
"Doris Duke",
"Philanthropy",
"What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?",
"In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town."
] |
C_a8d3b77ceb364955a76feff6ba1eb1da_0
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Which buildings did she help restore ?
| 2 |
Which buildings did Doris Duke help restore ?
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Doris Duke
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Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. CANNOTANSWER
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Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House.
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Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
Duke's passions varied wildly. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation.
Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.
Early life
Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter, along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $ million to $ billion in ), the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.
Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Adult life
When she turned 18, in 1930, the tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante, at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.
When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke French fluently. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.
While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter.
Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name.
At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. Display construction began in 1958.
Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Duke cultivated an extensive art collection, principally of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, sixty objects from her collection (including ceramics, textiles, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements) were displayed temporarily at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the exhibition "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art", organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Homes
Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, a public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America.
Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.
She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. The plane included a bedroom decorated to resemble a bedroom in a real house. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else.
Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La, and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available.
Death of Eduardo Tirella
In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. He flew to Newport, where she was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave.
In Doris Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Tirella was found trapped under the car on Bellevue Avenue and was pronounced dead of serious injuries soon after.
After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. Tirella's family sued Doris Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Doris Duke's lawyers. ($ in today's dollars), divided among his eight siblings, when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding.
In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege).
What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. This evidence would be more consistent with Doris Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death.
Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money".
Personal life
Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate like his wife, used her fortune to finance his political career. In 1940 he served several months as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who was born prematurely on July 13, 1940, in Hawaii and died on the following day. They divorced in 1943. In 1988 Duke adopted 32-year-old Chandi Heffner in Hawaii.
On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris.
She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro and Louis Bromfield.
Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.
Death
In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman.
Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Rumors and accusations swirled after Duke's death, ranging from suicide to murder, and controversy was exacerbated by Duke's habit of regularly changing her last will and testament, but no court case was ever filed in the case.
Net worth
When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million, with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Nanaline was a shrewd businesswoman, often compared to Hetty Green, and when she died in 1962, she left her daughter an estate then estimated to be worth $250 million.
Duke also owned numerous shares in big-name companies, such as General Motors, and had a large financial team of bankers and accountants to manage her holdings (since, despite rumors, Duke had little to no interest in money matters). In addition, Duke had a collection of artwork, which was said to include works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet, as well as her valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asia art and furniture. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion.
Philanthropy
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.
In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. As the Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, the ashram became the focus of global attention five years later when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom Duke was friends, was the vice president and publicly supported the foundation. Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums.
Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Trusts and wills
Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940.
The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.
In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.
However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.
Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play.
Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing).
Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, performance arts, wildlife, and ecology.
The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption." Recently, these foundations have sold some assets and have closed Duke Gardens. Christie's, New York, published a heavily illustrated catalog of over 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation" which was held in New York City over three days in 2004.
The last living heirs to Duke's vast Industrial Age fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew. Their childhood has been documented as a tragedy of grotesque neglect, abuse, parental violence and addiction.
In popular culture
Biographies
Stephanie Mansfield's The Richest Girl in The World (Putnam 1994).
Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke (1996).
Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, Trust No One (1997).
Sallie Bingham's The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (2020).
Films and television
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (1999), based on Mansfield's book, a television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall as Duke, and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty.
Bernard and Doris (2007), an HBO film starring Susan Sarandon as Duke, and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.
Rubirosa (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring Katarina Čas as Doris Duke.
On American Horror Story: Freakshow, Gloria Mott dresses up as Doris Duke for Halloween.
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)
Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century art collectors
20th-century botanists
American art collectors
American billionaires
American debutantes
American horticulturists
American magazine writers
American socialites
American women philanthropists
Collectors of Asian art
Deaths from pulmonary edema
Duke family
Female billionaires
Islamic art
People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Transcendental Meditation exponents
Writers from Newport, Rhode Island
Writers from Manhattan
Women art collectors
| true |
[
"Alison Taylor is a retired Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. She served as an assistant bishop of the Diocese of Brisbane (Southern Region) from April 2013 to December 2017 and was the first female bishop in the diocese.\n\nPrior to ordination ministry, Taylor worked as an urban planner in the 1980s, during which she led an Australian aid project to restore and categorise European-built heritage buildings in Tianjin, China. During this time, she was influenced by seeing church buildings used as factories or warehouses and realising that many locals did not have access to a church. Her work in China was interrupted by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. She returned to Australia, to Melbourne, where she became Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies at Victoria University of Technology.\n\nAfter giving birth to her daughter, Taylor commenced theological studies in 1993 at Trinity College Theological School. Following her studies, she served in the Diocese of Melbourne, including as vicar of St John's Camberwell and as Archdeacon of Kew.\n\nIn December 2012, it was announced that Taylor would take up the position as an assistant bishop for the Southern Region of the Diocese of Brisbane, replacing Geoffrey Smith who was had become general manager of the diocese. As part of her ministry, she looked after 47 parishes stretching from the south of the Brisbane River down to Coolangatta, and she looked after 14 schools run by the Diocese.\n\nTaylor was formally farewelled from her ministry on 2 December 2017 and was succeeded by John Roundhill. She returned to Melbourne to take up doctoral studies on the theology related to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.\n\nTaylor is married to Trevor and has one daughter.\n\nReferences\n\nPeople educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)\n21st-century Anglican bishops in Australia\nAssistant bishops in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane\nFemale Anglican bishops\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"The Santuario della Madonna della Bocciola is in Ameno municipality, Province of Novara, Italy.\n\nThe sanctuary rises up where tradition attributes the setting for a miracle: in 1543 the Virgin Mary appeared to a young shepherdess, Giulia Manfredi, and told her that she would help the village if the inhabitants prayed and did not work on Saturday.\n\nThe church was progressively enlarged up to the most recent neoclassical architecture.\n\nSee also \n CoEur - In the heart of European paths\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Information about the sanctuary\n\nBuildings and structures in Piedmont\nTourist attractions in Piedmont"
] |
[
"Doris Duke",
"Philanthropy",
"What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?",
"In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town.",
"Which buildings did she help restore ?",
"Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House."
] |
C_a8d3b77ceb364955a76feff6ba1eb1da_0
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How much did she pay for the restoration of these buildings ?
| 3 |
How much did Dori's s Duke pay for the restoration of the historic buildings ?
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Doris Duke
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Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
Duke's passions varied wildly. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation.
Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.
Early life
Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter, along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $ million to $ billion in ), the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.
Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Adult life
When she turned 18, in 1930, the tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante, at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.
When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke French fluently. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.
While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter.
Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name.
At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. Display construction began in 1958.
Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Duke cultivated an extensive art collection, principally of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, sixty objects from her collection (including ceramics, textiles, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements) were displayed temporarily at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the exhibition "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art", organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Homes
Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, a public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America.
Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.
She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. The plane included a bedroom decorated to resemble a bedroom in a real house. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else.
Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La, and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available.
Death of Eduardo Tirella
In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. He flew to Newport, where she was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave.
In Doris Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Tirella was found trapped under the car on Bellevue Avenue and was pronounced dead of serious injuries soon after.
After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. Tirella's family sued Doris Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Doris Duke's lawyers. ($ in today's dollars), divided among his eight siblings, when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding.
In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege).
What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. This evidence would be more consistent with Doris Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death.
Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money".
Personal life
Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate like his wife, used her fortune to finance his political career. In 1940 he served several months as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who was born prematurely on July 13, 1940, in Hawaii and died on the following day. They divorced in 1943. In 1988 Duke adopted 32-year-old Chandi Heffner in Hawaii.
On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris.
She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro and Louis Bromfield.
Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.
Death
In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman.
Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Rumors and accusations swirled after Duke's death, ranging from suicide to murder, and controversy was exacerbated by Duke's habit of regularly changing her last will and testament, but no court case was ever filed in the case.
Net worth
When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million, with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Nanaline was a shrewd businesswoman, often compared to Hetty Green, and when she died in 1962, she left her daughter an estate then estimated to be worth $250 million.
Duke also owned numerous shares in big-name companies, such as General Motors, and had a large financial team of bankers and accountants to manage her holdings (since, despite rumors, Duke had little to no interest in money matters). In addition, Duke had a collection of artwork, which was said to include works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet, as well as her valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asia art and furniture. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion.
Philanthropy
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.
In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. As the Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, the ashram became the focus of global attention five years later when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom Duke was friends, was the vice president and publicly supported the foundation. Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums.
Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Trusts and wills
Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940.
The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.
In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.
However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.
Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play.
Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing).
Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, performance arts, wildlife, and ecology.
The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption." Recently, these foundations have sold some assets and have closed Duke Gardens. Christie's, New York, published a heavily illustrated catalog of over 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation" which was held in New York City over three days in 2004.
The last living heirs to Duke's vast Industrial Age fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew. Their childhood has been documented as a tragedy of grotesque neglect, abuse, parental violence and addiction.
In popular culture
Biographies
Stephanie Mansfield's The Richest Girl in The World (Putnam 1994).
Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke (1996).
Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, Trust No One (1997).
Sallie Bingham's The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (2020).
Films and television
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (1999), based on Mansfield's book, a television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall as Duke, and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty.
Bernard and Doris (2007), an HBO film starring Susan Sarandon as Duke, and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.
Rubirosa (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring Katarina Čas as Doris Duke.
On American Horror Story: Freakshow, Gloria Mott dresses up as Doris Duke for Halloween.
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)
Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century art collectors
20th-century botanists
American art collectors
American billionaires
American debutantes
American horticulturists
American magazine writers
American socialites
American women philanthropists
Collectors of Asian art
Deaths from pulmonary edema
Duke family
Female billionaires
Islamic art
People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Transcendental Meditation exponents
Writers from Newport, Rhode Island
Writers from Manhattan
Women art collectors
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[
"The Jefferson Carnegie Library is a library in Jefferson, Texas, built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Hallett & Rawson of Des Moines were the architects. Built in 1907, it is one of four libraries in Texas, from the original 34, to currently operate as a library.\n\nHistory\nThe ladies of the Jefferson Library Association proposed that a restroom be built and that the fees generated by its use pay for library services. Also, a ten-cent tea was planned at the building the library was occupying on Walnut Street, and proceeds were designated for buying a badly needed bookcase for the two hundred volume collection. Both of these ideas did not work, so in 1907, the library association received a grant from Andrew Carnegie for $7,500 to build a library on the condition that the city appropriate a budget for its upkeep.\n\nContinuing legacy\nIn 2007, the library began a restoration project which was recognized by the Lucille Terry Award.\n\nSee also \nList of Carnegie libraries in the United States\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Jefferson Carnegie Library \n\nCarnegie libraries in Texas\nJefferson, Texas\nBuildings and structures in Marion County, Texas\nLibrary buildings completed in 1907\n1907 establishments in Texas\nEducation in Marion County, Texas\nNeoclassical architecture in Texas",
"Elizabeth Wilks born Lizzie Bennett (17 July 1861 – 16 November 1956) was a British doctor, suffragist, tax resister and philanthropist. She was married to Mark Wilks who was sent to jail for her refusal to pay tax and his refusal to make his wife tell him how much she earned.\n\nLife\nWilks was born in De Montfort Square in Leicester to John and Sarah Annie Bennett. She attended the university of London and when she left in 1896 she was a qualified doctor and she had a degree in surgery. The same year she married Mark Wilks who was a London teacher.\n\nWilks was a founder member of the Women's Tax Resistance League which was a group who objected particularly to women paying tax to a government over which they had no electoral control. Wilks became the treasurer of the organisation whose motto was \"No Vote No Tax!\".\n\nWilks came to notice when she refused to pay her tax in 1908. Married women were not required to pay taxes per se in Britain at that time. According to the law a married couple's joint income was added together and the husband paid the tax. However Elizabeth, who as a doctor, earned more than her husband, refused to tell her husband how much she earned. This put the authorities into a quandary as Elizabeth was not liable to pay tax and her husband was nominally willing to pay the tax but he said that he had no idea how much to pay. There was no legal requirement for Elizabeth to tell her husband about her income. In 1910 the authorities illegally seized some of her goods in an attempt to levy the tax on her income. The authorities then tried to claim the tax either from them as a couple or by her husband alone. This was legally unsatisfactory as Mark was being asked for tax on her income (of about £600 per annum) that he was nominally unaware of. 3,000 teachers signed a petition when Mark Wilks was placed in Brixton Jail and there was a demonstration in Trafalgar Square to protest at his treatment. He was released after a fortnight to a celebrations at Caxton Hall from the supporters of the Women's Tax Resistance League. His support included the writer George Bernard Shaw. Despite a debate in the House of Lords where it was realised that the law was unfair, British law did not get amended until 1972.\n\nThe Wilks moved to the village of Headley Down in Hampshire where Elizabeth was concerned by the quality of the public housing in 1933. She raised the money to build sixteen new residences which were managed by the newlyformed Headley Public Utility Society.\n\nWilks died in Headley Down in 1956 and she left her home and ten acres of woodland to the Headley Public Utility Society. The residences were given to the local authority but the Headley PUS still maintains the woodlands for public benefit.\n\nReferences \n\n1861 births\n1956 deaths\nPeople from Leicester\nBritish suffragists\nBritish philanthropists\nPeople from East Hampshire District"
] |
[
"Doris Duke",
"Philanthropy",
"What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?",
"In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town.",
"Which buildings did she help restore ?",
"Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House.",
"How much did she pay for the restoration of these buildings ?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_a8d3b77ceb364955a76feff6ba1eb1da_0
|
Was she involved with any other charities ?
| 4 |
Besides preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in town, was Doris Duke involved with any other charities ?
|
Doris Duke
|
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. CANNOTANSWER
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Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934,
|
Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
Duke's passions varied wildly. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation.
Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.
Early life
Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter, along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $ million to $ billion in ), the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.
Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Adult life
When she turned 18, in 1930, the tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante, at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.
When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke French fluently. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.
While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter.
Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name.
At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. Display construction began in 1958.
Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Duke cultivated an extensive art collection, principally of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, sixty objects from her collection (including ceramics, textiles, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements) were displayed temporarily at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the exhibition "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art", organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Homes
Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, a public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America.
Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.
She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. The plane included a bedroom decorated to resemble a bedroom in a real house. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else.
Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La, and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available.
Death of Eduardo Tirella
In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. He flew to Newport, where she was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave.
In Doris Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Tirella was found trapped under the car on Bellevue Avenue and was pronounced dead of serious injuries soon after.
After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. Tirella's family sued Doris Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Doris Duke's lawyers. ($ in today's dollars), divided among his eight siblings, when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding.
In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege).
What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. This evidence would be more consistent with Doris Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death.
Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money".
Personal life
Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate like his wife, used her fortune to finance his political career. In 1940 he served several months as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who was born prematurely on July 13, 1940, in Hawaii and died on the following day. They divorced in 1943. In 1988 Duke adopted 32-year-old Chandi Heffner in Hawaii.
On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris.
She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro and Louis Bromfield.
Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.
Death
In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman.
Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Rumors and accusations swirled after Duke's death, ranging from suicide to murder, and controversy was exacerbated by Duke's habit of regularly changing her last will and testament, but no court case was ever filed in the case.
Net worth
When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million, with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Nanaline was a shrewd businesswoman, often compared to Hetty Green, and when she died in 1962, she left her daughter an estate then estimated to be worth $250 million.
Duke also owned numerous shares in big-name companies, such as General Motors, and had a large financial team of bankers and accountants to manage her holdings (since, despite rumors, Duke had little to no interest in money matters). In addition, Duke had a collection of artwork, which was said to include works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet, as well as her valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asia art and furniture. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion.
Philanthropy
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.
In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. As the Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, the ashram became the focus of global attention five years later when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom Duke was friends, was the vice president and publicly supported the foundation. Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums.
Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Trusts and wills
Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940.
The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.
In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.
However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.
Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play.
Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing).
Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, performance arts, wildlife, and ecology.
The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption." Recently, these foundations have sold some assets and have closed Duke Gardens. Christie's, New York, published a heavily illustrated catalog of over 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation" which was held in New York City over three days in 2004.
The last living heirs to Duke's vast Industrial Age fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew. Their childhood has been documented as a tragedy of grotesque neglect, abuse, parental violence and addiction.
In popular culture
Biographies
Stephanie Mansfield's The Richest Girl in The World (Putnam 1994).
Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke (1996).
Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, Trust No One (1997).
Sallie Bingham's The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (2020).
Films and television
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (1999), based on Mansfield's book, a television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall as Duke, and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty.
Bernard and Doris (2007), an HBO film starring Susan Sarandon as Duke, and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.
Rubirosa (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring Katarina Čas as Doris Duke.
On American Horror Story: Freakshow, Gloria Mott dresses up as Doris Duke for Halloween.
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)
Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century art collectors
20th-century botanists
American art collectors
American billionaires
American debutantes
American horticulturists
American magazine writers
American socialites
American women philanthropists
Collectors of Asian art
Deaths from pulmonary edema
Duke family
Female billionaires
Islamic art
People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Transcendental Meditation exponents
Writers from Newport, Rhode Island
Writers from Manhattan
Women art collectors
| true |
[
"Ashleigh Carmen Francis (born 12 May 1988) is an Australian beauty queen from Sydney. She won the title of Miss World Australia in August 2010, which launched her as a TV presenter, model and media personality.\n\nShe is of Australian, Scottish and Jamaican descent. She is tall.\n\nIn Miss World 2010, Francis placed in the finals for Beach Beauty, Sport and Talent (top 10).\n\nIn 2012, Francis was signed with G02, a travel show on Australia's SBS network which was due to air in 2013. Six episodes were shot and aired prior to the show being discontinued. During this time she was a featured guest on Please marry my boy and was also asked to be a guest in Australia's Big Brother and I’m a celebrity, get me out of here (UK version) which she was unable to commit to for unknown reasons.\n\nPrior to Francis's involvement with Go2, she was involved with programmes such as FTV Australia (FashionTV), Unseentv, where she covered sporting and red carpet events.\n\nFrancis's previous ambassadorships and affiliates include:\n Lemon Detox – full campaign\n Face of Botani Skincare\n Florence and Ferrari cosmetics\n Skywalk (centre point tower) and Flowoxygen.\n\nShe has been involved in charities and fundraising events with Gloria Jean's - Cappuccino for a cause Fujitsu Charity Golf Channel Nine's – Sydney Children's Hospital Telethon McHappy Day 2010 and 2011 R U OK? Day, Day of Difference - Shen Yun Chinese Performing Arts Schizophrenia Research Institute and Swear Stop Week. She continues being involved with various charities throughout the world.\n\nSee also\n Australia at major beauty pageants\n Miss Australia\n Miss World Australia\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n www.missworld.com\n www.missworld-australia.com\n\n1989 births\nAustralian beauty pageant winners\nAustralian people of Jamaican descent\nAustralian people of Scottish descent\nPeople from Sydney\nLiving people\nShen Yun\nMiss World 2010 delegates",
"SoccerGrow is a soccer charity aimed at supporting the international soccer community, specifically lower-income regions. SoccerGrow was started in June 2008 by the founders of the soccer retailer SoccerPro, with the intention of getting its customer base involved with soccer charity work. SoccerGrow works with other charities, such as Kicks for Kenya, by donating soccer products to them to distribute.\n\nPurpose statement\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n SoccerGrow.org\n SoccerPro.com\n\nCharities based in Missouri\nSports organizations of the United States\nSoccer in Missouri\nSports charities\nOrganizations based in Columbia, Missouri"
] |
[
"Doris Duke",
"Philanthropy",
"What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?",
"In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town.",
"Which buildings did she help restore ?",
"Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House.",
"How much did she pay for the restoration of these buildings ?",
"I don't know.",
"Was she involved with any other charities ?",
"Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934,"
] |
C_a8d3b77ceb364955a76feff6ba1eb1da_0
|
What did Independent Aid, Inc. do ?
| 5 |
What did Doris Duke's Independent Aid, Inc. do ?
|
Doris Duke
|
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. CANNOTANSWER
|
to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her.
|
Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
Duke's passions varied wildly. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation.
Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.
Early life
Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter, along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $ million to $ billion in ), the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.
Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Adult life
When she turned 18, in 1930, the tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante, at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.
When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke French fluently. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.
While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter.
Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name.
At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. Display construction began in 1958.
Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Duke cultivated an extensive art collection, principally of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, sixty objects from her collection (including ceramics, textiles, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements) were displayed temporarily at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the exhibition "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art", organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Homes
Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, a public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America.
Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.
She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. The plane included a bedroom decorated to resemble a bedroom in a real house. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else.
Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La, and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available.
Death of Eduardo Tirella
In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. He flew to Newport, where she was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave.
In Doris Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Tirella was found trapped under the car on Bellevue Avenue and was pronounced dead of serious injuries soon after.
After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. Tirella's family sued Doris Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Doris Duke's lawyers. ($ in today's dollars), divided among his eight siblings, when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding.
In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege).
What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. This evidence would be more consistent with Doris Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death.
Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money".
Personal life
Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate like his wife, used her fortune to finance his political career. In 1940 he served several months as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who was born prematurely on July 13, 1940, in Hawaii and died on the following day. They divorced in 1943. In 1988 Duke adopted 32-year-old Chandi Heffner in Hawaii.
On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris.
She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro and Louis Bromfield.
Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.
Death
In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman.
Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Rumors and accusations swirled after Duke's death, ranging from suicide to murder, and controversy was exacerbated by Duke's habit of regularly changing her last will and testament, but no court case was ever filed in the case.
Net worth
When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million, with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Nanaline was a shrewd businesswoman, often compared to Hetty Green, and when she died in 1962, she left her daughter an estate then estimated to be worth $250 million.
Duke also owned numerous shares in big-name companies, such as General Motors, and had a large financial team of bankers and accountants to manage her holdings (since, despite rumors, Duke had little to no interest in money matters). In addition, Duke had a collection of artwork, which was said to include works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet, as well as her valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asia art and furniture. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion.
Philanthropy
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.
In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. As the Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, the ashram became the focus of global attention five years later when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom Duke was friends, was the vice president and publicly supported the foundation. Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums.
Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Trusts and wills
Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940.
The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.
In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.
However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.
Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play.
Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing).
Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, performance arts, wildlife, and ecology.
The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption." Recently, these foundations have sold some assets and have closed Duke Gardens. Christie's, New York, published a heavily illustrated catalog of over 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation" which was held in New York City over three days in 2004.
The last living heirs to Duke's vast Industrial Age fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew. Their childhood has been documented as a tragedy of grotesque neglect, abuse, parental violence and addiction.
In popular culture
Biographies
Stephanie Mansfield's The Richest Girl in The World (Putnam 1994).
Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke (1996).
Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, Trust No One (1997).
Sallie Bingham's The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (2020).
Films and television
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (1999), based on Mansfield's book, a television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall as Duke, and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty.
Bernard and Doris (2007), an HBO film starring Susan Sarandon as Duke, and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.
Rubirosa (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring Katarina Čas as Doris Duke.
On American Horror Story: Freakshow, Gloria Mott dresses up as Doris Duke for Halloween.
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)
Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century art collectors
20th-century botanists
American art collectors
American billionaires
American debutantes
American horticulturists
American magazine writers
American socialites
American women philanthropists
Collectors of Asian art
Deaths from pulmonary edema
Duke family
Female billionaires
Islamic art
People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Transcendental Meditation exponents
Writers from Newport, Rhode Island
Writers from Manhattan
Women art collectors
| true |
[
"Baptist International Missions, Incorporated (BIMI) is a missions organization that provides aid to Independent Baptist missionaries.\n\nExternal links\n Baptist International Missions Inc. Website\n\nBaptist organizations in the United States\nBaptist missionary societies",
"CAI Learning Academy is an independent, non-sectarian day school located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The school was founded in 2014 by Tony Salvaggio, the chief executive officer of Computer Aid Inc. to provide a technology-enhanced learning environment for elementary and middle school students in the Lehigh Valley. As of 2018, the school enrolls grades K-4 and plans to expand by one grade level each school year until becoming a full K-8 school in September 2022.\n\nHistory\nComputer Aid Inc, an Allentown-area IT consulting firm, has developed solutions for technology integration in elementary and middle school education. The firm saw an opportunity to open its own charter school in Allentown, which would incorporate hands-on activities and iPad e-reading applications.\n\nThe school originally was proposed to be loated at a former Catholic school building then owned by the Allentown Diocese. While the charter school application received some support, it was ultimately rejected because the school \"contained no evidence of support whatsoever by parents or students.\" This led to the founding of the private school at the same location since the licensing process of independent schools is much more lenient than in charter schools. The school opened in September 2014 to 70 kindergarten students.\n\nTuition and financial aid\nAnnual tuition for all grade levels is $4,000. More than three-quarters of all students receive some form of financial aid and the vast majority of the school's funding comes from donations through Computer Aid Inc.\n\nReferences\n\nEducation in Allentown, Pennsylvania\nSchools in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania\nPrivate middle schools in Pennsylvania\nPrivate elementary schools in Pennsylvania\nEducational institutions established in 2014\n2014 establishments in Pennsylvania"
] |
[
"Doris Duke",
"Philanthropy",
"What charities did Doris Duke sponsor ?",
"In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town.",
"Which buildings did she help restore ?",
"Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House.",
"How much did she pay for the restoration of these buildings ?",
"I don't know.",
"Was she involved with any other charities ?",
"Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934,",
"What did Independent Aid, Inc. do ?",
"to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her."
] |
C_a8d3b77ceb364955a76feff6ba1eb1da_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides Doris Duke's philantrophic deeds, are there any other interesting aspects about the article?
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Doris Duke
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Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008. In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968. Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore. Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms. CANNOTANSWER
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Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art.
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Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle, and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her death.
Duke's passions varied wildly. Briefly a news correspondent in the 1940s, she also played jazz piano and learned to surf competitively. At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of America's largest indoor botanical displays. She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation.
Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. She also donated funds to support and educate black students in the South who were disadvantaged because of racism. Her estimated $1.3 billion fortune was largely left to charity. Duke's legacy is now administered by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, dedicated to medical research, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, the performing arts, wildlife and ecology.
Early life
Duke was born in New York City, the only child of tobacco and hydroelectric power tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of William Patterson Inman. At his death in 1925, the elder Duke's will bequeathed the majority of his estate to his wife and daughter, along with $17 million in two separate clauses of the will, to The Duke Endowment he had created in 1924. The total value of the estate was estimated variously from $60 - $100 million (equivalent to $ million to $ billion in ), the majority derived from J.B. Duke's holdings in the American Tobacco Company and the precursor of the Duke Power Company.
Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Due to ambiguity in James Duke's will, a lawsuit was filed in 1927 to prevent auctions and outright sales of real estate he had owned; in effect, Doris Duke successfully sued her mother and other executors to prevent the sales. One of the pieces of real estate in question was a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.
Adult life
When she turned 18, in 1930, the tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante, at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30; she was sometimes referred to as the "world's richest girl". Her mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.
When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. She studied singing with Estelle Liebling, the voice teacher of Beverly Sills, in New York City. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke French fluently. In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.
While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first non-Hawaiian woman to take up competitive surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers. A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter.
Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name.
At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke. She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels. She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16-hour days. Display construction began in 1958.
Duke had learned to play the piano at an early age and developed a lifelong appreciation of jazz and befriended jazz musicians. She also liked gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Duke cultivated an extensive art collection, principally of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, sixty objects from her collection (including ceramics, textiles, paintings, tile panels, and full-scale architectural elements) were displayed temporarily at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the exhibition "Doris Duke's Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art", organized by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. The collection is on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii, now the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Homes
Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, a public indoor botanical display that was among the largest in America.
Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 49-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a nine-room penthouse with a veranda at 475 Park Avenue that was later owned by journalist Cindy Adams; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs.
She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. The plane included a bedroom decorated to resemble a bedroom in a real house. Doris Duke had difficulty remaining in one place, and whenever she arrived somewhere, she had the desire to go somewhere else.
Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La, and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and allow limited public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of the former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available.
Death of Eduardo Tirella
In 1966, Eduardo Tirella, curator of Duke's art holdings for the previous decade, decided to leave for a career in Hollywood as a production designer. He flew to Newport, where she was staying at Rough Point, on October 6, to collect his belongings and let Duke know that he was leaving her employ. His friends who also knew her had warned him she would not take it well, and the following afternoon the estate's staff overheard the two having a loud and lengthy argument before they got into a rented Dodge Polara to leave.
In Doris Duke's account of events she said Tirella, who had been driving, got out at the gate to open it, leaving the engine running but with the parking brake engaged and the transmission in park. Duke moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat in order, she said later, to drive the car forward and pick up Tirella once the gate was open. In order to do so she released the parking brake and shifted into drive, but instead of putting her foot on the brake pedal she hit the gas. The vehicle, she told police later, pinned Tirella against the still-opening gates, knocked them over and then struck a tree across. Re-examination of the evidence at the scene is not consistent with this account. Tirella was found trapped under the car on Bellevue Avenue and was pronounced dead of serious injuries soon after.
After a brief investigation, the Newport police ruled the death was accidental. Tirella's family sued Doris Duke for wrongful death and won $75,000. They were initially awarded a larger sum that was subsequently reduced with the aid of Doris Duke's lawyers. ($ in today's dollars), divided among his eight siblings, when Duke was found negligent after a trial five years later. Later biographies and her obituaries repeated the official finding.
In 2020, Peter Lance, a Newport native who had begun his journalism career at Newport Daily News shortly after the incident, reinvestigated the case in a Vanity Fair article. He found initially that the police file on the case and the transcripts of the wrongful death suit brought by Tirella's family were missing from archives where they would normally be kept, but was able to find some of those documents later. They showed that the investigation into Duke had been cursory and compromised by conflicts of interest (shortly before the medical examiner arrived at the hospital, for instance, Duke had hired him as her personal physician, meaning anything she told him was protected by doctor-patient privilege).
What Lance was able to find showed that Duke's account of the incident had changed and was inconsistent with the evidence. The parking brake could not have been released the way she said she had, and all of Tirella's injuries were above his waist, which suggests he was not trapped between the car and the gates when it broke through. The deep grooves left by the Polara's rear tires in the gravel suggested considerably more acceleration than what might have resulted from an accidental depression of the gas pedal. Lance, and several other experts who reviewed the evidence, concluded that it was far more likely that Duke had deliberately run Tirella over out of rage at his decision to leave her for Hollywood. This evidence would be more consistent with Doris Duke running Eduardo Tirella down just outside the gates. Having been flung over the hood of her car he came to rest in the road. At that point she proceeded to run the stricken man over resulting in his death.
Shortly after the case was closed, Duke began making considerable philanthropic contributions to the city, including the repair of Cliff Walk around her estate, previously a source of friction between her and the city when her dogs had attacked tourists, and $10,000 to the hospital she had been taken to the night of the accident. Within months she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has since renovated 84 of the city's colonial era buildings. The police chief retired to Florida within a year and bought two condominiums for himself; he was succeeded as chief by the detective who had investigated the incident, instead of his boss who was seen as next in line. Belief persists today in Newport that there was a coverup facilitated by Duke "blood money".
Personal life
Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Eva Stotesbury and stepson of wealthy financier Edward T. Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate like his wife, used her fortune to finance his political career. In 1940 he served several months as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who was born prematurely on July 13, 1940, in Hawaii and died on the following day. They divorced in 1943. In 1988 Duke adopted 32-year-old Chandi Heffner in Hawaii.
On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his second wife, actress Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote a political agenda. Further, there was concern that in the event of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Therefore, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. During the marriage though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris.
She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro and Louis Bromfield.
Duke posted a bail of $5,000,000 for her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos after the latter was arrested for racketeering.
Death
In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman.
Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified. Rumors and accusations swirled after Duke's death, ranging from suicide to murder, and controversy was exacerbated by Duke's habit of regularly changing her last will and testament, but no court case was ever filed in the case.
Net worth
When Doris' father died, he left a fortune valued at $100 million, with the largest share going to Duke and her mother. Nanaline was a shrewd businesswoman, often compared to Hetty Green, and when she died in 1962, she left her daughter an estate then estimated to be worth $250 million.
Duke also owned numerous shares in big-name companies, such as General Motors, and had a large financial team of bankers and accountants to manage her holdings (since, despite rumors, Duke had little to no interest in money matters). In addition, Duke had a collection of artwork, which was said to include works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Monet, as well as her valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asia art and furniture. Also in Duke's collection were over 2,000 bottles of rare wine (worth over $5 million) and the extraordinary Duke collection of fine jewels. Her total net worth, including all property, was valued at $5.3 billion.
Philanthropy
Duke's first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.
In 1963, Duke funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram on land leased from the state forestry department of Uttar Pradesh in India. As the Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, the ashram became the focus of global attention five years later when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom Duke was friends, was the vice president and publicly supported the foundation. Duke was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King's Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums.
Duke's extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. In the late 1980s, Duke donated $2 million to Duke University to be used for AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke's three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Trusts and wills
Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, then a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940.
The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke's will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father's trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke's death, the estate's trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.
In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as executor of her estate. Lafferty appointed the U.S. Trust company as corporate co-executor. Lafferty and Duke's friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.
However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at upwards of $1.2 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.
Even more sensational accusations were made by a nurse, Tammy Payette, who contended that Lafferty and a prominent Beverly Hills physician, Dr. Charles Kivowitz, had conspired to hasten Duke's death with morphine and Demerol. In 1996, the year Lafferty died, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no firm evidence of foul play.
Duke University also filed suit, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing).
Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. New York courts ultimately removed Lafferty for using estate funds for his own support and U.S. Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him". The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Albert C. Barnes); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University; and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children and animals, performance arts, wildlife, and ecology.
The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption." Recently, these foundations have sold some assets and have closed Duke Gardens. Christie's, New York, published a heavily illustrated catalog of over 600 pages for its auction of "The Doris Duke Collection, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation" which was held in New York City over three days in 2004.
The last living heirs to Duke's vast Industrial Age fortune are twins Georgia Inman and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the children of Walker Inman Jr., Duke's nephew. Their childhood has been documented as a tragedy of grotesque neglect, abuse, parental violence and addiction.
In popular culture
Biographies
Stephanie Mansfield's The Richest Girl in The World (Putnam 1994).
Pony Duke, her disinherited nephew, and Jason Thomas published Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke (1996).
Ted Schwarz with Tom Rybak, co-authored by one of Duke's staff, Trust No One (1997).
Sallie Bingham's The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke (2020).
Films and television
Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke (1999), based on Mansfield's book, a television miniseries starring Lauren Bacall as Duke, and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty.
Bernard and Doris (2007), an HBO film starring Susan Sarandon as Duke, and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.
Rubirosa (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring Katarina Čas as Doris Duke.
On American Horror Story: Freakshow, Gloria Mott dresses up as Doris Duke for Halloween.
References
Works cited
Further reading
External links
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Doris Duke Biographical History and Archival Collections (Duke University Libraries)
Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
1912 births
1993 deaths
20th-century art collectors
20th-century botanists
American art collectors
American billionaires
American debutantes
American horticulturists
American magazine writers
American socialites
American women philanthropists
Collectors of Asian art
Deaths from pulmonary edema
Duke family
Female billionaires
Islamic art
People from the Upper East Side
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Transcendental Meditation exponents
Writers from Newport, Rhode Island
Writers from Manhattan
Women art collectors
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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"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season"
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C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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What happened in the 1964 season?
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What happened in the 1964 season?
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Ara Parseghian
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Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,
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Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
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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",
"Destroyed in Seconds is a half-hour American television series that aired on Discovery Channel. Hosted by Ron Pitts, it features video segments of various things being destroyed fairly quickly (hence, \"in seconds\") such as planes crashing, explosions, sinkholes, boats crashing, fires, race car incidents, floods, factories, etc. The nature of the show closely resembles Real TV. The show uses real video of real events, and commentary explaining the destruction portrayed. Most videos have stock sound effects added. Some of the events seen resulted in fatalities, and all of the events have property damage.\n\nFormat\nAt the beginning of each episode, a compilation of all the incidents featured in that episode will play (though not in order), with Pitts narrating, \"Without so much as a warning, life hangs in the balance. Human endeavour turns to chaos. And within seconds, nothing will ever be the same. Ever.\" On rare occasions, one incident will be left out of the opening compilation due to restricted space. That was the case for the Wichita City Hall drive-thru, which was not featured in the intro of episode 49. After the compilation, Pitts will describe two of the incidents that happen in the episode in one-liners. Each intro ends off with the phrase, \"destroyed in seconds\" before the show's main intro plays and the first incident in the episode. For example, episode 45's intro goes like this: \"I'm Ron Pitts. Our team leaves no stone unturned in our search for destruction. In Italy, a Le Mans racer comes within inches of another car, as it cartwheels across the track. A military helicopter loses power and slices through the deck of a naval destroyer. A split second is all it takes for things to get destroyed in seconds. \"\n\nEach episode usually features eight or nine incidents, with a bonus incident at the end that is not part of the episode, but was lumped in by the crew for fun. The bonus clip usually involves car crashes or military disasters. At the beginning of each video shown, Pitts says the place, sometimes the time and date of the incident. Pitts will then explain the background of the incident (e.g. Racing competitions, industrial disasters), then the moment of the incident and what caused it. In the later episodes of the show, the location is sometimes not stated. This is likely because to give viewers an impression that the incident could have happened anywhere – across the globe or right down the street. Unlike Shockwave and World's Most Amazing Videos, there are no interviewees to talk about what happened in that incident. The incidents featured in the whole series happened before or during 2009, as the show was cancelled in 2010. At the end of each episode, Pitts ends off with a few words before the credits roll. The end credits usually review all the incidents that happened in the episode in order.\n\nUsually, if a destruction is horrible, very dangerous, heart-stopping, or results in many injuries, the show usually goes into commercial either right at the moment of impact, right before it, or a little afterwards(for example, Jack Bland's brutal crash at Hagerstown in episode 8). When the show starts again, it reviews what happened and then explains what started the incident.\n\nEpisodes\nSeason 1 completed on March 23, 2009, and Season 2 in 2010. This is a list of Destroyed in Seconds episodes for Season 1 and 2:\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nDiscovery Channel original programming\n2008 American television series debuts\n2009 American television series endings"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,"
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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When did they get a national title?
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When did Turnaround get a national title?
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Ara Parseghian
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Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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the team did not contend for a national title,
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Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
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[
"Sobou FC, previously known for sponsorship reasons as Cellnet Sobou and Telikom Sobou, is an amateur association football team based in Lae, Papua New Guinea. The club appears to have been in existence since the 1980s.\n\nThe club is domestically one of the most successful in Papua New Guinean football history, having won five National Club Championship titles consecutively from 2001 to 2005, a domestic record they share with University. The club also took part in two editions of the OFC Champions League, but were unable to register any points.\n\nSince the introduction of the National Soccer League in 2006, the club has retained its amateur status and taken part predominantly in regional competitions.\n\nHistory\n\nEarly years \nNot much is known about the foundation of the club, but the first records of their competitive history come from 1985, when the club were declared runners-up of the Lae Regional League. \n\nSometime in the early 1990s, the club joined the new Lahi Regional League, and went on to win the competition three times consecutively in 1994, 1995 and 1996.\n\nFurther records begin in 1997, when the club took part in that year's Papua New Guinea National Club Championship, the biggest domestic competition in the country at that time. The club did not finish in the top four. \n\nIn 1998, the club won their fourth regional title, defeating Guria Lahi 4–2 in the Grand Final. This ought to have qualified them for the 1999 National Club Championship, but for unknown reasons, they did not take part. They did, however, pick up a fifth regional title, defeating Guria Lahi on penalties in that year's Grand Final.\n\nIn 2000, the club took part in their second National Club Championship, finishing fourth. A further regional title followed later in the year, before the club began to fully dominate domestically for much of the early 2000s.\n\nNational dominance and continental qualification \nDespite coming second regionally, they picked up their first National Club Championship on 11 November 2001, defeating four-time champions University 3–0 in the Grand Final. The following year they completed a national and domestic double, defeating PS United in the National Club Championship and Unitech in the regional final. \n\nIn 2003, the team faced Unitech in both the national and regional finals: on 16 September 2003, the side defeated Unitech 1–0 to claim the national title for the third successive season; just over a month later, they were on the wrong end of a 2–0 defeat to surrender the regional title to their rivals. In 2004, they repeated their feat from 2002, picking up the national title over HC West and the regional title against Bismarck FC. \n\nTheir 2004 victory qualified them for the 2005 OFC Club Championship, a competition that would eventually become the OFC Champions League. After defeating Samoan side Tuinaimato Breeze 7–0 on aggregate in the preliminary round, the club went on to lose all three games in the group stage, conceding 20 goals and scoring just four. Their final national title came in 2005, with a 4–2 victory over Cosmos, while regional they finished as runners-up once again.\n\nThe club's performance in the 2006 OFC Club Championship wasn't much better than their previous attempt. The club qualified for the competition directly, but lost all three of their group games, scoring once and conceding 21 goals. Domestically, the side came second regionally while reaching the 2006 National Club Championship final, where they faced four-time champions University, whose record they had surpassed the previous season after winning their fifth title. On 9 July 2006, University equalled Sobou's new record with a victory on penalties after a 0–0 draw in normal time.\n\nDecline and return to regional competition \nIn 2007, the club took part in one of the regional competitions intended to be a feeder for the 2007 National Club Championship. Although the national competition didn't materialise, the Momase regional did take place, but Sobou were unable to make an impact on the competition. They did, however, clinch their ninth regional title with a 2–1 victory over Sogeram on 27 October 2007. In 2008, Sobou won the Momase Regional Championship and qualified for the National Club Championship, but did not reach the final. They finished second in the Lahi Regional League that year.\n\nFollowing the suspension of the Lahi FA in 2009, the club's records go dark until 2018, when the club reached the final of the Lahi Regional League before losing on penalties to Consort United.\n\nIn 2019, the club was one of the teams that took part in the relaunched Momase Regional Championship, bidding to become the region's representative at the renewed National Club Championships later in the year.\n\nHonours\n\nContinental competitions \n\n OFC Champions League\n Group Stage: 2005, 2006\n\nNational competitions \n\n Papua New Guinea National Club Championship \n Champions: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005\nRunners-up: 2006\n Fourth: 2000\n\nRegional competitions \n\nMomase Regional Championship\nChampions: 2008\nLahi Regional League\n Champions: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007\nRunners-up: 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2018\nLae Regional League\nRunners-up: 1985\n\nReferences \n\nFootball clubs in Papua New Guinea",
"\"Let's Get Started\" and \"If You Wanna Party (I Found Lovin')\" are different titles for the same song. \"If You Wanna Party (I Found Lovin')\" was the second single released by All Saints 1.9.7.5 and was later retitled to \"Let's Get Started\" when the band All Saints was re-launched in 1997.\n\n\"Let's Get Started\" was used as the title for the Japan release in April 1995, while \"If You Wanna Party (I Found Lovin')\" was used for its UK release in September 1995. The single was originally recorded as All Saints 1.9.7.5, without Natalie and Nicole Appleton but with original member Simone Rainford, before she left the band. Although Simone remains performing backing vocals on the single, she is not, however, featured on the single cover or listed as a main performer on the track, due to her leaving the band before the actual single was released.\n\nThe song was then re-recorded in 1997 when Natalie and Nicole joined the band for inclusion on the debut album of the re-grouped and renamed All Saints. On the original version of All Saints, the song reverted to the original title of \"Let's Get Started\", however when the album was re-released, they changed it yet again to a slightly different version of the second title, \"If You Want to Party (I Found Lovin')\", changing the \"Wanna\" to \"Want To\". This was due to a legal wrangle over the uncredited use of \"I Found Lovin'\" by the Fatback Band.\n\nThe re-recorded version of \"Let's Get Started\" with Natalie and Nicole Appleton was then re-released as a single in Japan only. The song also had a music video, which was exclusive to Japan, until it was released on the All Saints video and later on the All Saints collection, The Videos. However, it was listed as \"If You Want to Party (I Found Lovin')\" on the covers.\n\nSong information\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\"Let's Get Started\" was released only in Japan and did not make the charts.\n\nExternal links\nThe \"Let's Get Started\" / \"If You Want To Party (I Found Lovin')\" video on YouTube\n\n1995 singles\nSongs written by Shaznay Lewis\nAll Saints (group) songs"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,",
"When did they get a national title?",
"the team did not contend for a national title,"
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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did the team do worse in 1964 than previous years?
| 3 |
did Turnaround do worse in 1964 than previous years?
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Ara Parseghian
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Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
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"\n\nSeason summary\nAlthough technically performing worse than they had the previous season in terms of points (the 1995–96 season was the first to use 3 points for a win), Mönchengladbach rose to fourth in the table. They also failed to retain the DFB-Pokal after elimination in the second round by Bayer Leverkusen, but did compensate with a run to the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals. This season was the last season until 2011–12 that Mönchengladbach would finish in the top half of the Bundesliga, let alone qualify for Europe.\n\nPlayers\n\nFirst team squad\nSquad at end of season\n\nMatch results\n\nLegend\n\nBundesliga\n\nLeague table\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBorussia Mönchengladbach seasons\nBorussia Mönchengladbach",
"Santa Cruz Futebol Clube, usually known as Santa Cruz or Santa Cruz de Natal, is a Brazilian football club from Natal, Rio Grande do Norte.\n\nHistory\nOriginally founded in 1934 as Santa Cruz Esporte e Cultura, the club won one Campeonato Potiguar in 1943 before ceasing activities in the early 1960s. In 1965, the club was refounded as Santa Cruz Futebol Clube.\n\nSanta Cruz subsequently spent more than 30 years without playing, only returning to amateur competitions in 2011. Four years later, the club entered in the second division of the Potiguar, finishing second and missing out promotion as only the champion moved up to the first division.\n\nIn 2017, after being crowned champions of the second division in the previous year, Santa Cruz returned to the first division after more than 50 years, and narrowly avoided relegation. In 2018, the club finished in an impressive 3rd place, qualifying to the following year's Série D and the Copa do Brasil.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFNF team profile \nSoccerway team profile\n\nAssociation football clubs established in 1934\n1934 establishments in Brazil\nAssociation football clubs established in 1965\n1965 establishments in Brazil\nFootball clubs in Rio Grande do Norte"
] |
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"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,",
"When did they get a national title?",
"the team did not contend for a national title,",
"did the team do worse in 1964 than previous years?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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What was the turnaround about?
| 4 |
What was the turnaround about?
|
Ara Parseghian
|
Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players.
|
Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
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[
"The 2011 GoDaddy.com Bowl, the twelfth edition of the college football bowl game, was played at Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama on January 6, 2011. The game was telecast on ESPN and matched Miami from the MAC versus Middle Tennessee from the Sun Belt. Previously, the bowl game was known as the GMAC Bowl.\n\nTeams\n\nMiddle Tennessee\n\nThis was Middle Tennessee's first bowl appearance in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Entering the game, offense leaders for the Blue Raiders were RB Phillip Tanner (149 att., 841 yds. rushing, 11 TDs), QB Dwight Dasher (127 of 222 passes, 1,388 yards, 6 TDs) and WR Malcolm Beyah (27 rec., 364 yds., 2 TDs). Defensively, the team was led by DB Jeremy Kellem (101 tackles, 1.5 tfl, 2 INT), DE Jamari Lattimore (64 tackles, 14.5 tfl, 11.0 sacks) and LB Darin Davis (73 tackles, 8.0 tfl, 3.5 sacks, 3 interceptions).\n\nMiami\n\nThis was Miami's second appearance in this bowl game; they played in the 2003 edition when it was under the name GMAC Bowl. Miami was one of the most improved program in the country, capped a dramatic turnaround season by winning the 2010 marathon MAC Football Championship. The RedHawks defeated Northern Illinois, 26–21, with a touchdown\nwith 33 seconds left in regulation. Miami clinched the East Division with a 23–3 win over Temple on November 23.\n\nGame summary\n\nScoring summary\n\nStatistics\n\nNotes\n This was the first meeting between these two teams.\n Miami became the first FBS team ever to follow a 10-loss season with a 10-win season; the RedHawks went 1–11 the previous season. However, this was not the biggest turnaround in FBS history as measured by games. The FBS record turnaround by that measure remains the -game turnaround by Hawaii from 0–12 in 1999 to 9–4 in 2000. Miami's turnaround from 1–11 to 10–4 amounted to an 8-game turnaround.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n ESPN summary\n\nGMAC Bowl\nLendingTree Bowl\nMiami RedHawks football bowl games\nMiddle Tennessee Blue Raiders football bowl games\nGoDaddy.com Bowl",
"Project Turnaround was a private youth detention centre for male young offenders between 16 to 18 years of age that operated from 1997 to 2004 in Hillsdale, Ontario, Canada. The facility held up to 32 high-risk youths at a time who were serving sentences for crimes such as assault, robbery, forcible confinement, escape, and weapons charges. Youth serving sentences for crimes such as murder, arson, and sexual assault were not eligible for admission to Project Turnaround. The program had an annual budget of $2.3 million.\n\nHistory\nProject Turnaround operated on a boot camp approach, part of a tough on crime response to increasing youth incarceration rates by the government of Premier Mike Harris. Solicitor General Bob Runciman stated that Project Turnaround was \"about getting people up at six o'clock in the morning [and] reducing the kind of privileges [young offenders] have currently across the system.\" Harris' campaign in the 1995 provincial election explicitly used the term \"boot camps\" to refer to plans for strict youth detention facilities, but the provincial government and Encourage Youth Corporation both later objected to that label being applied to Project Turnaround.\n\nYouth held in the facility were subjected to high-intensity daily activities that lasted approximately 16 hours under a program of military-style discipline. The program—designed to be \"more than a boot camp\" according to Project Turnaround owner Sally Walker in a 2003 interview— was meant to instill respect and accountability, build productive skills, and offer educational and vocational programming to those who were predicted to re-offend. The provincial government touted the program as a success, reporting that the rate of recidivism among youth who had been through Project Turnaround was 33 percent compared to 50 percent at public youth centres, and Public Security Minister Bob Runciman announced a plan in 2003 to expand the strict-discipline youth detention model across the province. Other researchers, such as University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob, stated those claims were not shown by the government's own data and that youths passing through Project Turnaround were not any less likely to re-offend.\n\nOn February 2003 the establishment had a mould outbreak requiring temporary transfer of 24 offenders to other provincial institutions. Following the change of government in the 2003 provincial election, new Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Monte Kwinter announced that the contract for Project Turnaround would not be renewed. Kwinter cited the high cost and small population of the program as the reason for the decision and stated that youth correctional services would be better provided through government-run programs. In a December 2003 interview, Walker disagreed that the program did not provide value for money and claimed that Project Turnaround was under-capacity due to judges being more lenient on youth following changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.\n\nAll youth at Project Turnaround were relocated to public youth detention centres in December 2003 and the facility was formally closed on January 31, 2004.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nYouth detention centres in Canada\nDefunct prisons in Ontario\n1997 establishments in Ontario\n2004 disestablishments in Ontario\nPrivate prisons"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,",
"When did they get a national title?",
"the team did not contend for a national title,",
"did the team do worse in 1964 than previous years?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the turnaround about?",
"He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players."
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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Who were the players he brought in?
| 5 |
Who were the players Ara Parseghian brought in?
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Ara Parseghian
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Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow,
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Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
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[
"This is a list of all personnel changes for the 2019 Indian Premier League.\n\nPre-auction\nIPL set the deadline of 15 November for both the trading window and the list of retained and released players.\n\nTransfers\nAfter being unhappy with his retention price by Sunrisers Hyderabad, Shikhar Dhawan was rumored to be transferred to Mumbai Indians, or Kings XI Punjab before eventually returning to his home team of Delhi Capitals. \n\n ↓: Player(s) was/were swapped with the player(s) mentioned in the next row(s).\n ↑: Player(s) was/were swapped with the player(s) mentioned in the previous row(s).\n\nReleased players\nGautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Glenn Maxwell were the prominent names among the released players. Jaydev Unadkat, the costliest Indian player in 2018 auction, was also released.\n\n REP: Players who were unsold originally in 2018 auction but were later signed up as a replacement player.\n RET: Players who were retained by the teams before the 2018 auction.\n\nRetained players\nThe team retentions were announced on 15 November 2018.\n\n: Players who were traded after the 2019 auction.\n\nSummary\n\n Maximum overseas players: 9; Squad size- Min:18 and Max:25; Budget:₹82 crore\n\nAuction\nThe player auction was held on 18 December 2018 at Jaipur. The auction was reckoned to be affected by limited availability of foreign players due to the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Initially 1003 players submitted their names for auction and the franchises were asked to submit their final shortlist by 10 December. 346 players were shortlisted. 5 more players were added to list on auction day making the final list to 351 including 228 Indian players. Ten players have listed themselves at the base price of Rs. 2 crore. 60 players were sold and amount of Rs.106.8 crore was spent in the auction. Jaydev Unadkat and uncapped Varun Chakravarthy were the costliest players at Rs.8.4 crore. Sam Curran was the most expensive foreign player at Rs. 7.2 crore. Prominent players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Brendon McCullum and Alex Hales remained unsold.\n\nSummary\n Maximum overseas players: 8; Squad size- Min:18 and Max:25; Budget:₹82 Crore \n Note: Associate players are not classified as either capped or uncapped.\n\nSold players\n\nSource:Vivo IPL 2019 Player Auction \n ACC: Players who were part of accelerated bidding.\n REC-1/2/3: Players unsold originally but brought back for Recall Round-1, 2 or 3.\n DI-REC-2/3: Players not called in accelerated process but were brought back for Recall Round-2 or 3.\n * : Players were in the squad for the season but did not play any match.\n 0 : Players mentioned as 0 in IPL matches column were part of the squad but did not play any matches.\n\nUnsold players\nThe following players remained unsold at the end of the auction.\n\nSource:Vivo IPL 2019 Player Auction \n LAT: Players who were not in the initial shortlist of 346 but were later added on the auction day.\n ACC: Players who were part of accelerated bidding.\n NCA: Players who were not called for the auction.\n REC-1/2/1&2: Players unsold originally in the auction but brought back for Recall Round-1 or 2 or both.\n DI-REC-2: Players not called in accelerated process but were brought back for Recall Round-2.\n REP: Players not sold in the auction but later came as replacement player for sold players.\n\n * : Players were in the squad for the season but did not play any match.\n 0 : Players mentioned as 0 in IPL matches column were part of the squad but did not play any matches.\n\nPost-auction trading\nA trading window opened after the auction took place with a deadline of 5:00PM 30 days prior to the start of the 2019 season.\n\nWithdrawn players\nThe following players withdrew from the tournament either due to injuries or because of other reasons.\n\nSupport staff changes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nIndian Premier League personnel changes\n2019 Indian Premier League",
"Daniel Lewis Gardella (February 26, 1920 – March 6, 2005) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball who played with the New York Giants (1944–45) and St. Louis Cardinals (1950). Born in New York City, he batted and threw left-handed. He is known as one of the handful of American Major League players who \"jumped\" their organized baseball teams to play in the \"outlaw\" Mexican League in . (Others included Sal Maglie, Alex Carrasquel, Max Lanier and Mickey Owen.)\n\nCareer\nKnown more for his on-field antics than his playing ability, Gardella would often walk on his hands, and perform other acrobatic stunts. He was also one of the first players to train with weights. Nevertheless, he was the first major league player who challenged baseball's reserve clause in an early chapter in the labor-management skirmishes that brought free agency and multimillion-dollar player contracts.\n\nMajor League Baseball\nIn a three-season career, Gardella compiled a .267 batting average with 24 home runs and 85 RBI in 169 games. His most productive season came in 1945, when he hit .272 with 18 home runs and 71 RBI in 121 games. In that season, some of his teammates included Ernie Lombardi, Mel Ott, Joe Medwick and Bill Voiselle.\n\nMexican League\nHowever, in 1946, the Giants were interested in players returning from World War II military service. Gardella had been offered US$4,500 to play for the Giants and $10,000 to play in Mexico. He joined the Mexican League, whose generous salaries also attracted major leaguers including pitchers Sal Maglie, Alex Carrasquel and Max Lanier and catcher Mickey Owen. In response, Commissioner Happy Chandler imposed a ban of at least five years on all the players who had gone to the Mexican League for violating the reserve clause. Shortstop Vern Stephens also joined the exodus but immediately returned before the season started to escape the sanction. The first player to learn of Chandler's seriousness was Owen, who returned the same year, asked for clemency, and was refused.\n\nLawsuit\nIn October 1947, unable to get a baseball job in the major or minor leagues after playing in Mexico, Gardella sued the Major League Baseball hierarchy and the Giants in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking $300,000 in damages. He charged that the reserve clause was \"monopolistic and restrains trade.\" A year later, the case was dismissed by a federal judge who cited a 1922 Supreme Court ruling that found baseball was not a business engaged in interstate commerce within the meaning of federal antitrust law. But in February 1949, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-to-1 ruling, sent the case back to the district court and ordered a trial on Gardella's contentions.\n\nIn June 1949, faced with the prospect of a courtroom defeat, Chandler offered amnesty to the players who had gone to the Mexican League. Gardella, warned by his lawyer that he faced a long and costly legal battle, dropped his lawsuit. He said later that he received a $60,000 settlement from baseball.\n\nLater years\nIn 1950 Gardella signed with the St. Louis Cardinals, but was sent to the minors after one at bat and never again played in the major leagues. After leaving the game, he worked in a warehouse, as a hospital orderly and as a gym trainer.\n\nMany years after Gardella faded from the baseball scene, the United States Supreme Court rejected two challenges to the reserve clause, most notably in the case, brought by outfielder Curt Flood. However, the players won free agency on December 23, 1975 after arbitrator Peter Seitz, ruling in a case brought by pitchers Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith, found that players could leave their teams after playing out their contracts.\n\nReflecting on his lawsuit and his possible consequences in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1994, Gardella took pride in having brought his court challenge. \"I feel I let the whole world know that the reserve clause was unfair,\" he said. \"It had the odor of peonage, even slavery.\"\n\nGardella died from congestive heart failure in Yonkers, New York on March 6, 2005, at age 85.\n\nSee also\n Van Lingle Mungo (song)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBaseball Library\nHistoric Baseball\n\n1920 births\n2005 deaths\nBaseball players from New York (state)\nBeckley Bengals players\nFulton Tigers players\nHouston Buffaloes players\nJersey City Giants players\nMajor League Baseball left fielders\nNew York Giants (NL) players\nSt. Louis Cardinals players\nSalem-Roanoke Friends players\nShelby Colonels players\nTrois-Rivières Royals players\nDrummondville Cubs players\nWilliamston Martins players"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,",
"When did they get a national title?",
"the team did not contend for a national title,",
"did the team do worse in 1964 than previous years?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the turnaround about?",
"He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players.",
"Who were the players he brought in?",
"quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow,"
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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did these players improve the team performance?
| 6 |
did quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow improve the team performance?
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Ara Parseghian
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Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year,
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Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
| true |
[
"The Kenya national badminton team is a badminton team that plays for Kenya in international competitions.\n\nParticipation in African Badminton Championships\n\nMen's team\n\nMixed team\n\nAfrican Games \nAs part of an effort to improve the country's performance, Kenya sent 290 athletes to the 2019 African Games. As part of this effort, the Kenya national badminton team participated in the badminton events.\n\nCommonwealth Games\n\n1982 \n\nThe team participated in during the 1982 Commonwealth Games.\n\n2006 \nAt the Commonwealth Games of 2006, Kenya's national team participated the badminton events including the .\n\n2010 \n\nThe Kenya national badminton team was among the competitors during the mixed team event of the 1982 Commonwealth Games.\n\n2014 \n\nIn participating in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Kenya's national team was ranked the 18th seed for their competition. They finished last place within Pool B.\n\nStatistics\n\n2018 \n\nAt the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Kenya did not participate in the mixed team event. Instead, players Mercy Joseph and Victor Odera represented the country at the mixed doubles event. Additionally, they competed in the women's and men's singles, respectively.\n\nSudirman Cup \nAt the 2019 Sudirman Cup, while Kenya was scheduled to participate, the team unexpectedly withdrew.\n\nSee also \n Kenya International\n\nReferences \n\nBadminton\nNational badminton teams\nBadminton in Kenya",
"The Milwaukee Brewers are a Major League Baseball franchise based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established in Seattle, Washington, as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, the team became the Milwaukee Brewers after relocating to Milwaukee in 1970. The franchise played in the American League until 1998 when it moved to the National League in conjunction with a major league realignment. This list documents players and teams who hold records set in various statistical areas during single seasons or their team careers.\n\nTable key\n\nCareer records\n\nCareer batting\n\nThese are records of players with the best performance in distinct statistical batting categories during their career with the Brewers.\n\nCareer pitching\n\nThese are records of players with the best performance in distinct statistical pitching categories during their career with the Brewers.\n\nSingle-season records\n\nSingle-season batting\n\nThese are records of players with the best performance in distinct statistical batting categories during a single season.\n\nSingle-season pitching\n\nThese are records of players with the best performance in distinct statistical pitching categories during a single season.\n\nTeam season records\n\nThese team records exclude the 1981, 1994, 1995, and 2020 shortened seasons.\n\nSeason general\n\nThese are records of Brewers teams with the best and worst performances in distinct statistical categories during a single season.\n\nSeason batting\n\nThese are records of Brewers teams with the best and worst performances in distinct statistical batting categories during a single season.\n\nSeason pitching\n\nThese are records of Brewers teams with the best and worst performances in distinct statistical pitching categories during a single season.\n\nSeason fielding\nThese are records of Brewers teams with the best and worst performances in distinct statistical fielding categories during a single season.\n\nReferences\n\nRecords\nMilwaukee Brewers"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,",
"When did they get a national title?",
"the team did not contend for a national title,",
"did the team do worse in 1964 than previous years?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the turnaround about?",
"He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players.",
"Who were the players he brought in?",
"quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow,",
"did these players improve the team performance?",
"Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year,"
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
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did notre dame get good players the following year?
| 7 |
did notre dame get good players the year following 1964?
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Ara Parseghian
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Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
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Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
| true |
[
"The 1953 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1953 college football season. John Lattner won the Heisman Trophy although he did not even lead the Irish in passing, rushing, receiving or scoring. Lattner held the Notre Dame record for all-purpose yards until Vagas Ferguson broke it in 1979.\n\nSchedule\n\nRoster\nQB Ralph Gugliemi\nHB Johnny Lattner\nOE,DE Don Penza\n\nGame summaries\n\nOklahoma\n\nDon Penza blocked and recovered a kick to set up one touchdown and recovered a fumble that led to another Notre Dame score.\n\nTeam players drafted into the NFL\n\nThe following players were drafted into professional football following the season.\n\nAwards and honors\n John Lattner, Heisman Trophy\n\nReferences\n\nNotre Dame\nNotre Dame Fighting Irish football seasons\nCollege football national champions\nCollege football undefeated seasons\nNotre Dame Fighting Irish football",
"The 1954 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1954 college football season.\n\nSchedule\n\nTeam players drafted into the NFL\n\nThe following players were drafted into professional football following the season.\n\nReferences\n\nNotre Dame\nNotre Dame Fighting Irish football seasons\nNotre Dame Fighting Irish football"
] |
[
"Ara Parseghian",
"Turnaround and the 1964 season",
"What happened in the 1964 season?",
"posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title,",
"When did they get a national title?",
"the team did not contend for a national title,",
"did the team do worse in 1964 than previous years?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the turnaround about?",
"He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players.",
"Who were the players he brought in?",
"quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow,",
"did these players improve the team performance?",
"Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year,",
"did notre dame get good players the following year?",
"defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters."
] |
C_4ae4e1bbf2534dd18304f05d7f88a440_1
|
Did the team continue to do well in the years to follow?
| 8 |
Did the team Turnaround continue to do well in the years to follow 1964?
|
Ara Parseghian
|
Parseghian quickly turned things around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them. Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6-4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5-5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll. Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31-7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40-0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20-17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation. Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions, with 60. Parseghian, meanwhile, won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News. Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7-2-1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters. CANNOTANSWER
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posting a 7-2-1 record.
|
Ara Raoul Parseghian (; ; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.
Parseghian grew up in Akron, Ohio and played football beginning in his junior year of high school. He enrolled at the University of Akron, but soon quit to join the U.S. Navy for two years during World War II. After the war, he finished his college career at Miami University in Ohio and went on to play halfback for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference in 1948 and 1949. Cleveland won the league championship both of those years.
Parseghian's playing career was cut short by a hip injury. He left the Browns and took a job as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. When head coach Woody Hayes left in 1951 to coach at Ohio State University, Parseghian took over his job. He stayed in that position until 1956, when he was hired as head coach at Northwestern University in Illinois. In eight seasons there, he amassed a win-loss-tie record of 36–35–1 and helped turn a perennial loser into a consistent contender in the national polls.
Parseghian's success attracted the interest of Notre Dame, which had not posted a winning record in five straight seasons. He was hired as coach in 1964 and quickly turned the program around, coming close to capturing a national championship in his first year. He proceeded to win two national titles in 11 seasons as coach of the Fighting Irish, a period often referred to as "the Era of Ara". During that span, Parseghian's teams placed in the top ten of the final AP poll nine times and never finished lower than 14th. He never had a losing season at Notre Dame and posted an overall record of 95–17–4, giving him the fourth-most wins of any coach in school history after Rockne (105), Brian Kelly (101) and Lou Holtz (100). Parseghian's .836 winning percentage while at Notre Dame ranks behind only Rockne's .881 and Leahy's .855, leading to his inclusion in the "Holy Trinity" of Fighting Irish coaches.
Parseghian retired from coaching in 1974 and began a broadcasting career calling college football games for ABC and CBS. He also dedicated himself to medical causes later in life after his daughter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and three of his grandchildren died of a rare genetic disease. Parseghian was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1980. His career coaching record is 170–58–6.
Early life and high school
Parseghian was the youngest of three children born to an Armenian father and a French mother in Akron, Ohio. His father Michael had come to the United States from the Ottoman Empire in 1915, fleeing the Armenian genocide during World War I and settling in Akron where there was a large Armenian population. Despite his mother's protectiveness, Parseghian became involved in sports from an early age and developed a reputation as the toughest kid in his class. He was hired by Akron's Board of Education in the eighth grade to patrol his school's grounds at night to deter vandals.
Parseghian played basketball at the local YMCA but did not play organized football until his junior year at South High School in Akron because his mother would not allow him to participate in contact sports. He joined his high school team, coached by Frank "Doc" Wargo, initially without his parents' permission.
College and professional career
After graduating in 1942, Parseghian enrolled at the University of Akron. American involvement in World War II began after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, however, and he quit school to join the U.S. Navy. The Navy transferred him for training to Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago, where Paul Brown was coaching a service football team. Brown was a well-known high school coach in Ohio, having led his Massillon Washington High School teams to a series of state championships. Parseghian was named the team's starting fullback before the 1944 season, but he was sidelined with an ankle injury and did not play in any games as Great Lakes amassed a 9–2–1 record and was ranked 17th in the nation in the AP Poll. Parseghian later said that despite not playing, watching Brown's methodical and strict coaching methods – and the ease with which he commanded players much larger than he was – was a "priceless" experience.
After his military service, Parseghian enrolled at Miami of Ohio and played halfback on the school's football team in 1946 and 1947 under coach Sid Gillman. As with Brown, Parseghian paid close attention to Gillman, a post-war football pioneer who helped popularize deep downfield passes as the T formation came into vogue. He was named an All-Ohio halfback and a Little All-American by sportswriters in 1947.
Parseghian was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League in the 13th round of the 1947 draft. He was also selected by the Cleveland Browns of the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), a team coached by Paul Brown, his old Great Lakes coach. Parseghian left Miami with six semester credit hours remaining and signed with the Browns.
Parseghian played halfback and defensive back for the Browns starting in 1948. While he only started one game that season, he was part of a potent offensive backfield that featured quarterback Otto Graham and fullback Marion Motley. The Browns won all of their games and a third straight AAFC championship in 1948. Parseghian suffered a serious injury to his hip in the second game of the 1949 season against the Baltimore Colts, however, ending his playing career. He stayed with the Browns for the rest of the season, and the team went on to win another AAFC championship. With the Browns, he had 44 carries for 166 yards, three receptions for 33 yards, scored two touchdowns, and intercepted one pass.
Coaching career
Miami (Ohio)
Parseghian's injury and the end of his professional playing career were a source of frustration, but he soon got the chance to move into the coaching ranks. Woody Hayes, the head coach at Miami of Ohio, contacted him about a job as coach of the freshman team. He was recommended for the position by athletic director John Brickels, who had been an assistant coach with the Browns in 1948. Parseghian led the freshmen to a 4–0 record in the 1950 season and was chosen the following year as Hayes's successor when Hayes departed to become head coach at Ohio State University.
Parseghian's teams at Miami consistently did well in the Mid-American Conference, posting a 7–3 record in 1951 and improving to 8–1 the following year. Miami's Redskins (now known as RedHawks) were conference champions in 1954 and in 1955, when they went undefeated. Parseghian's success, which included two wins over larger Big Ten Conference schools, raised his profile nationally as a head coaching prospect. In late 1955, he was hired to coach at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, one of the Big Ten schools Miami had beaten. Parseghian compiled a 39–6–1 record in five seasons at Miami.
Northwestern
Northwestern's football program was in transition when Parseghian arrived in 1956 to take over the coaching reins. Bob Voigts had quit as head coach in February 1955, leaving his assistant Lou Saban to guide the team. Under Saban, a former Browns teammate of Parseghian's, Northwestern finished at 0–8–1, the worst-ever record in its history at the time. Ted Payseur, the school's athletic director, resigned after the season under pressure from alumni and was replaced by Stu Holcomb. One of Holcomb's first moves was to fire Saban and replace him with Parseghian.
Parseghian was the 20th head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats football team and was the youngest coach in the Big Ten when he took the job at 32 years old. His Northwestern career began in 1956 with just one win in his first six games. The Wildcats put together three wins at the end of the season, however, and finished with a 4–4–1 record. Northwestern proceeded to lose all nine of its games in the 1957 season. Bo Schembechler—a member of the 1957 Northwestern staff and teammate of Parshegian's at Miami—called Parshegian's performance during the 1957 season the best job of coaching Schembechler ever witnessed. Despite the losses (many of them by close margins), Parshegian kept his team united and focused. That crucible set the stage for a much more successful campaign in 1958, when Northwestern finished with a 5–4 record that included victories over conference rivals Michigan and Ohio State.
Northwestern began the 1959 season in the top ten in the AP Poll and started with a 45–13 win over Oklahoma, then the top-ranked team in the country. It was the first of a string of victories that propelled Northwestern to the number-two spot in the AP Poll. Led by quarterback John Talley and star halfback Ron Burton, the team beat Michigan again and won a match-up in October against Notre Dame, a school Northwestern had not played since 1948. Three straight losses at the end of the season ended the team's run at the conference championship, however.
The following four seasons brought a mix of success and challenges. Parseghian's best year at Northwestern was in 1962, when the team finished at 7–2. Parseghian was a shrewd recruiter, using Northwestern's small budget to find versatile players overlooked by the bigger rival programs. In 1962, he put his faith in sophomore quarterback Tom Myers to guide the team. Myers, aided by a big offensive line and by star receiver Paul Flatley, led a passing attack that helped Northwestern to the top of the AP Poll in the middle of the season following wins against Ohio State and Notre Dame. Parseghian called the close win against Hayes and Ohio State "one of Northwestern's greatest victories". The following week's Notre Dame game drew a 55,752 people, which remained the largest crowd ever to see a home game at Northwestern as of 2005. Despite those wins, late-season losses to Michigan State and Wisconsin cost the team a chance at the Big Ten championship.
At Northwestern, Parseghian developed a reputation as an affable, down-to-earth coach. While he took his job seriously, he cultivated an informal rapport with players, who called him "Ara" rather than "coach" or "Mr. Parseghian". Given his closeness in age to many of the players, he "empathizes with us well", Northwestern tackle Andy Cvercko said in 1959. Parseghian occasionally joined in practices with the players and organized games of touch football. He had other quirks, like lowering the intensity of practices as game day approached to let the players "build up psychologically", something he learned from Paul Brown.
Parseghian remained at Northwestern for eight seasons until 1963. His career coaching record there was 36–35–1. This ranks him third at Northwestern in total wins and ninth at Northwestern in winning percentage. Parseghian's teams beat Notre Dame four straight times after their annual series was renewed in 1959 following a decade-long hiatus.
Toward the end of his tenure at Northwestern, Parseghian grew frustrated by the school's limited financial resources, curbs on football scholarships, and academic standards for athletes that were more stringent than at other Big Ten schools. He also clashed with athletic director Holcomb, who told him in 1963 that his contract would not be renewed after that season despite coaching the team to within two wins of a national championship the previous year. "I took them to the top of the polls in 1962, and that was not good enough for Northwestern", Parseghian said many years later.
Notre Dame
Parseghian's coaching career at Northwestern was approaching its end in 1963. In November of that year, he called Father Edmund Joyce, the vice president and chairman of the athletics board at Notre Dame, a Catholic university near South Bend, Indiana. He asked whether interim head football coach Hugh Devore was going to be given the job on a longer-term basis. When Joyce said the university was searching for a new coach, Parseghian expressed an interest in the job. Joyce did not immediately seem warm to the idea, however, and Parseghian explored an offer to coach at the University of Miami in Florida, where his old friend Andy Gustafson had been promoted from head coach to athletic director. Notre Dame was also considering Dan Devine for its coaching job but ultimately offered it to Parseghian. Parseghian waffled at first, recalling his father's misguided anti-Catholicism, but accepted in December and was given a salary of about $20,000 a year ($ today).
Parseghian's candidacy for the head coaching job at Notre Dame was unusual because he was not a Notre Dame graduate, as every head coach since Knute Rockne had been. Parseghian was also an Armenian Presbyterian, making him the first non-Catholic coach since Rockne, who converted in 1925. Before hiring Parseghian, Joyce made it clear that he did not care about Parseghian's religion but simply wanted someone who could lead the football team to success.
As had been the case at Northwestern, Notre Dame's football program was in a state of flux when Parseghian arrived. Notre Dame had built a proud history under Rockne and Frank Leahy (its two most successful coaches), but the late 1950s and early 1960s had been a disaster. The team had finished 5–5 in 1962 under Joe Kuharich, who lost the confidence of his players and Notre Dame's administrators during his four years as coach. Kuharich's surprise departure at the end of that season to become supervisor of officials in the National Football League, a position created by his friend and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, left the program in disarray. Devore, a long-time Notre Dame employee who had played for Rockne and coached under Leahy, was brought in to lead the team on an interim basis in 1963. Notre Dame managed only a 2–7 finish that year.
Turnaround and the 1964 season
Parseghian quickly turned the program around in 1964; he re-established a sense of confidence and team spirit that had been lost under Kuharich and Devore. Practices were carefully planned and organized with the help of a coaching staff that consisted of three assistants from Northwestern and four former Notre Dame players. Parseghian listened to players' concerns about the program and addressed them. He invigorated the team's offense by favoring passing and bringing in smaller and quicker players. A rule change allowing unlimited substitutions starting in 1964 helped make this strategy successful; fast-running receivers could now be taken out of the game and rested as others replaced them.
Parseghian also recognized talent in quarterback John Huarte and wide receiver Jack Snow, who had been used only sparingly for two seasons by previous coaches. Huarte could throw far and accurately but was soft-spoken, a trait Parseghian and his staff helped change. Snow was large for a receiver of his era, but Parseghian thought his athleticism and sure hands would make him a good wideout. Still, expectations were muted for the 1964 season: Parseghian told his coaches that the team would have a 6–4 record if they were lucky. Sports Illustrated predicted a 5–5 record at best, and the team did not rank among the top 20 programs in the country in the pre-season AP Poll.
Notre Dame nonetheless opened the season with a 31–7 victory over heavily favored Wisconsin, a game in which Huarte threw for more yards than the team's leading passer had over the entire 1963 season. Notre Dame players carried Parseghian off the field after the win, which vaulted the team to ninth place in the polls. A string of victories followed, first against Purdue and then Air Force and UCLA. Notre Dame rose to first place in the national polls following a 40–0 win over Navy in October. The team went undefeated until the last game of the year against USC, who won 20–17 in the final minutes on a touchdown pass from Craig Fertig to Rod Sherman. The loss unseated Notre Dame from the top ranking in the national polls, but the team still won the MacArthur Trophy, a championship awarded by the National Football Foundation.
Huarte passed for 2,062 yards and set 12 school records in 1964, four of which still stood as of 2009. He also won the Heisman Trophy. Snow led the country in receptions with 60. At the same time, Parseghian won numerous coach of the year awards for engineering the turnaround, including from the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Washington Touchdown Club, the Columbus Touchdown Club, and Football News.
Huarte and Snow graduated after the 1964 season, and Notre Dame felt their absence the following year, posting a 7–2–1 record. While the team did not contend for a national title, defensive back Nick Rassas led the nation in punt returns and came in sixth in interceptions; he was named a first-team All-American by sportswriters.
First national title
In 1966, Parseghian guided Notre Dame to its first national championship since the Leahy era. Led by quarterback Terry Hanratty, running back Nick Eddy, star receiver Jim Seymour, and fullback Larry Conjar, the offense was best in the nation in scoring, with an average of 36.2 points per game. The defense was second in the country in points allowed, thanks to strong performances by linebacker Jim Lynch and defensive end Alan Page.
The season began with eight straight victories, propelling Notre Dame to the top of the national polls. The team then faced Michigan State, which was ranked second in the polls and was also undefeated. The contest, one among a number referred to as the "game of the century", ended in a 10–10 tie. Parseghian was criticized for winding down the clock instead of trying to score despite having the ball in the final seconds of the game. He defended his strategy by maintaining that several key starters had been knocked out of action early in the game and that he did not want to spoil a courageous comeback from a 10–0 deficit by risking a turnover deep in his own territory late in the game. When Parseghian's team trounced USC 51–0 the following week, critics alleged that he ran up the score to impress poll voters who had split the number-one ranking between Notre Dame and Michigan State following the tie. Subsequent to the USC rout, the final wire service polls gave Parseghian's team the national championship, although Notre Dame continued its policy of not participating in a post-season bowl game. Nine members of the team were selected as All-Americans, and Parseghian was named coach of the year by Sporting News.
Several winning seasons followed, but Notre Dame did not repeat as national champion in the late 1960s. In 1969, the team finished with an 8–2–1 record and accepted an invitation to play in the postseason Cotton Bowl. With this game, the school ended a long-standing policy of not playing in bowl games. The university urgently needed money to fund minority scholarships and decided to use the proceeds from bowl games for this purpose. Parseghian's team lost the game, 21–17, to the eventual national champion Texas Longhorns.
Later Notre Dame career
Notre Dame continued to succeed under Parseghian in the early 1970s. Led by senior quarterback Joe Theismann, the team finished second in the polls in 1970 and avenged its Cotton Bowl loss, defeating the Longhorns 24–11 in an upset. In 1973, Parseghian had a perfect season and won a second national championship, topped off by a 24–23 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Both teams were undefeated going into the game, but Alabama had held the top spot in the national polls. Parseghian was named Coach of the Year by Football News.
Before the start of the 1974 season, several key defensive players were suspended for allegations of sexual misconduct, but charges were never filed. Parseghian called the loss of those key defensive players "a great disappointment". Several other key players were injured. An upset loss to underdog Purdue in the third game of the season derailed the team's hopes to repeat as national champions. The ever-present pressure to win took its toll. In the middle of the season, Parseghian privately decided to resign for the sake of his health. He was also dealing with the deaths of three close friends that year as well as his daughter's battle with multiple sclerosis. He officially stepped down in mid-December after rumors began to surface that he was leaving for a post with another college program or professional team. He said he was "physically exhausted and emotionally drained" after 25 years of coaching and needed a break. His last game was Notre Dame's 13–11 win in a rematch against Alabama in the Orange Bowl. After 11 seasons as head coach of the Fighting Irish, he was succeeded by Dan Devine. His record at Notre Dame was 95–17–4, giving him the second-most wins by any football coach in
the school's history, trailing only Knute Rockne.
Parseghian, who was 51 at the time, said he planned to take at least a year off from coaching before considering a run at a job in the professional ranks. Rumors circulated throughout 1975 that he might return to Notre Dame, but both he and Devine denied them. In December, he finally decided that he would not coach in 1976 despite reportedly being pursued by the New York Jets of the NFL. He would instead host a television show beginning the following fall. He made his last appearance on the sidelines when he coached the college players in the annual Chicago College All-Star Game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers on July 23, 1976, at Chicago's Soldier Field. The game was halted with 1:22 remaining in the third quarter when a torrential thunderstorm broke out; after fans rushed onto the field, play was never resumed. It was the last such game ever played.
During Parseghian's tenure at Notre Dame, the school's long-dormant football rivalry with Michigan was revived through an agreement signed in 1970. The schools, which had not met since 1943, agreed to resume the series with the 1978 season. Notre Dame athletic director Moose Krause orchestrated the deal with Don Canham, his counterpart at Michigan, but Parseghian's friendship with Wolverine head coach Bo Schembechler also played a role. Parseghian and Schembechler were teammates at Miami University in Ohio, and Schembechler served on Parseghian's staff at Northwestern in 1956 and 1957. Schembechler told Parseghian in 1970 that he was looking forward to facing Notre Dame, but Parseghian replied that he would "never have that opportunity".
While at Notre Dame, Parseghian did away with all ornamentation on players' uniforms, eliminating shamrocks and shoulder stripes and switched the team's home jerseys to navy blue. The Irish never wore green jerseys during his tenure. His successful run at Notre Dame is sometimes referred to as the "Era of Ara".
Later life
Parseghian launched a broadcasting career after leaving Notre Dame. He served as a color analyst for ABC Sports from 1975 to 1981 covering a series of regional and national college football games. He moved to CBS Sports in 1982 and covered college games for that network until 1988.
Parseghian, who amassed a career coaching record of 170–58–6 at Miami, Northwestern and Notre Dame, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame as part of its charter class in 1969 and became a member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1984. He was also inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame in 2007. Parseghian was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanities by Miami in 1978 and served on the school's board of trustees between 1978 and 1987. He also received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1997 and won the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award the same year for his contributions to the sport.
Jason Miller portrayed Parseghian in the 1993 film Rudy, which chronicled Rudy Ruettiger's determination to overcome his small size and dyslexia and play for Notre Dame in 1974. Parseghian saw Ruettiger's drive and placed him on the scout team but resigned at the end of the year. Devine, Parseghian's successor, put Ruettiger in on defense at the end of the final game of the 1975 season, and Ruettiger recorded a sack.
Along with Lou Holtz, Parseghian served as one of two honorary coaches in Notre Dame's 2007 spring game, an annual scrimmage held in April. Holtz's Gold team defeated Parseghian's Blue team, 10–6. The same year, Notre Dame unveiled a statue in Parseghian's honor by sculptor Jerry McKenna, depicting players carrying him off the field in triumph following the 1971 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. In 2011, Miami also unveiled a statue in his honor to add to the RedHawks' Cradle of Coaches plaza. It shows him wearing a Notre Dame sweater as he kneels and looks ahead to the field.
Parseghian, who was married to the former Kathleen Davis, also became involved with medical causes later in life. Along with Mike and Cindy Parseghian, his son and daughter-in-law, he founded the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation in 1994. The foundation is seeking a cure for Niemann-Pick disease Type C, a genetic disorder affecting children that causes the buildup of cholesterol in cells, resulting in damage to the nervous system and eventually death. Three of his grandchildren, Michael, Marcia, and Christa Parseghian, died from the disease. He was also active in the cause to find a cure for multiple sclerosis; his daughter Karan was diagnosed with the disease.
Parseghian died on August 2, 2017, at his home in Granger, Indiana, at the age of 94. At the time of his death, he was suffering from a post-surgical hip infection after undergoing hip surgery weeks before his death. He was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Notre Dame, Indiana.
Head coaching record
*Note: before the 1974 season, the final Coaches Poll, also known then as the UPI Poll, was released before the bowl games, so a team that lost its bowl game could still claim the UPI national championship. This was changed as a result of Alabama winning the 1973 Coaches Poll national championship despite losing to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Coaching tree
Assistants under Parseghian who became college or professional head coaches:
John Pont: Miami (OH) (1956-1962), Yale Bulldogs (1963-1964), Indiana Hoosiers (1965-1972), Northwestern Wildcats (1973-1977), Mount St. Joseph Lions (1990-1992)
Alex Agase: Northwestern Wildcats (1964-1972), Purdue Boilermakers (1973-1976)
Bo Schembechler: Miami (OH) (1963-1968), Michigan (1969-1989)
Warren Schmakel: Boston University Terriers (1964-1968)
Doc Urich: Buffalo Bulls (1966-1968), Northern Illinois (1969-1970)
Jerry Wampfler: Colorado State Rams (1970-1972)
Ed Chlebek: Eastern Michigan Hurons (1976-1978), Boston College Eagles (1978-1980), Kent State Golden Flashes (1981-1982)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation
Cradle of Coaches Archive: A Legacy of Excellence - Ara Parseghian, Miami University Libraries
1923 births
2017 deaths
American football halfbacks
American men's basketball players
College football announcers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches
Northwestern Wildcats football coaches
Miami RedHawks football coaches
Miami RedHawks football players
Miami RedHawks men's basketball players
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Cleveland Browns (AAFC) players
Great Lakes Navy Bluejackets football players
Miami University trustees
United States Navy personnel of World War II
United States Navy sailors
Military personnel from Ohio
Players of American football from Akron, Ohio
Basketball players from Akron, Ohio
American Presbyterians
Ethnic Armenian sportspeople
American sportspeople of Armenian descent
American people of French descent
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"Fantozzi 2000 – La clonazione (Fantozzi 2000 - The cloning) is an Italian comedy film released in 1999. It is the tenth and final film in the saga of the unlucky clerk Ugo Fantozzi, played by its creator, Paolo Villaggio.\n\nPlot\nFantozzi finally died after his brief return to Earth from 1996. His superiors, exceeded the limits of human longevity, continue to manage and direct their institutions, taking many young people. However, new employees did not show very servile and humble like the old assumptions of previous generations. In fact, it is approaching the 21st century and young people are starting to be more aggressive and arrogant towards their managers who, finding himself in danger, decided to revive the \"accountant doormat\" Ugo Fantozzi. They do this by cloning and so the poor Fantozzi is forced again to continue a life of abuse and unfortunate vicissitudes. In particular his old Count Director Engineer Mascalzon. Grand. Croc. Lup. Mann. Farabutt. Pezz. di Merd. Duke Balabam (In Italy as in political offices, administrative and directorial are written in abbreviated form, Paolo Villaggio universe Fantozzi to label the directors in a negative way, as their crooks and thieves, gives them their titles and honors vulgar and scurrilous) forces him to follow her nephew Angelo which instead become bad and cheat like the father wants to do good. Fantozzi will do everything to follow the good cheer of pure still young, but the manager finds out and makes him flogged. Subsequent adventures in the tragic Fantozzi, together with Pina, mad as all Italians for the new distribution of lottery, betting various coupons. One day out the winning combination established by Fantozzi and so he immediately took the opportunity to buy a luxury medieval castle together with Miss Silvani, completely forgetting his wife Pina. At the end Fantozzi find that the board, given to the wife because the played, was not valid and will lose everything. After a tragic encounter with a male stripper loved madly by granddaughter Uga, since Fantozzi to follow in the disco had disguised himself as a teenager, ending up in bed with the robust and sensual young man who had exchanged Ugo for a real woman, the bumbling accountant prepares to celebrate the New Year of 2000. He plans to go on vacation on a tropical island with his wife, but the Contessa Serbelloni Mazzanti Come From the Sea (Vien Dal Mare) sends him an invitation to celebrate her birthday 143 years! Fantozzi is presented in the guise of Napoleon Bonaparte with his wife, but discovers that his namesake was the real guest of the party.\n\nCast\nPaolo Villaggio: Ugo Fantozzi\nMilena Vukotic: Pina Fantozzi\nAnna Mazzamauro: Miss Silvani\nPaolo Paoloni: Fantozzi's Superior\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1999 films\nItalian films\nItalian-language films\nFilms set in Rome\n1990s science fiction comedy films\nItalian science fiction comedy films\nFilms produced by Fulvio Lucisano\n1999 comedy films",
"Vitória Guimarães B is a Portuguese football team founded in 2012. They are the reserve team of Vitória Guimarães. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, they cannot play in the same division as their senior team, so Vitória B is ineligible for promotion to the Primeira Liga and cannot play in the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga.\n\nHistory\n\nEstablishment\nPrior to the end of the 2011–12 football season in Portugal, seven clubs in the Primeira Liga announced their interest in constructing a B team to fill the six vacant places available to compete in the Segunda Liga for the 2012–13 season. Of those seven, five clubs were selected to take part in the competition considering their position on 2011-12 Primeira Liga, as well as Marítimo, since they had already a B team competing.\n\nThe LPFP who organizes the professional football tiers in Portugal announced that for the clubs to compete in the 2012–13 Segunda Liga they would have to pay 50,000 €. In addition the LPFP would also require the clubs to follow new rules regarding player selection in which each 'B' team must have a squad of a minimum of ten players who were formed at the club's academy as well as having an age requirement between 15 and 21 years old. The LPFP also went on to saw that the clubs are unable to compete in cup competitions as well as gaining promotion due to the possibility of playing the senior team. Each 'B' team may have 3 players above 23 years old.\n\nIn late May 2012, it was officially announced that the six Primeira Liga clubs' B teams would compete in the 2012–13 Segunda Liga which would increase the number of teams in the league from 16 to 22 as well as increasing the number of games needed to play in one season from thirty games to forty two games.\n\nStart of play\nVitória B played their first game on 12 August 2012, a goalless home draw against S.C. Covilhã at the Estádio do Varzim SC in Póvoa de Varzim. The team ended their debut season with relegation in second-last place.\n\nIn 2013–14 under manager Armando Evangelista, Vitória B won instant promotion from the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores with a 2–0 aggregate win over Sport Benfica e Castelo Branco. Five years later, the team slipped into the third tier again in rock-bottom place, after a 2–2 draw with fellow northern reserve team S.C. Braga B on 7 May 2019.\n\nSeason-to-season record\n\nPlayers\n\nCurrent squad\n\nOut on loan\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial homepage\n\n \nFootball clubs in Portugal\nPortuguese reserve football teams\n2012 establishments in Portugal\nVitória S.C.\nLiga Portugal 2 clubs\nAssociation football clubs established in 2012"
] |
[
"Wasim Akram",
"World's best"
] |
C_806bc6824e5b40f184eecab09e08a08e_1
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what was the worlds besT?
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what was the worlds besT by Wasim Akram?
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Wasim Akram
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Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled. In the 1992-1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates--Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed--and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches. From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Wasim Akram (born 3 June 1966) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and several critics regard him as the greatest left arm fast bowler of cricket history.
In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
A left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace, he holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and he is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets, with 502 in total. He is considered to be one of the founders, and perhaps the finest exponent of, reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time, with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim took 23 four-wicket hauls in 356 ODI matches played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he took a break from the position for IPL 6, citing a need to spend more time with family in Karachi, and he took a further break from IPL 2017; and was replaced by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
He was working as director and bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League, until he left to join Multan Sultans in August 2017. In October 2018, he was named in the Pakistan Cricket Board's seven-member advisory cricket committee. In November 2018, he joined PSL franchise, Karachi Kings, as a President.
The Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2019 for his life time achievements In field of Cricket.
Early and personal life
Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 to a Punjabi family in Lahore. Akram's father, Chaudhary Muhammed Akram, was originally from a village near Amritsar, who moved to Kamonki, in the Pakistani Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore.
At the age of 30, Akram was diagnosed with diabetes. "I remember what a shock it was because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn't expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it." Since then he has sought to be involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
Akram married Huma Mufti in 1995. They had two sons from their marriage of 14 years: Tahmoor (born 1996) and Akbar (born 2000). Huma died of multiple organ failure at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, on 25 October 2009.
On 7 July 2013, it was reported that Akram had become engaged to an Australian woman, Shaniera Thompson, whom he had met while on a visit to Melbourne in 2011. Akram married Shaniera on 12 August 2013, saying he has started a new life on a happy note. He was quoted as saying: "I married Shaniera in Lahore in a simple ceremony, and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife, and for my kids."
He moved from Lahore to Karachi with his wife and children. On 3 September 2014, the couple tweeted that they were expecting their first baby—the third child of the Akram family. On 27 December 2014, Shaniera gave birth to a baby girl, Aiyla Sabeen Rose Akram, in Melbourne.
Domestic career
In 1988, Akram signed for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England. From 1988 to 1998, he opened their bowling attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson and Hedges Cup, and Sunday League tournaments. He was a favourite of the local British fans, who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches. In 1998, with Akram as captain, Lancashire won the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League and finished second in the County Championship, having lost only five matches in all competitions during the season.
International career
Test cricket
Akram made his Test cricket debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in 1985, and in his second Test match, he claimed 10 wickets. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistan team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to make it even to his college team. He came to the trials at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan, but for the first two days he did not get a chance to bowl. On the third day, he got a chance; his performance convincing Javed Miandad to insist upon his inclusion in the national team. Akram was hence given an opportunity to play for Pakistan, without any significant domestic experience.
Akram's rise in international cricket was rapid during the late 1980s. He was a part of the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1988. However, a groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler who focused more on swing and accurate bowling.
Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets.
One Day International
Akram started his ODI career against New Zealand in Pakistan in 1984 under the captaincy of Zaheer Abbas. He rose to prominence by taking five wickets in his 3rd ODI against Australia in the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship. His wickets included those of Kepler Wessels, Dean Jones, and captain Allan Border. Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in One Day International cricket
Early days
In the 1984–85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup and the 1985–86 Rothmans Sharjah Cup, Akram took five wickets with a run rate of less than 3.50. The 1985–1986 Austral-Asia Cup involved Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and was played in Sharjah, UAE. Akram, with the help of Abdul Qadir, bowled out New Zealand's batting line-up for 64 in the second semi-final of the cup. Pakistan won that game with more than 27 overs to spare, obtaining one of the biggest wins in Pakistani history. In the final against India, he and Imran Khan shared five wickets. Akram's wickets included Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.
In the 1987 Cricket World Cup held for the 1st time in South Asia, Akram struggled on Pakistani pitches; he managed only 7 wickets throughout, with an average of over 40 runs per wicket across all 7 matches. Akram played West Indies, Sri Lanka and England twice. All group matches were played in Pakistan.
In the 1988–89 Benson and Hedges World Series, Akram managed figures of 4 for 25 against Australia.
Emergence
Akram took his hundredth wicket at Sharjah during the 1989–1990 Champions Trophy, the 2nd Match against West Indies. His 100th wicket was that of Curtly Ambrose. In that match, he took a five-wicket haul for the second time in his career. In the same match, Akram took his first hat-trick against West Indies. All three batsman were bowled out. On 4 May 1990 in Sharjah, Akram took his second ODI hat-trick against Australia. All three batsmen were bowled this time as well.
His best years in the late 1980s were from 1986 to 1989, during which time he took 100 wickets at 22.71 runs per wicket, and his economy rate was less than 3.9 runs per over, with a total of four 4-wicket hauls. His first two hauls against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came in Sri Lanka in 1986.
Up until December 1991, Akram took 143 wickets in 107 matches, with an average of almost 24 and an economy rate of 3.84.
World's best
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled.
In the 1992–1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates—Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed—and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches.
From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs.
Late career
In 1999, he led Pakistan to the finals of the World Cup where they capitulated and were defeated by Australia in the final by eight wickets with almost 30 overs to spare. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as critics believed Akram had set up the match for Australia. However, none of the allegations could be proved.
He was Pakistan's best bowler in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, taking 12 wickets in 6 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the super six of the tournament, and Akram was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.
Records
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
Prior to his retirement, he was one of eight senior players dropped for the 2003 Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the subsequent Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. Due to his omission from the team, he did not participate in a farewell match. Akram fulfilled his contract play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.
Post retirement
Media career
Since retiring from cricket, Akram has worked and taken up commentary for television networks and can currently be seen as a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports and ARY Digital among others. He did commentary on a variety of sporting tournaments including the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England, the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, and the 2011 ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Coaching career
In 2010, Akram was appointed the bowling coach consultant of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian Premier League team for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly was always keen to have Akram as the bowling coach for India, during the former's stint as Indian captain. Although this never happened, his dreams were realised to some extent, when Akram was appointed as the bowling coach cum mentor for the franchise.
Akram has thus been playing a vital role in the grooming of Indian pacers like Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who owe their success in international cricket a lot to the bowling legend.
While working for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was also responsible for the signing of Pakistani domestic left-arm fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.
Akram has also been coaching in Pakistan fast bowling camps, his most notable discovery being the teenage Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan.
Akram has also worked as director and bowling coach of PSL franchise Islamabad United during 2016 and 2017 season. He has also worked with Multan Sultans as director and bowling coach. He is currently chairman and bowling coach of Karachi Kings. He is also currently the Vice President of Kashmir Premier League.
Playing style and legacy
During his professional career he bowled with genuine speed and hostility. Akram was a man possessed of accurate control of line and length, accompanied by seam and swing bowling skills, extended to both inswingers and outswingers. With a very quick bowling action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the "Sultans of Swing", the other one being Waqar Younis.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal inswinging yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
With the bat he was especially effective against spin bowlers. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of high scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply. In October 1996 he scored 257 runs not out, of the team's total of 553 against lowly Zimbabwe on a typical flat South Asian pitch at Sheikhupura. He also achieved good scores for the Pakistan team such as his scores of 123 and 45* against Australia to take Pakistan to victory in a low scoring match. His batting was also valuable sometimes to the Pakistan ODI side, such as in the Nehru Cup in 1989, when needing six runs and two balls to win the match, he hit the first delivery he faced, from part-time off-spinner and batting legend, Viv Richards, for a six and secured the cup.
West Indian batting great Viv Richards rates Akram as best fast bowler he ever faced after Dennis Lillee.
In December 2012 after Ricky Ponting announced his retirement he said that Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose were the toughest bowlers he had faced "Akram for the exact opposite, you could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball," – Ricky Ponting.
To mark 150 years of the Cricketers' Almanack, Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
Beyond cricket
Book
He co-wrote his autobiography Wasim (1998) with the British sports journalist Patrick Murphy.
Modelling
Akram was a model at the Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2011, which was an event of Style 360.
Business
In 2018, Akram joined Cricingif as a stakeholder director.
Television
Films
Award and records
Akram was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1993 for his sporting achievements. He was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person in 2003.
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One Day Internationals, Akram took 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52 and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Akram also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups, a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there." He is currently the fourth highest wicket taker in world cups.
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat-tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals. He was the third of only four bowlers to have taken two Test cricket hat-tricks, the others being Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews and Stuart Broad. Akram was also the first of only five bowlers to have taken two One Day International cricket hat-tricks. Akram's Test hat-tricks are significant, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, a game played against Sri Lanka in the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship. Akram is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test match and One Day International hat-trick, the other being Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Sami.
Playing in a Test series against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990–1991, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Akram's case, these achievement was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball he delivered to the batting opposition was a dropped catch, which allowed a single run.
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.
He also has the joint-third highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, with seventeen.
He has scored the second-highest number of runs in One Day International matches by a player who has never scored a One Day International hundred, after Misbah-ul-Haq. His highest score was 86 runs.
He is the only Test cricketer in the world (as of Feb 2013) to take ten or more wickets thrice in a test match and still end up on the losing side.
He holds the record for facing the most balls in a test match as well as in an innings as number 8 batsman (363 balls)
First bowler to take 500 ODI wickets and still holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as seamer (502)
He holds the record for taking the most wickets in ODI history at a single ground (122, Sharjah Cricket Stadium), also the first person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at the same ground. Waqar Younis, the second person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at a single ground, also did in Sharjah. He ranks second overall with 114 wickets.
Holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as captain (158)
Controversies
In 1992, after he had been successful against the English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English media, though no video evidence of foul play was ever found. Akram and Younis had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from both new and old cricket balls. The skill of the reverse swing delivery was relatively unknown in England and around the cricketing world during that period.
A far larger controversy was created when critics alleged that he was involved in match fixing. An inquiry commission was set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:
References
External links
Pakistan One Day International cricketers
Pakistan Test cricketers
Pakistan Test cricket captains
Pakistani cricket captains
Hampshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Lancashire cricket captains
Pakistan Automobiles Corporation cricketers
Pakistan International Airlines cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
Test cricket hat-trick takers
One Day International hat-trick takers
Pakistani cricket commentators
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup
1966 births
Living people
Pakistani sports broadcasters
Punjabi people
Cricketers from Lahore
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani cricketers
Lahore City cricketers
Lahore City Whites cricketers
People from Karachi
Indian Premier League coaches
Government Islamia College alumni
Pakistan Super League coaches
Pakistani cricket coaches
Pakistani television hosts
M Parkinson's World XI cricketers
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
People with type 1 diabetes
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[
"The year 2009 is the 3rd year in the history of Palace Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United States. In 2009 PFC held 4 events beginning with, PFC 12: High Stakes.\n\nEvents list\n\nPFC 12: High Stakes\n\nPFC 12: High Stakes was an event held on January 22, 2009 at the Tachi Palace in Lemoore, California, United States.\n\nResults\n\nPFC: Best of Both Worlds\n\nPFC: Best of Both Worlds was an event held on February 6, 2009 at the Tachi Palace in Lemoore, California, United States.\n\nResults\n\nPFC: Best of Both Worlds 2\n\nPFC: Best of Both Worlds 2 was an event held on April 23, 2009 at the Tachi Palace in Lemoore, California, United States.\n\nResults\n\nPFC 13: Validation\n\nPFC 13: Validation was an event held on May 8, 2009 at the Tachi Palace in Lemoore, California, United States.\n\nResults\n\nSee also \n Palace Fighting Championship\n\nReferences\n\nPalace Fighting Championship events\n2009 in mixed martial arts",
"State of Play were a series of six conferences held 2003-2009 and sponsored by the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School and the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, which dealt with the intersection of virtual worlds, games and the law.\n\nConference 1: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (November 13-15, 2003)\nThis interdisciplinary conference was the first effort to understand the phenomenon of digital games and the virtual worlds they create, creating a discussion about the complex social, psychological, and legal issues to which they give rise.\n\nConference 2: Reloaded (October 28-30, 2004)\nThe second conference highlighted two themes: the role of intellectual property and governance in virtual worlds. Should we import copyright and trademark into virtual spaces? Can we exclude them? What should be the relationship between real and virtual world economies? Should legislatures protect virtual world property? What are the possibilities for using virtual spaces to practice the activities of real world democracy? Should virtual worlds be treated as separate jurisdictions with their own evolving norms and forms of dispute resolution? What is the potential for using virtual worlds to promote democracy and self-governance?\n\nConference 3: Social Revolutions (October 6-8, 2005)\nThe third conference focused on social relationships in the metaverse and how to build vibrant, flourishing, creative places.\n\nConference 4: The Terra Nova Symposium (December 1-2, 2006)\nThe fourth conference was an intentionally smaller event intended to engage in the serious study of virtual worlds by getting researchers to inquire into the nature of research into these worlds. The conference gathered researchers, scholars and thinkers together to ask how virtual worlds should be studied, as well as what are the most fruitful lines of research, the most interesting substantive developments, and the most fascinating voices from whom we should be hearing? This conference was capped at 60 participants and was put on in conjunction with Terra Nova, the blog about the serious study of virtual worlds.\n\nConference 5: Building the Global Metaverse (August 19-August 22, 2007)\nWhile the previous conferences had been held at New York Law School, this event was held in Singapore and was organised jointly by Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, New York Law School, Trinity University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The conference discussed the future of cyberspace and the impact of these new immersive, social online environments on education, law, politics and society. The hallmark of the conference was a multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent virtual realms capable of seamlessly supporting communication, commerce and interaction across national and continental boundaries.\n\nConference 6 (June 19-20, 2009)\nThe final conference, held in New York, examined the past, present and future of virtual worlds, focusing on the rise of virtual worlds and multiplayer online games, and asked whether these worlds had reached a plateau in their development. The conference also discussed whether professionals and academia have reached a limit in their understanding of these worlds, and whether there were useful research questions still left to pursue.\n\nBook\nIn 2006, NYU Press released The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds, a collection of essays on virtual worlds and the law, based on the first conferences.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n State of Play - Archives \n State of Play (2006) on Amazon\n\nConferences in the United States\nGaming\nLegal conferences"
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"Wasim Akram",
"World's best",
"what was the worlds besT?",
"I don't know."
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Wasim Akram
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Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled. In the 1992-1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates--Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed--and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches. From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs. CANNOTANSWER
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Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament.
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Wasim Akram (born 3 June 1966) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and several critics regard him as the greatest left arm fast bowler of cricket history.
In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
A left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace, he holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and he is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets, with 502 in total. He is considered to be one of the founders, and perhaps the finest exponent of, reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time, with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim took 23 four-wicket hauls in 356 ODI matches played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he took a break from the position for IPL 6, citing a need to spend more time with family in Karachi, and he took a further break from IPL 2017; and was replaced by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
He was working as director and bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League, until he left to join Multan Sultans in August 2017. In October 2018, he was named in the Pakistan Cricket Board's seven-member advisory cricket committee. In November 2018, he joined PSL franchise, Karachi Kings, as a President.
The Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2019 for his life time achievements In field of Cricket.
Early and personal life
Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 to a Punjabi family in Lahore. Akram's father, Chaudhary Muhammed Akram, was originally from a village near Amritsar, who moved to Kamonki, in the Pakistani Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore.
At the age of 30, Akram was diagnosed with diabetes. "I remember what a shock it was because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn't expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it." Since then he has sought to be involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
Akram married Huma Mufti in 1995. They had two sons from their marriage of 14 years: Tahmoor (born 1996) and Akbar (born 2000). Huma died of multiple organ failure at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, on 25 October 2009.
On 7 July 2013, it was reported that Akram had become engaged to an Australian woman, Shaniera Thompson, whom he had met while on a visit to Melbourne in 2011. Akram married Shaniera on 12 August 2013, saying he has started a new life on a happy note. He was quoted as saying: "I married Shaniera in Lahore in a simple ceremony, and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife, and for my kids."
He moved from Lahore to Karachi with his wife and children. On 3 September 2014, the couple tweeted that they were expecting their first baby—the third child of the Akram family. On 27 December 2014, Shaniera gave birth to a baby girl, Aiyla Sabeen Rose Akram, in Melbourne.
Domestic career
In 1988, Akram signed for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England. From 1988 to 1998, he opened their bowling attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson and Hedges Cup, and Sunday League tournaments. He was a favourite of the local British fans, who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches. In 1998, with Akram as captain, Lancashire won the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League and finished second in the County Championship, having lost only five matches in all competitions during the season.
International career
Test cricket
Akram made his Test cricket debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in 1985, and in his second Test match, he claimed 10 wickets. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistan team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to make it even to his college team. He came to the trials at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan, but for the first two days he did not get a chance to bowl. On the third day, he got a chance; his performance convincing Javed Miandad to insist upon his inclusion in the national team. Akram was hence given an opportunity to play for Pakistan, without any significant domestic experience.
Akram's rise in international cricket was rapid during the late 1980s. He was a part of the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1988. However, a groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler who focused more on swing and accurate bowling.
Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets.
One Day International
Akram started his ODI career against New Zealand in Pakistan in 1984 under the captaincy of Zaheer Abbas. He rose to prominence by taking five wickets in his 3rd ODI against Australia in the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship. His wickets included those of Kepler Wessels, Dean Jones, and captain Allan Border. Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in One Day International cricket
Early days
In the 1984–85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup and the 1985–86 Rothmans Sharjah Cup, Akram took five wickets with a run rate of less than 3.50. The 1985–1986 Austral-Asia Cup involved Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and was played in Sharjah, UAE. Akram, with the help of Abdul Qadir, bowled out New Zealand's batting line-up for 64 in the second semi-final of the cup. Pakistan won that game with more than 27 overs to spare, obtaining one of the biggest wins in Pakistani history. In the final against India, he and Imran Khan shared five wickets. Akram's wickets included Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.
In the 1987 Cricket World Cup held for the 1st time in South Asia, Akram struggled on Pakistani pitches; he managed only 7 wickets throughout, with an average of over 40 runs per wicket across all 7 matches. Akram played West Indies, Sri Lanka and England twice. All group matches were played in Pakistan.
In the 1988–89 Benson and Hedges World Series, Akram managed figures of 4 for 25 against Australia.
Emergence
Akram took his hundredth wicket at Sharjah during the 1989–1990 Champions Trophy, the 2nd Match against West Indies. His 100th wicket was that of Curtly Ambrose. In that match, he took a five-wicket haul for the second time in his career. In the same match, Akram took his first hat-trick against West Indies. All three batsman were bowled out. On 4 May 1990 in Sharjah, Akram took his second ODI hat-trick against Australia. All three batsmen were bowled this time as well.
His best years in the late 1980s were from 1986 to 1989, during which time he took 100 wickets at 22.71 runs per wicket, and his economy rate was less than 3.9 runs per over, with a total of four 4-wicket hauls. His first two hauls against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came in Sri Lanka in 1986.
Up until December 1991, Akram took 143 wickets in 107 matches, with an average of almost 24 and an economy rate of 3.84.
World's best
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled.
In the 1992–1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates—Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed—and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches.
From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs.
Late career
In 1999, he led Pakistan to the finals of the World Cup where they capitulated and were defeated by Australia in the final by eight wickets with almost 30 overs to spare. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as critics believed Akram had set up the match for Australia. However, none of the allegations could be proved.
He was Pakistan's best bowler in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, taking 12 wickets in 6 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the super six of the tournament, and Akram was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.
Records
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
Prior to his retirement, he was one of eight senior players dropped for the 2003 Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the subsequent Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. Due to his omission from the team, he did not participate in a farewell match. Akram fulfilled his contract play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.
Post retirement
Media career
Since retiring from cricket, Akram has worked and taken up commentary for television networks and can currently be seen as a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports and ARY Digital among others. He did commentary on a variety of sporting tournaments including the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England, the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, and the 2011 ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Coaching career
In 2010, Akram was appointed the bowling coach consultant of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian Premier League team for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly was always keen to have Akram as the bowling coach for India, during the former's stint as Indian captain. Although this never happened, his dreams were realised to some extent, when Akram was appointed as the bowling coach cum mentor for the franchise.
Akram has thus been playing a vital role in the grooming of Indian pacers like Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who owe their success in international cricket a lot to the bowling legend.
While working for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was also responsible for the signing of Pakistani domestic left-arm fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.
Akram has also been coaching in Pakistan fast bowling camps, his most notable discovery being the teenage Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan.
Akram has also worked as director and bowling coach of PSL franchise Islamabad United during 2016 and 2017 season. He has also worked with Multan Sultans as director and bowling coach. He is currently chairman and bowling coach of Karachi Kings. He is also currently the Vice President of Kashmir Premier League.
Playing style and legacy
During his professional career he bowled with genuine speed and hostility. Akram was a man possessed of accurate control of line and length, accompanied by seam and swing bowling skills, extended to both inswingers and outswingers. With a very quick bowling action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the "Sultans of Swing", the other one being Waqar Younis.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal inswinging yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
With the bat he was especially effective against spin bowlers. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of high scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply. In October 1996 he scored 257 runs not out, of the team's total of 553 against lowly Zimbabwe on a typical flat South Asian pitch at Sheikhupura. He also achieved good scores for the Pakistan team such as his scores of 123 and 45* against Australia to take Pakistan to victory in a low scoring match. His batting was also valuable sometimes to the Pakistan ODI side, such as in the Nehru Cup in 1989, when needing six runs and two balls to win the match, he hit the first delivery he faced, from part-time off-spinner and batting legend, Viv Richards, for a six and secured the cup.
West Indian batting great Viv Richards rates Akram as best fast bowler he ever faced after Dennis Lillee.
In December 2012 after Ricky Ponting announced his retirement he said that Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose were the toughest bowlers he had faced "Akram for the exact opposite, you could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball," – Ricky Ponting.
To mark 150 years of the Cricketers' Almanack, Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
Beyond cricket
Book
He co-wrote his autobiography Wasim (1998) with the British sports journalist Patrick Murphy.
Modelling
Akram was a model at the Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2011, which was an event of Style 360.
Business
In 2018, Akram joined Cricingif as a stakeholder director.
Television
Films
Award and records
Akram was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1993 for his sporting achievements. He was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person in 2003.
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One Day Internationals, Akram took 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52 and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Akram also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups, a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there." He is currently the fourth highest wicket taker in world cups.
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat-tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals. He was the third of only four bowlers to have taken two Test cricket hat-tricks, the others being Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews and Stuart Broad. Akram was also the first of only five bowlers to have taken two One Day International cricket hat-tricks. Akram's Test hat-tricks are significant, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, a game played against Sri Lanka in the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship. Akram is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test match and One Day International hat-trick, the other being Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Sami.
Playing in a Test series against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990–1991, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Akram's case, these achievement was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball he delivered to the batting opposition was a dropped catch, which allowed a single run.
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.
He also has the joint-third highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, with seventeen.
He has scored the second-highest number of runs in One Day International matches by a player who has never scored a One Day International hundred, after Misbah-ul-Haq. His highest score was 86 runs.
He is the only Test cricketer in the world (as of Feb 2013) to take ten or more wickets thrice in a test match and still end up on the losing side.
He holds the record for facing the most balls in a test match as well as in an innings as number 8 batsman (363 balls)
First bowler to take 500 ODI wickets and still holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as seamer (502)
He holds the record for taking the most wickets in ODI history at a single ground (122, Sharjah Cricket Stadium), also the first person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at the same ground. Waqar Younis, the second person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at a single ground, also did in Sharjah. He ranks second overall with 114 wickets.
Holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as captain (158)
Controversies
In 1992, after he had been successful against the English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English media, though no video evidence of foul play was ever found. Akram and Younis had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from both new and old cricket balls. The skill of the reverse swing delivery was relatively unknown in England and around the cricketing world during that period.
A far larger controversy was created when critics alleged that he was involved in match fixing. An inquiry commission was set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:
References
External links
Pakistan One Day International cricketers
Pakistan Test cricketers
Pakistan Test cricket captains
Pakistani cricket captains
Hampshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Lancashire cricket captains
Pakistan Automobiles Corporation cricketers
Pakistan International Airlines cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
Test cricket hat-trick takers
One Day International hat-trick takers
Pakistani cricket commentators
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup
1966 births
Living people
Pakistani sports broadcasters
Punjabi people
Cricketers from Lahore
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani cricketers
Lahore City cricketers
Lahore City Whites cricketers
People from Karachi
Indian Premier League coaches
Government Islamia College alumni
Pakistan Super League coaches
Pakistani cricket coaches
Pakistani television hosts
M Parkinson's World XI cricketers
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
People with type 1 diabetes
| 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"
] |
[
"Wasim Akram",
"World's best",
"what was the worlds besT?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament."
] |
C_806bc6824e5b40f184eecab09e08a08e_1
|
why was he significant?
| 3 |
why was Wasim Akram significant?
|
Wasim Akram
|
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled. In the 1992-1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates--Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed--and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches. From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs. CANNOTANSWER
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In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets.
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Wasim Akram (born 3 June 1966) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and several critics regard him as the greatest left arm fast bowler of cricket history.
In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
A left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace, he holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and he is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets, with 502 in total. He is considered to be one of the founders, and perhaps the finest exponent of, reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time, with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim took 23 four-wicket hauls in 356 ODI matches played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he took a break from the position for IPL 6, citing a need to spend more time with family in Karachi, and he took a further break from IPL 2017; and was replaced by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
He was working as director and bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League, until he left to join Multan Sultans in August 2017. In October 2018, he was named in the Pakistan Cricket Board's seven-member advisory cricket committee. In November 2018, he joined PSL franchise, Karachi Kings, as a President.
The Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2019 for his life time achievements In field of Cricket.
Early and personal life
Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 to a Punjabi family in Lahore. Akram's father, Chaudhary Muhammed Akram, was originally from a village near Amritsar, who moved to Kamonki, in the Pakistani Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore.
At the age of 30, Akram was diagnosed with diabetes. "I remember what a shock it was because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn't expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it." Since then he has sought to be involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
Akram married Huma Mufti in 1995. They had two sons from their marriage of 14 years: Tahmoor (born 1996) and Akbar (born 2000). Huma died of multiple organ failure at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, on 25 October 2009.
On 7 July 2013, it was reported that Akram had become engaged to an Australian woman, Shaniera Thompson, whom he had met while on a visit to Melbourne in 2011. Akram married Shaniera on 12 August 2013, saying he has started a new life on a happy note. He was quoted as saying: "I married Shaniera in Lahore in a simple ceremony, and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife, and for my kids."
He moved from Lahore to Karachi with his wife and children. On 3 September 2014, the couple tweeted that they were expecting their first baby—the third child of the Akram family. On 27 December 2014, Shaniera gave birth to a baby girl, Aiyla Sabeen Rose Akram, in Melbourne.
Domestic career
In 1988, Akram signed for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England. From 1988 to 1998, he opened their bowling attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson and Hedges Cup, and Sunday League tournaments. He was a favourite of the local British fans, who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches. In 1998, with Akram as captain, Lancashire won the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League and finished second in the County Championship, having lost only five matches in all competitions during the season.
International career
Test cricket
Akram made his Test cricket debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in 1985, and in his second Test match, he claimed 10 wickets. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistan team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to make it even to his college team. He came to the trials at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan, but for the first two days he did not get a chance to bowl. On the third day, he got a chance; his performance convincing Javed Miandad to insist upon his inclusion in the national team. Akram was hence given an opportunity to play for Pakistan, without any significant domestic experience.
Akram's rise in international cricket was rapid during the late 1980s. He was a part of the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1988. However, a groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler who focused more on swing and accurate bowling.
Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets.
One Day International
Akram started his ODI career against New Zealand in Pakistan in 1984 under the captaincy of Zaheer Abbas. He rose to prominence by taking five wickets in his 3rd ODI against Australia in the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship. His wickets included those of Kepler Wessels, Dean Jones, and captain Allan Border. Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in One Day International cricket
Early days
In the 1984–85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup and the 1985–86 Rothmans Sharjah Cup, Akram took five wickets with a run rate of less than 3.50. The 1985–1986 Austral-Asia Cup involved Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and was played in Sharjah, UAE. Akram, with the help of Abdul Qadir, bowled out New Zealand's batting line-up for 64 in the second semi-final of the cup. Pakistan won that game with more than 27 overs to spare, obtaining one of the biggest wins in Pakistani history. In the final against India, he and Imran Khan shared five wickets. Akram's wickets included Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.
In the 1987 Cricket World Cup held for the 1st time in South Asia, Akram struggled on Pakistani pitches; he managed only 7 wickets throughout, with an average of over 40 runs per wicket across all 7 matches. Akram played West Indies, Sri Lanka and England twice. All group matches were played in Pakistan.
In the 1988–89 Benson and Hedges World Series, Akram managed figures of 4 for 25 against Australia.
Emergence
Akram took his hundredth wicket at Sharjah during the 1989–1990 Champions Trophy, the 2nd Match against West Indies. His 100th wicket was that of Curtly Ambrose. In that match, he took a five-wicket haul for the second time in his career. In the same match, Akram took his first hat-trick against West Indies. All three batsman were bowled out. On 4 May 1990 in Sharjah, Akram took his second ODI hat-trick against Australia. All three batsmen were bowled this time as well.
His best years in the late 1980s were from 1986 to 1989, during which time he took 100 wickets at 22.71 runs per wicket, and his economy rate was less than 3.9 runs per over, with a total of four 4-wicket hauls. His first two hauls against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came in Sri Lanka in 1986.
Up until December 1991, Akram took 143 wickets in 107 matches, with an average of almost 24 and an economy rate of 3.84.
World's best
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled.
In the 1992–1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates—Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed—and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches.
From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs.
Late career
In 1999, he led Pakistan to the finals of the World Cup where they capitulated and were defeated by Australia in the final by eight wickets with almost 30 overs to spare. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as critics believed Akram had set up the match for Australia. However, none of the allegations could be proved.
He was Pakistan's best bowler in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, taking 12 wickets in 6 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the super six of the tournament, and Akram was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.
Records
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
Prior to his retirement, he was one of eight senior players dropped for the 2003 Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the subsequent Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. Due to his omission from the team, he did not participate in a farewell match. Akram fulfilled his contract play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.
Post retirement
Media career
Since retiring from cricket, Akram has worked and taken up commentary for television networks and can currently be seen as a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports and ARY Digital among others. He did commentary on a variety of sporting tournaments including the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England, the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, and the 2011 ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Coaching career
In 2010, Akram was appointed the bowling coach consultant of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian Premier League team for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly was always keen to have Akram as the bowling coach for India, during the former's stint as Indian captain. Although this never happened, his dreams were realised to some extent, when Akram was appointed as the bowling coach cum mentor for the franchise.
Akram has thus been playing a vital role in the grooming of Indian pacers like Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who owe their success in international cricket a lot to the bowling legend.
While working for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was also responsible for the signing of Pakistani domestic left-arm fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.
Akram has also been coaching in Pakistan fast bowling camps, his most notable discovery being the teenage Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan.
Akram has also worked as director and bowling coach of PSL franchise Islamabad United during 2016 and 2017 season. He has also worked with Multan Sultans as director and bowling coach. He is currently chairman and bowling coach of Karachi Kings. He is also currently the Vice President of Kashmir Premier League.
Playing style and legacy
During his professional career he bowled with genuine speed and hostility. Akram was a man possessed of accurate control of line and length, accompanied by seam and swing bowling skills, extended to both inswingers and outswingers. With a very quick bowling action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the "Sultans of Swing", the other one being Waqar Younis.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal inswinging yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
With the bat he was especially effective against spin bowlers. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of high scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply. In October 1996 he scored 257 runs not out, of the team's total of 553 against lowly Zimbabwe on a typical flat South Asian pitch at Sheikhupura. He also achieved good scores for the Pakistan team such as his scores of 123 and 45* against Australia to take Pakistan to victory in a low scoring match. His batting was also valuable sometimes to the Pakistan ODI side, such as in the Nehru Cup in 1989, when needing six runs and two balls to win the match, he hit the first delivery he faced, from part-time off-spinner and batting legend, Viv Richards, for a six and secured the cup.
West Indian batting great Viv Richards rates Akram as best fast bowler he ever faced after Dennis Lillee.
In December 2012 after Ricky Ponting announced his retirement he said that Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose were the toughest bowlers he had faced "Akram for the exact opposite, you could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball," – Ricky Ponting.
To mark 150 years of the Cricketers' Almanack, Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
Beyond cricket
Book
He co-wrote his autobiography Wasim (1998) with the British sports journalist Patrick Murphy.
Modelling
Akram was a model at the Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2011, which was an event of Style 360.
Business
In 2018, Akram joined Cricingif as a stakeholder director.
Television
Films
Award and records
Akram was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1993 for his sporting achievements. He was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person in 2003.
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One Day Internationals, Akram took 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52 and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Akram also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups, a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there." He is currently the fourth highest wicket taker in world cups.
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat-tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals. He was the third of only four bowlers to have taken two Test cricket hat-tricks, the others being Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews and Stuart Broad. Akram was also the first of only five bowlers to have taken two One Day International cricket hat-tricks. Akram's Test hat-tricks are significant, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, a game played against Sri Lanka in the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship. Akram is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test match and One Day International hat-trick, the other being Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Sami.
Playing in a Test series against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990–1991, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Akram's case, these achievement was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball he delivered to the batting opposition was a dropped catch, which allowed a single run.
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.
He also has the joint-third highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, with seventeen.
He has scored the second-highest number of runs in One Day International matches by a player who has never scored a One Day International hundred, after Misbah-ul-Haq. His highest score was 86 runs.
He is the only Test cricketer in the world (as of Feb 2013) to take ten or more wickets thrice in a test match and still end up on the losing side.
He holds the record for facing the most balls in a test match as well as in an innings as number 8 batsman (363 balls)
First bowler to take 500 ODI wickets and still holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as seamer (502)
He holds the record for taking the most wickets in ODI history at a single ground (122, Sharjah Cricket Stadium), also the first person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at the same ground. Waqar Younis, the second person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at a single ground, also did in Sharjah. He ranks second overall with 114 wickets.
Holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as captain (158)
Controversies
In 1992, after he had been successful against the English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English media, though no video evidence of foul play was ever found. Akram and Younis had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from both new and old cricket balls. The skill of the reverse swing delivery was relatively unknown in England and around the cricketing world during that period.
A far larger controversy was created when critics alleged that he was involved in match fixing. An inquiry commission was set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:
References
External links
Pakistan One Day International cricketers
Pakistan Test cricketers
Pakistan Test cricket captains
Pakistani cricket captains
Hampshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Lancashire cricket captains
Pakistan Automobiles Corporation cricketers
Pakistan International Airlines cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
Test cricket hat-trick takers
One Day International hat-trick takers
Pakistani cricket commentators
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup
1966 births
Living people
Pakistani sports broadcasters
Punjabi people
Cricketers from Lahore
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani cricketers
Lahore City cricketers
Lahore City Whites cricketers
People from Karachi
Indian Premier League coaches
Government Islamia College alumni
Pakistan Super League coaches
Pakistani cricket coaches
Pakistani television hosts
M Parkinson's World XI cricketers
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
People with type 1 diabetes
| true |
[
"Albert George Henry Why, known by the alias Alby Carr, (1899–1969) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s player for South Sydney, who played under his alias for most of his career.\n\nPlaying career\nHe was born at Brewarrina in 1899. His family later moved to Redfern and he played his junior football in Wellington and later at Mascot.\n\nAs Alby Carr, he played four seasons for South Sydney between 1924 and 1927, including winning the 1926 and 1927 Grand Final's. Carr was also a premiership winner with South Sydney in 1925 as the club went the entire season undefeated. He represented New South Wales in 1924 under his alias. He played one last season with South Sydney in 1930, this time under his correct name of Alby Why. He played one season as Alby Why in 1930 before retiring. He was the brother of Australian Kangaroo, Jack Why.\n\nCoaching career\nIn 1950, Alby Why coached the Canterbury-Bankstown team for a season before taking over from Vic Bulgin halfway through 1951. He continued to coach Canterbury-Bankstown in 1952.\n\nAlias, and exposure\nA newspaper report from 1929 exposed Alby Carr as a 'ring-in' , who was actually Alby Why, the brother of Jack Why. The report was tabled at the NSWRFL on 13 May 1929. Alby Carr's true identity was revealed at the meeting regarding the 'ring-in' allegations. Alby Why tells the story: \"I commenced my footballing days at Wellington in 1917. In 1921 he was at Redfern Oval and was asked to play third grade for the Mascot team as 'A.Carr'. Alby Why candidly admitted that he was Alby Carr, in what was known in the turf-world as a 'ring-in'. Then selected as A. Carr, he played one year with Newtown in 1922, then joining the City Houses Competition before being graded with South Sydney Rabbitohs in 1924. During this time and later in England playing with Huddersfield, he retained the name 'Carr', but by 1929 he wished to be recognized by his real name, as his brother Jack Why also played with Souths.\"\n\nDeath\nAlbert George Henry Why died on 29 December 1969, aged 70.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n \n\n1899 births\n1969 deaths\nAustralian rugby league coaches\nAustralian rugby league players\nCanterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs coaches\n\nNew South Wales rugby league team players\nRugby league centres\nRugby league second-rows\nSouth Sydney Rabbitohs players",
"James Colyer (c. 1560 – 14 July 1597) was an English politician.\n\nFamily\nThe Colyer family was well-established in the area around Stone, Staffordshire. After receiving lands during the dissolution of the monasteries, Colyer's father passed onto him the manors of Darlaston, Stone, Yerlett and Hilderstone. These included approximately 6500 acres of land. Colyer began to sell these soon after he inherited them in 1586. Within a year he sold a hundred houses and 1000 acres of land. It is unclear why he did so, but on his death, he left his nine-year-old son only the house of Newhall in Stone and three other small buildings.\n\nCareer\nHe was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1586. This was probably from his connection to the then Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Ralph Smythe, who was married to Colyer's sister. Colyer held no other significant office, but was made a freeman of Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1586.\n\nReferences\n\n1560s births\n1597 deaths\nMembers of the Parliament of England for Newcastle-under-Lyme\nEnglish MPs 1586–1587"
] |
[
"Wasim Akram",
"World's best",
"what was the worlds besT?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament.",
"why was he significant?",
"In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets."
] |
C_806bc6824e5b40f184eecab09e08a08e_1
|
what sport did he play?
| 4 |
what sport did Wasim Akram play?
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Wasim Akram
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Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled. In the 1992-1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates--Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed--and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches. From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs. CANNOTANSWER
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he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over.
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Wasim Akram (born 3 June 1966) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and several critics regard him as the greatest left arm fast bowler of cricket history.
In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
A left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace, he holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and he is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets, with 502 in total. He is considered to be one of the founders, and perhaps the finest exponent of, reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time, with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim took 23 four-wicket hauls in 356 ODI matches played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he took a break from the position for IPL 6, citing a need to spend more time with family in Karachi, and he took a further break from IPL 2017; and was replaced by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
He was working as director and bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League, until he left to join Multan Sultans in August 2017. In October 2018, he was named in the Pakistan Cricket Board's seven-member advisory cricket committee. In November 2018, he joined PSL franchise, Karachi Kings, as a President.
The Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2019 for his life time achievements In field of Cricket.
Early and personal life
Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 to a Punjabi family in Lahore. Akram's father, Chaudhary Muhammed Akram, was originally from a village near Amritsar, who moved to Kamonki, in the Pakistani Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore.
At the age of 30, Akram was diagnosed with diabetes. "I remember what a shock it was because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn't expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it." Since then he has sought to be involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
Akram married Huma Mufti in 1995. They had two sons from their marriage of 14 years: Tahmoor (born 1996) and Akbar (born 2000). Huma died of multiple organ failure at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, on 25 October 2009.
On 7 July 2013, it was reported that Akram had become engaged to an Australian woman, Shaniera Thompson, whom he had met while on a visit to Melbourne in 2011. Akram married Shaniera on 12 August 2013, saying he has started a new life on a happy note. He was quoted as saying: "I married Shaniera in Lahore in a simple ceremony, and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife, and for my kids."
He moved from Lahore to Karachi with his wife and children. On 3 September 2014, the couple tweeted that they were expecting their first baby—the third child of the Akram family. On 27 December 2014, Shaniera gave birth to a baby girl, Aiyla Sabeen Rose Akram, in Melbourne.
Domestic career
In 1988, Akram signed for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England. From 1988 to 1998, he opened their bowling attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson and Hedges Cup, and Sunday League tournaments. He was a favourite of the local British fans, who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches. In 1998, with Akram as captain, Lancashire won the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League and finished second in the County Championship, having lost only five matches in all competitions during the season.
International career
Test cricket
Akram made his Test cricket debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in 1985, and in his second Test match, he claimed 10 wickets. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistan team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to make it even to his college team. He came to the trials at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan, but for the first two days he did not get a chance to bowl. On the third day, he got a chance; his performance convincing Javed Miandad to insist upon his inclusion in the national team. Akram was hence given an opportunity to play for Pakistan, without any significant domestic experience.
Akram's rise in international cricket was rapid during the late 1980s. He was a part of the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1988. However, a groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler who focused more on swing and accurate bowling.
Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets.
One Day International
Akram started his ODI career against New Zealand in Pakistan in 1984 under the captaincy of Zaheer Abbas. He rose to prominence by taking five wickets in his 3rd ODI against Australia in the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship. His wickets included those of Kepler Wessels, Dean Jones, and captain Allan Border. Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in One Day International cricket
Early days
In the 1984–85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup and the 1985–86 Rothmans Sharjah Cup, Akram took five wickets with a run rate of less than 3.50. The 1985–1986 Austral-Asia Cup involved Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and was played in Sharjah, UAE. Akram, with the help of Abdul Qadir, bowled out New Zealand's batting line-up for 64 in the second semi-final of the cup. Pakistan won that game with more than 27 overs to spare, obtaining one of the biggest wins in Pakistani history. In the final against India, he and Imran Khan shared five wickets. Akram's wickets included Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.
In the 1987 Cricket World Cup held for the 1st time in South Asia, Akram struggled on Pakistani pitches; he managed only 7 wickets throughout, with an average of over 40 runs per wicket across all 7 matches. Akram played West Indies, Sri Lanka and England twice. All group matches were played in Pakistan.
In the 1988–89 Benson and Hedges World Series, Akram managed figures of 4 for 25 against Australia.
Emergence
Akram took his hundredth wicket at Sharjah during the 1989–1990 Champions Trophy, the 2nd Match against West Indies. His 100th wicket was that of Curtly Ambrose. In that match, he took a five-wicket haul for the second time in his career. In the same match, Akram took his first hat-trick against West Indies. All three batsman were bowled out. On 4 May 1990 in Sharjah, Akram took his second ODI hat-trick against Australia. All three batsmen were bowled this time as well.
His best years in the late 1980s were from 1986 to 1989, during which time he took 100 wickets at 22.71 runs per wicket, and his economy rate was less than 3.9 runs per over, with a total of four 4-wicket hauls. His first two hauls against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came in Sri Lanka in 1986.
Up until December 1991, Akram took 143 wickets in 107 matches, with an average of almost 24 and an economy rate of 3.84.
World's best
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled.
In the 1992–1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates—Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed—and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches.
From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs.
Late career
In 1999, he led Pakistan to the finals of the World Cup where they capitulated and were defeated by Australia in the final by eight wickets with almost 30 overs to spare. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as critics believed Akram had set up the match for Australia. However, none of the allegations could be proved.
He was Pakistan's best bowler in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, taking 12 wickets in 6 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the super six of the tournament, and Akram was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.
Records
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
Prior to his retirement, he was one of eight senior players dropped for the 2003 Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the subsequent Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. Due to his omission from the team, he did not participate in a farewell match. Akram fulfilled his contract play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.
Post retirement
Media career
Since retiring from cricket, Akram has worked and taken up commentary for television networks and can currently be seen as a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports and ARY Digital among others. He did commentary on a variety of sporting tournaments including the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England, the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, and the 2011 ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Coaching career
In 2010, Akram was appointed the bowling coach consultant of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian Premier League team for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly was always keen to have Akram as the bowling coach for India, during the former's stint as Indian captain. Although this never happened, his dreams were realised to some extent, when Akram was appointed as the bowling coach cum mentor for the franchise.
Akram has thus been playing a vital role in the grooming of Indian pacers like Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who owe their success in international cricket a lot to the bowling legend.
While working for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was also responsible for the signing of Pakistani domestic left-arm fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.
Akram has also been coaching in Pakistan fast bowling camps, his most notable discovery being the teenage Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan.
Akram has also worked as director and bowling coach of PSL franchise Islamabad United during 2016 and 2017 season. He has also worked with Multan Sultans as director and bowling coach. He is currently chairman and bowling coach of Karachi Kings. He is also currently the Vice President of Kashmir Premier League.
Playing style and legacy
During his professional career he bowled with genuine speed and hostility. Akram was a man possessed of accurate control of line and length, accompanied by seam and swing bowling skills, extended to both inswingers and outswingers. With a very quick bowling action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the "Sultans of Swing", the other one being Waqar Younis.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal inswinging yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
With the bat he was especially effective against spin bowlers. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of high scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply. In October 1996 he scored 257 runs not out, of the team's total of 553 against lowly Zimbabwe on a typical flat South Asian pitch at Sheikhupura. He also achieved good scores for the Pakistan team such as his scores of 123 and 45* against Australia to take Pakistan to victory in a low scoring match. His batting was also valuable sometimes to the Pakistan ODI side, such as in the Nehru Cup in 1989, when needing six runs and two balls to win the match, he hit the first delivery he faced, from part-time off-spinner and batting legend, Viv Richards, for a six and secured the cup.
West Indian batting great Viv Richards rates Akram as best fast bowler he ever faced after Dennis Lillee.
In December 2012 after Ricky Ponting announced his retirement he said that Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose were the toughest bowlers he had faced "Akram for the exact opposite, you could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball," – Ricky Ponting.
To mark 150 years of the Cricketers' Almanack, Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
Beyond cricket
Book
He co-wrote his autobiography Wasim (1998) with the British sports journalist Patrick Murphy.
Modelling
Akram was a model at the Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2011, which was an event of Style 360.
Business
In 2018, Akram joined Cricingif as a stakeholder director.
Television
Films
Award and records
Akram was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1993 for his sporting achievements. He was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person in 2003.
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One Day Internationals, Akram took 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52 and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Akram also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups, a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there." He is currently the fourth highest wicket taker in world cups.
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat-tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals. He was the third of only four bowlers to have taken two Test cricket hat-tricks, the others being Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews and Stuart Broad. Akram was also the first of only five bowlers to have taken two One Day International cricket hat-tricks. Akram's Test hat-tricks are significant, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, a game played against Sri Lanka in the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship. Akram is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test match and One Day International hat-trick, the other being Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Sami.
Playing in a Test series against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990–1991, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Akram's case, these achievement was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball he delivered to the batting opposition was a dropped catch, which allowed a single run.
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.
He also has the joint-third highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, with seventeen.
He has scored the second-highest number of runs in One Day International matches by a player who has never scored a One Day International hundred, after Misbah-ul-Haq. His highest score was 86 runs.
He is the only Test cricketer in the world (as of Feb 2013) to take ten or more wickets thrice in a test match and still end up on the losing side.
He holds the record for facing the most balls in a test match as well as in an innings as number 8 batsman (363 balls)
First bowler to take 500 ODI wickets and still holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as seamer (502)
He holds the record for taking the most wickets in ODI history at a single ground (122, Sharjah Cricket Stadium), also the first person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at the same ground. Waqar Younis, the second person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at a single ground, also did in Sharjah. He ranks second overall with 114 wickets.
Holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as captain (158)
Controversies
In 1992, after he had been successful against the English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English media, though no video evidence of foul play was ever found. Akram and Younis had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from both new and old cricket balls. The skill of the reverse swing delivery was relatively unknown in England and around the cricketing world during that period.
A far larger controversy was created when critics alleged that he was involved in match fixing. An inquiry commission was set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:
References
External links
Pakistan One Day International cricketers
Pakistan Test cricketers
Pakistan Test cricket captains
Pakistani cricket captains
Hampshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Lancashire cricket captains
Pakistan Automobiles Corporation cricketers
Pakistan International Airlines cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
Test cricket hat-trick takers
One Day International hat-trick takers
Pakistani cricket commentators
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup
1966 births
Living people
Pakistani sports broadcasters
Punjabi people
Cricketers from Lahore
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani cricketers
Lahore City cricketers
Lahore City Whites cricketers
People from Karachi
Indian Premier League coaches
Government Islamia College alumni
Pakistan Super League coaches
Pakistani cricket coaches
Pakistani television hosts
M Parkinson's World XI cricketers
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
People with type 1 diabetes
| true |
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"Joseph Jef Nelis was a Belgian footballer, born on 1 April 1917 in Tutbury, Staffordshire, (England), who died on 12 April 1994. Striker for Royal Berchem Sport, he was picked for the World Cup in 1938 in France, but did not play. However, he played two games and scored two goals in 1940 for Belgium.\n\nHonours \n International in 1940 (2 caps and 2 goals)\n Picked for the 1938 World Cup (did not play)\n\nReferences \n\nBelgium international footballers\nBelgian footballers\n1938 FIFA World Cup players\nK. Berchem Sport players\nRoyale Union Saint-Gilloise players\n1917 births\n1994 deaths\nAssociation football forwards\nPeople from Tutbury",
"Émerson da Silva Leal or simply Émerson (born July 3, 1980 in Esteio), is a Brazilian defensive midfielder. In 2012, he played for Aimoré.\n\nFollowing the diagnosis of a heart condition in November 2004, Emerson did not play for three years. He re-joined Grêmio in 2007. Despite having a contract with Grêmio, Émerson did not usually train with the rest of Grêmio players.\n\nHonours\nBrazilian Cup: 2001\nRio Grande do Sul State League: 2001\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n zerozero.pt\n CBF\n Emerson, del Gremio, apartado del equipo por sufrir problemas cardíacos\n\n1980 births\nLiving people\nBrazilian footballers\nGrêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players\nSport Club do Recife players\nEsporte Clube Novo Hamburgo players\nCanoas Sport Club players\nEsporte Clube Juventude players\nAssociation football midfielders"
] |
[
"Wasim Akram",
"World's best",
"what was the worlds besT?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament.",
"why was he significant?",
"In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets.",
"what sport did he play?",
"he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over."
] |
C_806bc6824e5b40f184eecab09e08a08e_1
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did he set any records?
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did Wasim Akram set any records in bowling?
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Wasim Akram
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Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled. In the 1992-1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates--Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed--and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches. From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs. CANNOTANSWER
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His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final.
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Wasim Akram (born 3 June 1966) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and several critics regard him as the greatest left arm fast bowler of cricket history.
In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
A left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace, he holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and he is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets, with 502 in total. He is considered to be one of the founders, and perhaps the finest exponent of, reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time, with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim took 23 four-wicket hauls in 356 ODI matches played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he took a break from the position for IPL 6, citing a need to spend more time with family in Karachi, and he took a further break from IPL 2017; and was replaced by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
He was working as director and bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League, until he left to join Multan Sultans in August 2017. In October 2018, he was named in the Pakistan Cricket Board's seven-member advisory cricket committee. In November 2018, he joined PSL franchise, Karachi Kings, as a President.
The Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2019 for his life time achievements In field of Cricket.
Early and personal life
Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 to a Punjabi family in Lahore. Akram's father, Chaudhary Muhammed Akram, was originally from a village near Amritsar, who moved to Kamonki, in the Pakistani Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore.
At the age of 30, Akram was diagnosed with diabetes. "I remember what a shock it was because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn't expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it." Since then he has sought to be involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
Akram married Huma Mufti in 1995. They had two sons from their marriage of 14 years: Tahmoor (born 1996) and Akbar (born 2000). Huma died of multiple organ failure at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, on 25 October 2009.
On 7 July 2013, it was reported that Akram had become engaged to an Australian woman, Shaniera Thompson, whom he had met while on a visit to Melbourne in 2011. Akram married Shaniera on 12 August 2013, saying he has started a new life on a happy note. He was quoted as saying: "I married Shaniera in Lahore in a simple ceremony, and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife, and for my kids."
He moved from Lahore to Karachi with his wife and children. On 3 September 2014, the couple tweeted that they were expecting their first baby—the third child of the Akram family. On 27 December 2014, Shaniera gave birth to a baby girl, Aiyla Sabeen Rose Akram, in Melbourne.
Domestic career
In 1988, Akram signed for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England. From 1988 to 1998, he opened their bowling attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson and Hedges Cup, and Sunday League tournaments. He was a favourite of the local British fans, who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches. In 1998, with Akram as captain, Lancashire won the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League and finished second in the County Championship, having lost only five matches in all competitions during the season.
International career
Test cricket
Akram made his Test cricket debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in 1985, and in his second Test match, he claimed 10 wickets. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistan team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to make it even to his college team. He came to the trials at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan, but for the first two days he did not get a chance to bowl. On the third day, he got a chance; his performance convincing Javed Miandad to insist upon his inclusion in the national team. Akram was hence given an opportunity to play for Pakistan, without any significant domestic experience.
Akram's rise in international cricket was rapid during the late 1980s. He was a part of the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1988. However, a groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler who focused more on swing and accurate bowling.
Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets.
One Day International
Akram started his ODI career against New Zealand in Pakistan in 1984 under the captaincy of Zaheer Abbas. He rose to prominence by taking five wickets in his 3rd ODI against Australia in the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship. His wickets included those of Kepler Wessels, Dean Jones, and captain Allan Border. Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in One Day International cricket
Early days
In the 1984–85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup and the 1985–86 Rothmans Sharjah Cup, Akram took five wickets with a run rate of less than 3.50. The 1985–1986 Austral-Asia Cup involved Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and was played in Sharjah, UAE. Akram, with the help of Abdul Qadir, bowled out New Zealand's batting line-up for 64 in the second semi-final of the cup. Pakistan won that game with more than 27 overs to spare, obtaining one of the biggest wins in Pakistani history. In the final against India, he and Imran Khan shared five wickets. Akram's wickets included Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.
In the 1987 Cricket World Cup held for the 1st time in South Asia, Akram struggled on Pakistani pitches; he managed only 7 wickets throughout, with an average of over 40 runs per wicket across all 7 matches. Akram played West Indies, Sri Lanka and England twice. All group matches were played in Pakistan.
In the 1988–89 Benson and Hedges World Series, Akram managed figures of 4 for 25 against Australia.
Emergence
Akram took his hundredth wicket at Sharjah during the 1989–1990 Champions Trophy, the 2nd Match against West Indies. His 100th wicket was that of Curtly Ambrose. In that match, he took a five-wicket haul for the second time in his career. In the same match, Akram took his first hat-trick against West Indies. All three batsman were bowled out. On 4 May 1990 in Sharjah, Akram took his second ODI hat-trick against Australia. All three batsmen were bowled this time as well.
His best years in the late 1980s were from 1986 to 1989, during which time he took 100 wickets at 22.71 runs per wicket, and his economy rate was less than 3.9 runs per over, with a total of four 4-wicket hauls. His first two hauls against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came in Sri Lanka in 1986.
Up until December 1991, Akram took 143 wickets in 107 matches, with an average of almost 24 and an economy rate of 3.84.
World's best
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled.
In the 1992–1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates—Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed—and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches.
From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs.
Late career
In 1999, he led Pakistan to the finals of the World Cup where they capitulated and were defeated by Australia in the final by eight wickets with almost 30 overs to spare. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as critics believed Akram had set up the match for Australia. However, none of the allegations could be proved.
He was Pakistan's best bowler in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, taking 12 wickets in 6 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the super six of the tournament, and Akram was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.
Records
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
Prior to his retirement, he was one of eight senior players dropped for the 2003 Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the subsequent Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. Due to his omission from the team, he did not participate in a farewell match. Akram fulfilled his contract play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.
Post retirement
Media career
Since retiring from cricket, Akram has worked and taken up commentary for television networks and can currently be seen as a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports and ARY Digital among others. He did commentary on a variety of sporting tournaments including the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England, the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, and the 2011 ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Coaching career
In 2010, Akram was appointed the bowling coach consultant of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian Premier League team for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly was always keen to have Akram as the bowling coach for India, during the former's stint as Indian captain. Although this never happened, his dreams were realised to some extent, when Akram was appointed as the bowling coach cum mentor for the franchise.
Akram has thus been playing a vital role in the grooming of Indian pacers like Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who owe their success in international cricket a lot to the bowling legend.
While working for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was also responsible for the signing of Pakistani domestic left-arm fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.
Akram has also been coaching in Pakistan fast bowling camps, his most notable discovery being the teenage Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan.
Akram has also worked as director and bowling coach of PSL franchise Islamabad United during 2016 and 2017 season. He has also worked with Multan Sultans as director and bowling coach. He is currently chairman and bowling coach of Karachi Kings. He is also currently the Vice President of Kashmir Premier League.
Playing style and legacy
During his professional career he bowled with genuine speed and hostility. Akram was a man possessed of accurate control of line and length, accompanied by seam and swing bowling skills, extended to both inswingers and outswingers. With a very quick bowling action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the "Sultans of Swing", the other one being Waqar Younis.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal inswinging yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
With the bat he was especially effective against spin bowlers. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of high scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply. In October 1996 he scored 257 runs not out, of the team's total of 553 against lowly Zimbabwe on a typical flat South Asian pitch at Sheikhupura. He also achieved good scores for the Pakistan team such as his scores of 123 and 45* against Australia to take Pakistan to victory in a low scoring match. His batting was also valuable sometimes to the Pakistan ODI side, such as in the Nehru Cup in 1989, when needing six runs and two balls to win the match, he hit the first delivery he faced, from part-time off-spinner and batting legend, Viv Richards, for a six and secured the cup.
West Indian batting great Viv Richards rates Akram as best fast bowler he ever faced after Dennis Lillee.
In December 2012 after Ricky Ponting announced his retirement he said that Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose were the toughest bowlers he had faced "Akram for the exact opposite, you could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball," – Ricky Ponting.
To mark 150 years of the Cricketers' Almanack, Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
Beyond cricket
Book
He co-wrote his autobiography Wasim (1998) with the British sports journalist Patrick Murphy.
Modelling
Akram was a model at the Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2011, which was an event of Style 360.
Business
In 2018, Akram joined Cricingif as a stakeholder director.
Television
Films
Award and records
Akram was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1993 for his sporting achievements. He was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person in 2003.
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One Day Internationals, Akram took 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52 and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Akram also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups, a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there." He is currently the fourth highest wicket taker in world cups.
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat-tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals. He was the third of only four bowlers to have taken two Test cricket hat-tricks, the others being Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews and Stuart Broad. Akram was also the first of only five bowlers to have taken two One Day International cricket hat-tricks. Akram's Test hat-tricks are significant, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, a game played against Sri Lanka in the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship. Akram is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test match and One Day International hat-trick, the other being Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Sami.
Playing in a Test series against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990–1991, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Akram's case, these achievement was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball he delivered to the batting opposition was a dropped catch, which allowed a single run.
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.
He also has the joint-third highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, with seventeen.
He has scored the second-highest number of runs in One Day International matches by a player who has never scored a One Day International hundred, after Misbah-ul-Haq. His highest score was 86 runs.
He is the only Test cricketer in the world (as of Feb 2013) to take ten or more wickets thrice in a test match and still end up on the losing side.
He holds the record for facing the most balls in a test match as well as in an innings as number 8 batsman (363 balls)
First bowler to take 500 ODI wickets and still holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as seamer (502)
He holds the record for taking the most wickets in ODI history at a single ground (122, Sharjah Cricket Stadium), also the first person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at the same ground. Waqar Younis, the second person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at a single ground, also did in Sharjah. He ranks second overall with 114 wickets.
Holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as captain (158)
Controversies
In 1992, after he had been successful against the English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English media, though no video evidence of foul play was ever found. Akram and Younis had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from both new and old cricket balls. The skill of the reverse swing delivery was relatively unknown in England and around the cricketing world during that period.
A far larger controversy was created when critics alleged that he was involved in match fixing. An inquiry commission was set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:
References
External links
Pakistan One Day International cricketers
Pakistan Test cricketers
Pakistan Test cricket captains
Pakistani cricket captains
Hampshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Lancashire cricket captains
Pakistan Automobiles Corporation cricketers
Pakistan International Airlines cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
Test cricket hat-trick takers
One Day International hat-trick takers
Pakistani cricket commentators
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup
1966 births
Living people
Pakistani sports broadcasters
Punjabi people
Cricketers from Lahore
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani cricketers
Lahore City cricketers
Lahore City Whites cricketers
People from Karachi
Indian Premier League coaches
Government Islamia College alumni
Pakistan Super League coaches
Pakistani cricket coaches
Pakistani television hosts
M Parkinson's World XI cricketers
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
People with type 1 diabetes
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[
"Manvel Mamoyan () is an Armenian fitness and bodybuilding trainer, fitness blogger, and three times Guinness World Records holder. He is also a multiple record holder of Armenian Book of Records (Dyutsaznagirk).\n\nBiography\n\nManvel was born on April 6, 1993 in Yerevan. Currently works as fitness and bodybuilding trainer. He has been practising sports since 10, when he started attending Judo classes.\n\nIn 2011-2013 he served in the Armenian Armed Forces.\n\nRecords \n\nUntil 18, Manvel also tried himself in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. Manvel set his 11th record in Armenia when he was only 17. His first record was set in Dyutsaznagirk by doing sit up - abdominal exercise for 2 h. 46 min for 3511 reps. For the second time he appeared in Dyutsaznagirk for the most push-ups with one arm using back of the hand in one minute - 89 reps.\n\n2015-2016 \nAfter returning from the army, Manvel set a Guinness world record in October 23, 2015. He did 27 handstand push-ups in a minute. In order to complete one handstand push-up, Manvel’s elbows had to reach 90 degrees or less and then he had to fully straighten his arms. His legs also had to be straight or cross his ankles. He did the exercise in 48,3 seconds. Manvel didn’t have any injury before his performance, and the record was set. He dedicated his victory to the memory of the Genocide of Armenian and Yazidi people promised to update his record throughout the year.\n\n2016-2017 \nOn 25 August, 2016 Manvel dedicated his record in memory of the victims of the 2016 April Four-Day War unleashed in Nagorno-Karabakh. In response to the murder of Hayk Torosyan, Hrant Gharibyan and his compatriot Kyaram Sloyan by Azeris, Manvel Mamoyan set a new record: however, in August, 2016 he couldn’t exceed the record (84 push-ups) of the Canadian Roy Berger from his first performance in the Freedom Square, Yerevan, by reaching 83 reps. According to the Guinness World Records’ rules the athlete has a right to perform the exercise for 3 sets. Manvel managed to set the desired record from his second performance, after having a rest. By doing push-ups for 86 reps in a minute, the athlete exceeded the previous record and set a record in the Guinness World Records.\n\nIn one his interviews Manvel told about his desire to set 10 records in Guinness World Records in a year, particularly by through the Flag exercise, which was set as a record a few years ago by him and was performed for only 20 seconds. It was included in Dyutsaznagirk. He also mentioned he strives to set records more for Guinness World Records. In 2016 Manvel fell behind 5-6 seconds of setting a new world record and the record was 1 min. 5 sec. 71 millisec.\n\n2017-2018 \nIn 2017 Manvel set 4 records in handstand push-ups. He did the exercise 37 reps in a minute. With this result then he set a new record by doing 37 reps non-stop in a minute. \n\nFor his second record he did the same exercise 55 reps in 3 minutes. However, Manvel's last and most important result was doing push-ups for 352 reps in an hour. According to him, the achieved most result was 300 reps and he wished to surpass that record. \n\nIn 2017 Manvel also set a record for the Most jump squats in one minute (male), with 67 reps per minute.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography \n \n \n\n1993 births\nLiving people\nGuinness World Records\nSportspeople from Yerevan\nMale bodybuilders",
"3 (sometimes referred to as Emerson, Berry & Palmer) were a short-lived progressive rock band formed by former Emerson, Lake & Palmer members Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer and American multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry in 1988.\n\nAfter one album, To the Power of Three, 3 split up. Emerson & Palmer reunited with Greg Lake for 1992's Black Moon and Berry would form Alliance.\n\nThey performed live, as \"Emerson and Palmer\" (Berry was onstage but unnamed), at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert in 1988, broadcast on HBO, but only performed a long medley instrumental set including Fanfare for the Common Man, Leonard Bernstein's America, and Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo, which later became an ELP encore in their 1990s concerts. They did not perform any original ELP material without Lake, nor did they perform any 3 songs since the band's label was Geffen Records.\n\n3 performed at live venues to support their album, sometime in 1988. The three studio musicians were sometimes augmented by Paul Keller on guitar, Debra Parks and Jennifer Steele on backing vocals. Their setlist mainly consisted of material from their album, including \"Runaway\" and an extended jam version of the cover song \"Eight Miles High\". The group did a different arrangement of \"Desde La Vida\". The band did long instrumental jams based on music ELP covered including \"Hoedown\" & \"Fanfare for the Common Man\", but did not do any original ELP compositions. A long, elaborate cover of The Four Tops' \"Standing in the Shadows of Love\" was also included in the set.\n\nTwo live albums were released many years later, both on Rock Beat Records: Live Boston 88 (2015) and Live - Rockin' The Ritz (2017).\n\nIn October 2015, Emerson and Berry signed a contract with Frontiers Records to record a follow-up album at last, to be called 3.2. Emerson's death in March of the following year put a halt to that project. However, in July 2018, Berry released (as 3.2) The Rules Have Changed, built from musical ideas contributed by Emerson, but produced and performed entirely by Berry. A second 3.2 album, Third Impression, was released in 2021.\n\nBand members\nKeith Emerson - keyboards (1988–1989)\nRobert Berry - lead vocals, guitars, bass (1988–1989)\nCarl Palmer - drums, percussion (1988–1989)\n\nLive members\nPaul Keller – guitars (1988–1989)\nDebra Parks - backing vocals (1988-1989)\nJennifer Steele – backing vocals (1988–1989)\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\nSingle\n\nReferences\n\nSee also\nEmerson, Lake & Palmer\nEmerson, Lake & Powell\n\nEnglish progressive rock groups\nRock music supergroups\nMusical groups established in 1988\nMusical groups disestablished in 1989\nMusical trios"
] |
[
"Wasim Akram",
"World's best",
"what was the worlds besT?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament.",
"why was he significant?",
"In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets.",
"what sport did he play?",
"he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over.",
"did he set any records?",
"His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final."
] |
C_806bc6824e5b40f184eecab09e08a08e_1
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did he win any other awards?
| 6 |
did Wasim Akram win any other awards other than the Man of the Match?
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Wasim Akram
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Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled. In the 1992-1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates--Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed--and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches. From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Wasim Akram (born 3 June 1966) is a Pakistani cricket commentator, coach, and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time and several critics regard him as the greatest left arm fast bowler of cricket history.
In October 2013, Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
A left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace, he holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket, with 881, and he is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets, with 502 in total. He is considered to be one of the founders, and perhaps the finest exponent of, reverse swing bowling.
He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002, Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time, with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glenn McGrath and Muralitharan. Wasim took 23 four-wicket hauls in 356 ODI matches played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he took a break from the position for IPL 6, citing a need to spend more time with family in Karachi, and he took a further break from IPL 2017; and was replaced by Lakshmipathy Balaji.
He was working as director and bowling coach of Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League, until he left to join Multan Sultans in August 2017. In October 2018, he was named in the Pakistan Cricket Board's seven-member advisory cricket committee. In November 2018, he joined PSL franchise, Karachi Kings, as a President.
The Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2019 for his life time achievements In field of Cricket.
Early and personal life
Wasim Akram was born on 3 June 1966 to a Punjabi family in Lahore. Akram's father, Chaudhary Muhammed Akram, was originally from a village near Amritsar, who moved to Kamonki, in the Pakistani Punjab after the partition of India in 1947. He was educated at Government Islamia College, Civil Lines, Lahore.
At the age of 30, Akram was diagnosed with diabetes. "I remember what a shock it was because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn't expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it." Since then he has sought to be involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
Akram married Huma Mufti in 1995. They had two sons from their marriage of 14 years: Tahmoor (born 1996) and Akbar (born 2000). Huma died of multiple organ failure at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, on 25 October 2009.
On 7 July 2013, it was reported that Akram had become engaged to an Australian woman, Shaniera Thompson, whom he had met while on a visit to Melbourne in 2011. Akram married Shaniera on 12 August 2013, saying he has started a new life on a happy note. He was quoted as saying: "I married Shaniera in Lahore in a simple ceremony, and this is the start of a new life for me, my wife, and for my kids."
He moved from Lahore to Karachi with his wife and children. On 3 September 2014, the couple tweeted that they were expecting their first baby—the third child of the Akram family. On 27 December 2014, Shaniera gave birth to a baby girl, Aiyla Sabeen Rose Akram, in Melbourne.
Domestic career
In 1988, Akram signed for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England. From 1988 to 1998, he opened their bowling attack in their NatWest Trophy, Benson and Hedges Cup, and Sunday League tournaments. He was a favourite of the local British fans, who used to sing a song called "Wasim for England" at Lancashire's matches. In 1998, with Akram as captain, Lancashire won the NatWest Trophy and Sunday League and finished second in the County Championship, having lost only five matches in all competitions during the season.
International career
Test cricket
Akram made his Test cricket debut for Pakistan against New Zealand in 1985, and in his second Test match, he claimed 10 wickets. A few weeks prior to his selection into the Pakistan team, he was an unknown club cricketer who had failed to make it even to his college team. He came to the trials at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in Pakistan, but for the first two days he did not get a chance to bowl. On the third day, he got a chance; his performance convincing Javed Miandad to insist upon his inclusion in the national team. Akram was hence given an opportunity to play for Pakistan, without any significant domestic experience.
Akram's rise in international cricket was rapid during the late 1980s. He was a part of the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1988. However, a groin injury impeded his career in the late 1980s. Following two surgeries, he re-emerged in the 1990s as a fast bowler who focused more on swing and accurate bowling.
Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in test cricket with 414 wickets.
One Day International
Akram started his ODI career against New Zealand in Pakistan in 1984 under the captaincy of Zaheer Abbas. He rose to prominence by taking five wickets in his 3rd ODI against Australia in the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship. His wickets included those of Kepler Wessels, Dean Jones, and captain Allan Border. Wasim Akram is currently the highest wicket taker for Pakistan in One Day International cricket
Early days
In the 1984–85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup and the 1985–86 Rothmans Sharjah Cup, Akram took five wickets with a run rate of less than 3.50. The 1985–1986 Austral-Asia Cup involved Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and was played in Sharjah, UAE. Akram, with the help of Abdul Qadir, bowled out New Zealand's batting line-up for 64 in the second semi-final of the cup. Pakistan won that game with more than 27 overs to spare, obtaining one of the biggest wins in Pakistani history. In the final against India, he and Imran Khan shared five wickets. Akram's wickets included Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri.
In the 1987 Cricket World Cup held for the 1st time in South Asia, Akram struggled on Pakistani pitches; he managed only 7 wickets throughout, with an average of over 40 runs per wicket across all 7 matches. Akram played West Indies, Sri Lanka and England twice. All group matches were played in Pakistan.
In the 1988–89 Benson and Hedges World Series, Akram managed figures of 4 for 25 against Australia.
Emergence
Akram took his hundredth wicket at Sharjah during the 1989–1990 Champions Trophy, the 2nd Match against West Indies. His 100th wicket was that of Curtly Ambrose. In that match, he took a five-wicket haul for the second time in his career. In the same match, Akram took his first hat-trick against West Indies. All three batsman were bowled out. On 4 May 1990 in Sharjah, Akram took his second ODI hat-trick against Australia. All three batsmen were bowled this time as well.
His best years in the late 1980s were from 1986 to 1989, during which time he took 100 wickets at 22.71 runs per wicket, and his economy rate was less than 3.9 runs per over, with a total of four 4-wicket hauls. His first two hauls against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came in Sri Lanka in 1986.
Up until December 1991, Akram took 143 wickets in 107 matches, with an average of almost 24 and an economy rate of 3.84.
World's best
Akram was a significant figure in the 1992 Cricket World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand when Pakistan won the tournament. In the final, against England, his innings of 33 runs off 19 balls pushed Pakistan to a score of 249 runs for 6 wickets. Akram then took the wicket of Ian Botham early on during the English batting innings; and, when brought back into the bowling attack later on, with the ball reverse swinging, he produced a spell of bowling which led to Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis being bowled in successive deliveries in one over. His performances earned him the Man of the Match award for the final. In 1993, Akram took two consecutive 4-wicket hauls against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which 7 out of 8 wickets were either LBW or bowled.
In the 1992–1993 Total International Series in South Africa (involving Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa), he took 5 wickets against South Africa and got his 200th wicket in his 143rd match. Akram took 46 wickets in calendar year 1993, his best year ever in ODIs. His average was less than 19, with an economy rate of less than 3.8 runs per over. He took six 4-wicket hauls in 1993, the most by him in any year. In the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Akram missed the quarterfinal match against India which Pakistan lost and went out of the World Cup. Wasim's great career was often tainted by controversy, not least in the Caribbean in April 1993, his maiden tour as Pakistan's captain. During the team's stop-over in Grenada, he was arrested along with three teammates—Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed—and two female British tourists; he was charged with possession of marijuana. Between 1994 and 1996, he took 84 wickets in 39 matches.
From January 1992 to December 1997, Akram played 131 matches and took 198 wickets at an average of 21.86, with 14 4-wicket hauls in ODIs.
Late career
In 1999, he led Pakistan to the finals of the World Cup where they capitulated and were defeated by Australia in the final by eight wickets with almost 30 overs to spare. This was the start of the match-fixing controversies, as critics believed Akram had set up the match for Australia. However, none of the allegations could be proved.
He was Pakistan's best bowler in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, taking 12 wickets in 6 matches. However, Pakistan failed to reach the super six of the tournament, and Akram was one of the eight players to be sacked by the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result.
Records
Akram won 17 Man-of-the-Match awards in 104 Tests. He took four hat-tricks in international cricket—two in ODIs and two in Tests. As a result, he shares the record for most international hat-tricks with Lasith Malinga. He finished with 22 Man-of-the-Match awards in ODIs. In 199 ODI match wins, he took 326 wickets at under 19 apiece with a run rate of 3.70 and took 18 four-wicket hauls. His 257 not-out against Zimbabwe in 1996 is the highest innings by a number-8 batsman in Tests. He hit 12 sixes in that game, and it stands to this day as the record for the most sixes by any player in a single Test innings.
Prior to his retirement, he was one of eight senior players dropped for the 2003 Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the subsequent Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. Due to his omission from the team, he did not participate in a farewell match. Akram fulfilled his contract play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.
Post retirement
Media career
Since retiring from cricket, Akram has worked and taken up commentary for television networks and can currently be seen as a sports commentator for ESPN Star Sports and ARY Digital among others. He did commentary on a variety of sporting tournaments including the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup in Australia, the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England, the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa, and the 2011 ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Coaching career
In 2010, Akram was appointed the bowling coach consultant of Kolkata Knight Riders, the Indian Premier League team for Kolkata. Sourav Ganguly was always keen to have Akram as the bowling coach for India, during the former's stint as Indian captain. Although this never happened, his dreams were realised to some extent, when Akram was appointed as the bowling coach cum mentor for the franchise.
Akram has thus been playing a vital role in the grooming of Indian pacers like Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who owe their success in international cricket a lot to the bowling legend.
While working for the Kolkata Knight Riders, he was also responsible for the signing of Pakistani domestic left-arm fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan.
Akram has also been coaching in Pakistan fast bowling camps, his most notable discovery being the teenage Pakistani bowlers Mohammad Amir and Junaid Khan.
Akram has also worked as director and bowling coach of PSL franchise Islamabad United during 2016 and 2017 season. He has also worked with Multan Sultans as director and bowling coach. He is currently chairman and bowling coach of Karachi Kings. He is also currently the Vice President of Kashmir Premier League.
Playing style and legacy
During his professional career he bowled with genuine speed and hostility. Akram was a man possessed of accurate control of line and length, accompanied by seam and swing bowling skills, extended to both inswingers and outswingers. With a very quick bowling action, he could bowl equally well from both sides of the wicket. His mastery of reverse swing with the cricket ball meant he was at his most dangerous towards the end of a bowling innings, and earned him the nickname of one of the "Sultans of Swing", the other one being Waqar Younis.
As well as often being able to find the edge of the bat, Akram would also focus his bowling attack on the stumps and had a particularly lethal inswinging yorker. Of his 414 Test wickets, 193 were taken caught, 119 were taken leg before wicket and 102 were bowled. In partnership with Waqar Younis, he intimidated international batsmen in the 1990s. Together Wasim and Waqar, known as "the two Ws" of the Pakistani team, were one of the most successful bowling partnerships in cricket.
With the bat he was especially effective against spin bowlers. However, he liked to slog and was criticised for his lack of high scores and giving away his wicket too cheaply. In October 1996 he scored 257 runs not out, of the team's total of 553 against lowly Zimbabwe on a typical flat South Asian pitch at Sheikhupura. He also achieved good scores for the Pakistan team such as his scores of 123 and 45* against Australia to take Pakistan to victory in a low scoring match. His batting was also valuable sometimes to the Pakistan ODI side, such as in the Nehru Cup in 1989, when needing six runs and two balls to win the match, he hit the first delivery he faced, from part-time off-spinner and batting legend, Viv Richards, for a six and secured the cup.
West Indian batting great Viv Richards rates Akram as best fast bowler he ever faced after Dennis Lillee.
In December 2012 after Ricky Ponting announced his retirement he said that Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose were the toughest bowlers he had faced "Akram for the exact opposite, you could get a few runs off him, but you just knew there was an unplayable ball around the corner, be it with an old ball or with a new ball," – Ricky Ponting.
To mark 150 years of the Cricketers' Almanack, Wisden named him in an all-time Test World XI.
Beyond cricket
Book
He co-wrote his autobiography Wasim (1998) with the British sports journalist Patrick Murphy.
Modelling
Akram was a model at the Pantene Bridal Couture Week 2011, which was an event of Style 360.
Business
In 2018, Akram joined Cricingif as a stakeholder director.
Television
Films
Award and records
Akram was awarded Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1993 for his sporting achievements. He was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person in 2003.
In his Test career, Akram took 414 wickets in 104 matches, a Pakistani record, at an average of 23.62 and scored 2,898 runs, at an average of 22.64.
In One Day Internationals, Akram took 502 wickets in 356 appearances, at an average of 23.52 and scored 3,717 runs, at an average of 16.52.
Akram was the first bowler in international cricket to take more than 400 wickets in both forms of the game and only Muttiah Muralitharan has since achieved this.
Akram also held the record for the most wickets in Cricket World Cups, a total of 55 in 38 matches. Australia's Glenn McGrath broke the record during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, ending with a final tally of 71 from 39 matches. On passing Wasim's record, McGrath said, "Wasim Akram, to me, is one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Left-armer, swung it both ways with the new ball and he was so dangerous with the old ball. To go past him is something I will always remember. Probably the other side of the coin is that if you play long enough, you're going to break records here and there." He is currently the fourth highest wicket taker in world cups.
Akram is the only bowler to have achieved four hat-tricks in international cricket, with two each in Tests and One Day Internationals. He was the third of only four bowlers to have taken two Test cricket hat-tricks, the others being Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews and Stuart Broad. Akram was also the first of only five bowlers to have taken two One Day International cricket hat-tricks. Akram's Test hat-tricks are significant, since they were taken in consecutive Test matches in the same series, a game played against Sri Lanka in the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship. Akram is also one of only two bowlers to have taken both a Test match and One Day International hat-trick, the other being Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Sami.
Playing in a Test series against the West Indies at Lahore in 1990–1991, he became one of only six players to have taken four wickets in an over during a Test match. In Akram's case, these achievement was not part of a hat-trick, the third ball he delivered to the batting opposition was a dropped catch, which allowed a single run.
Akram has also achieved the highest score by a number eight batsman in Test cricket when he scored 257 runs not out from 363 balls against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura. The innings contained 12 sixes which is also a world record for Test cricket.
He also has the joint-third highest number of Man of the Match awards in Test cricket, with seventeen.
He has scored the second-highest number of runs in One Day International matches by a player who has never scored a One Day International hundred, after Misbah-ul-Haq. His highest score was 86 runs.
He is the only Test cricketer in the world (as of Feb 2013) to take ten or more wickets thrice in a test match and still end up on the losing side.
He holds the record for facing the most balls in a test match as well as in an innings as number 8 batsman (363 balls)
First bowler to take 500 ODI wickets and still holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as seamer (502)
He holds the record for taking the most wickets in ODI history at a single ground (122, Sharjah Cricket Stadium), also the first person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at the same ground. Waqar Younis, the second person to grab 100+ ODI wickets at a single ground, also did in Sharjah. He ranks second overall with 114 wickets.
Holds the record for taking the most ODI wickets as captain (158)
Controversies
In 1992, after he had been successful against the English batsmen, accusations of ball tampering began to appear in the English media, though no video evidence of foul play was ever found. Akram and Younis had been able to obtain prodigious amounts of movement from both new and old cricket balls. The skill of the reverse swing delivery was relatively unknown in England and around the cricketing world during that period.
A far larger controversy was created when critics alleged that he was involved in match fixing. An inquiry commission was set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board headed by a Pakistan high court judge, Malik Mohammad Qayyum. The judge wrote in his report that:
References
External links
Pakistan One Day International cricketers
Pakistan Test cricketers
Pakistan Test cricket captains
Pakistani cricket captains
Hampshire cricketers
Lancashire cricketers
Lancashire cricket captains
Pakistan Automobiles Corporation cricketers
Pakistan International Airlines cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Leading Cricketers in the World
Test cricket hat-trick takers
One Day International hat-trick takers
Pakistani cricket commentators
Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 2003 Cricket World Cup
1966 births
Living people
Pakistani sports broadcasters
Punjabi people
Cricketers from Lahore
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani cricketers
Lahore City cricketers
Lahore City Whites cricketers
People from Karachi
Indian Premier League coaches
Government Islamia College alumni
Pakistan Super League coaches
Pakistani cricket coaches
Pakistani television hosts
M Parkinson's World XI cricketers
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
People with type 1 diabetes
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[
"The 9th annual Genie Awards were held March 22, 1988, and honoured Canadian films released in 1987. The ceremony was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was co-hosted by Megan Follows and Gordon Pinsent.\n\nThe awards were dominated by Night Zoo (Un zoo la nuit), which won a still unmatched thirteen awards. The film garnered 14 nominations overall; the film's only nomination that failed to translate into a win was Gilles Maheu's nod for Best Actor, as he lost to the film's other Best Actor nominee, Roger Lebel. The female acting awards were won by Sheila McCarthy and Paule Baillargeon for the film I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, the only other narrative feature film to win any Genie awards that year; only the Documentary and Short Film awards, in which neither Night Zoo nor I've Heard the Mermaids Singing were even eligible for consideration, were won by any other film.\n\nWinners and nominees\n\nReferences\n\n09\nGenie\nGenie\nGenie",
"Le Cousin is a 1997 French film directed by Alain Corneau.\n\nPlot \nThe film deals with the relationship of the police and an informant in the drug scene.\n\nAwards and nominations\nLe Cousin was nominated for 5 César Awards but did not win in any category.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 films\n1997 crime films\nFilms about drugs\nFilms directed by Alain Corneau\nFrench crime films\nFrench films\nFrench-language films"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009"
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
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What did Belinda do in 2001?
| 1 |
What did Belinda Carlisle do in 2001?
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Belinda Carlisle
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In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
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In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,
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Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"Diane Nyland Proctor (20 January 1944 – 6 October 2014) was a Canadian actress, director and choreographer. She is perhaps best known for having portrayed the title role in the 1970-71 CTV television series The Trouble with Tracy.\n\nShe joined the National Ballet of Canada for two seasons, turning to acting in the mid-1960s. She joined the Charlottetown Festival in 1965 and remained there for several years, with roles including Josie Pye in the original production of Anne of Green Gables - The Musical and Belinda in Johnny Belinda. She was cast in the title role in CTV Television's The Trouble with Tracy in 1970. After that show's production run ended in 1971, she became a director and choreographer in musical theatre, with only one further television role, in a 1992 episode of Street Legal.\n\nHer directorial credits included both Toronto and national touring productions of musicals such as Dancing in the Dark, Rose Is a Rose, Mame, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls and I Do! I Do!. She served as artistic director of the Kawartha Summer Theatre in Kawartha Lakes in the 1990s; in 1997 she returned to the Charlottetown Festival to direct productions of both Johnny Belinda and Anne of Green Gables - The Musical.\n\nDeath\nNyland died in Toronto from heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 6 October 2014.\n\nAwards\n 1986 - Dora Award winner, Outstanding Choreography for Nunsense\n\nCareer\n\nTelevision\n 1970-71 - The Trouble with Tracy\n 1992 - Street Legal, guest on episode \"It's a Wise Child\"\n\nTheatre\n 1968-69 - Charlottetown Festival, Johnny Belinda as Belinda MacDonald\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1944 births\n2014 deaths\nCanadian stage actresses\nCanadian television actresses\nCanadian musical theatre directors\nCanadian choreographers\nDora Mavor Moore Award winners\nMusicians from Kitchener, Ontario\nActresses from Ontario\nDeaths from lung disease\n20th-century Canadian women musicians\n20th-century Canadian actresses\nCanadian women choreographers",
"Belinda is a feminine given name of unknown origin, apparently coined from Italian bella, meaning \"beautiful\". Alternatively it may be derived from the Old High German name Betlinde, which possibly meant \"bright serpent\" or \"bright linden tree\".\n\nPeople\nBelinda Bauer (disambiguation), several people\nBelinda Peregrín, a Spanish-born, naturalized Mexican singer and actress\nBelinda Lima, American-born Cape Verdean singer also known simply as \"Belinda\"\nBelinda Ang Saw Ean, a judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore\nBelinda Bencic (born 1997), Swiss tennis player\nBelinda Carlisle (born 1958), lead vocalist for the rock and roll band The Go-Go's and solo artist\nBilinda Butcher (born 1961), vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine \nBelinda Clark (born 1970), Australian former cricketer.\nBelinda Cordwell (born 1965), former tennis player from New Zealand\nBelinda Emmett (1974–2006), Australian actress and singer.\nBelinda Kirk, British entrepreneur and explorer\nBelinda Mulrooney (1872–1967), Irish-American entrepreneur who made a fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush\nBelinda Neal (born 1963), former member of the Australian Senate (1994–1998) and House of Representatives (2007–2010)\nBelinda Noack (born 1977), Australian cricketer\nBelinda Royall (born c.1713), slave\nBelinda Snell (born 1981), Australian basketball player\nBelinda Stewart-Wilson (born 1971), English actress\nBelinda Stronach (born 1966), businessperson and former Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons\nBelinda Vernon (born 1958), former Member of Parliament of New Zealand\nBelinda Wright (disambiguation), several persons\nBelinda Effah Nigerian movie actress.\n\nFictional characters\n Belinda Cratchet, daughter of Bob Cratchet in Dickens, A Christmas Carol\n Belinda, the owner of the lock stolen in Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock\n Belinda, heroine of Maria Edgeworth's novel Belinda\n Belinda, in Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Æneas\n Belinda McDonald, played by Jane Wyman in the 1948 film Johnny Belinda\n Belinda, on the Canadian animated television show Mona the Vampire\n Belinda Peacock (née Slater), a minor recurring character in EastEnders\n Belinda, a cow and the title character of a book by Pamela Allen\n Belinda Blumenthal, main character of Rocky Flinstone's series Belinda Blinked\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish feminine given names"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,"
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
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What singles did they release?
| 2 |
What singles did The Go-Go's release?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
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the only released single "Unforgiven".
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"\"What Would Steve Do?\" is the second single released by Mumm-Ra on Columbia Records, which was released on February 19, 2007. It is a re-recorded version of the self-release they did in April 2006. It reached #40 in the UK Singles Chart, making it their highest charting single.\n\nTrack listings\nAll songs written by Mumm-Ra.\n\nCD\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"Cute As\"\n\"Without You\"\n\n7\"\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"What Would Steve Do? (Floorboard Mix)\"\n\nGatefold 7\"\n\"What Would Steve Do?\"\n\"Cute As\"\n\nReferences\n\n2007 singles\nMumm-Ra (band) songs\n2006 songs\nColumbia Records singles",
"\"Unsightly and Serene\" was the second release made by the Manchester post-punk band, Crispy Ambulance.\nIt was also their first release on Factory Records, as they were signed to the label with the help of Rob Gretton who, after the death of Ian Curtis in May 1980, became a director of the label.\nAs a member of the band said in an interview: \"Tony never liked us, but suffered us because Rob liked what we did. Since he had become an equal shareholder, Tony had no choice but to bite his lip.\"\n\nTrack listing\n Not What I Expected (4:00)\n Deaf (3:54)\n\nReferences\n\n1980 singles\n1980 songs\nFactory Records singles"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\"."
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
Was the album well received?
| 3 |
Was the album "Unforgiven" well received?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"Strange Fruit is the second solo album by Trijntje Oosterhuis and was released on 22 March 2004 on Blue Note records. Trijntje's solo debut album was well received, and consisted mainly of pop ballads not reflective of her personal fondness for jazz.\n\nDuring 2003 Trijntje made a tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Houdini's playing covers of Billie Holiday and George Gershwin. Trijntje decided to record the 7 January 2003 concert in the Concertzaal in Tilburg and the 8 January 2003 concert in Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden and release it as an album. The album was named after Billie Holiday's song \"Strange Fruit.\"\n\nStrange Fruit was very well received, received critical acclaim, with Trijntje gaining notoriety beyond The Netherlands. It was released outside the Netherlands under the artist name Traincha. The album has been certified two times Platinum and peaked at number 2 on the Dutch album charts.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official site\n\nTrijntje Oosterhuis albums\n2004 live albums\nBlue Note Records live albums",
"Post Paradise is the debut album by Australian band The Holidays. In Australia, it was released on 24 September 2010, and in Japan in January 2011 on the Rallye Label. Among other accolades, The Holidays won the Australian Music Prize's Red Bull Award for Best Debut Album, as well as being shortlisted for the actual Australian Music Prize.\n\nRecorded at home and self-produced, with additional recording and production at BJB Studios, Post Paradise was mixed at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne by Tony Espie and mastered by David Walker at Stepford Audio Melbourne. Recording began in September 2009, and was completed sporadically throughout most of 2010, finishing in June 2010.\n\nThe first single from the album \"Moonlight Hours\" was released in December 2009, followed by \"Golden Sky\" in May 2010 and Broken Bones upon the release of the album. A music video was made for all three tracks, and they all received solid airplay on Australian community radio stations and Triple J.\n\nThe album has received positive reviews since its release, including \"Album of the Week\" in Drum Media, Beat Magazine, The Brag, and received 5 stars in BMA Mag, 4.5 stars in The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Daily Telegraph as well as positive reviews in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Post Paradise won Album of the Year in the EG Awards 2010, and was the Triple J Feature Album for the week commencing 26 December 2010. It also won Best Debut Album in the Australian Music Prize's Red Bull Award.\n\nThe Holidays completed a national album tour following the release of Post Paradise, in late September/early October 2010 in Australia.\n\nFourth single \"6am\" was added to radio nationwide in early January 2011, whilst track \"2 Days\" was picked up by Triple J in early 2011.\n\nTrack listing\n\niTunes/Japanese release bonus tracks\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n MySpace\n Liberation Music\n\nReferences\n\n2010 albums\nThe Holidays albums"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics."
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
What else was said about the music?
| 4 |
Together with mixed reviews, What else was said about the music in Unforgiven?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer",
"Oil and Vinegar is a screenplay that was written but never filmed. It is a screenplay that John Hughes wrote and that Howard Deutch planned to direct. It would have starred Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick.\n\nPlot\nA soon-to-be-married man and a hitchhiking girl end up talking about their lives during the length of the car ride.\n\nProduction\n\nCasting\nThe film was set to have Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick as the two main characters.\n\nDevelopment\nThe screenplay was written by Hughes, with Howard Deutch set to direct. Its style was said to be similar to The Breakfast Club (1985) but instead of taking place in detention, it would have taken place in a car with Ringwald's and Broderick's characters both discussing their lives to each other.\n\nFuture\nWhen asked about Oil and Vinegar Howard Deutch said,\n\nYes. That was John's favorite script and he was saving it for himself, and I convinced him to let me do it. It was the story of a traveling salesman that Matthew Broderick was going to play, and a rock-and-roll girl, a real rocker. Polar opposites. Molly [Ringwald] was going to play that. And I had to make a personal decision about whether to go forward or not. We had rehearsals in a couple weeks, and I was exhausted, and my girlfriend Lea Thompson, who became my wife, said, \"You're going to die. You can't do this. I'm not going to stick around and watch that.\" And I think it was also sprinkled with the fact that I wanted to do one movie that was my movie, not necessarily in service to John, even though I loved John. So between the two things, I didn't... It could still happen. I would do it. Not with Matthew and Molly anymore, but the script is still there. It doesn't need anything. It's one of his great scripts. He had so many great scripts. For instance, he would stay up all night, music blasting, and at like 5:30 or 6 a.m., he'd hand me what was supposed to be a rewrite on Some Kind of Wonderful. We needed five pages, and it was 50 pages. I said, \"What did you do?! What is this?\" and he said, \"Oh, I didn't do that. I did something else. Tell me what you think?\" And it was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He wrote the first half of the movie in, like, eight hours, and then finished it a couple days later. That was John. I never knew a writer who could do that. No one else had that ability. Even the stuff I fished out of the garbage was gold.\n\nReferences\n\nUnproduced screenplays\nFilms with screenplays by John Hughes (filmmaker)"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material."
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
Did the album do well on the charts?
| 5 |
Did Unforgiven do well on the charts?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| false |
[
"Treddin' on Thin Ice is the debut album by UK grime artist Wiley released on XL Recordings. It was released on 26 April 2004. The album is seen as a critical success in grime music with an enduring and influential forward facing sound. However, commercially the album did not do as well, with one single (\"Wot Do U Call It\", a song addressing the debate over the categorization of grime) making the top 40 in the UK music charts.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n2004 debut albums\nWiley (musician) albums\nXL Recordings albums",
"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"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57."
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
What was going on with Belinda during this time?
| 6 |
What was going on with Belinda Carlisle during Unforgiven charted in the US Billboard 200?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"\"Constantemente Mía\" (English: \"Constantly Mine\") is the first single by the Italian trio Il Volo, with the Mexican singer Belinda, from their studio album Más Que Amor.\n\nInformation \n\"Constantemente Mía\" is a Spanish adaptation of the song \"I Bring You To My Senses\", which was on Il Volo's album We Are Love. The adaptation of this version was made by the compositor Edgar Cortázar, with Diane Warren and Mark Portmann. The trio's album contains two versions of the song, one with Belinda vocals and the other without it.\n\nThe song features with the participation of the Mexican singer Belinda. The song was announced for the first time on February 14, 2013, through the social networks of the artists, who want to surprise their fans with a taste of the song.\n\nLive performance \nThe Italian trio and Belinda performed the song at the Premios Oye! 2013 on May 13, 2013.\n\nVideo \nThe music video was filmed in live and the premiere was on May 2, 2013, on Ritmoson Latino and Telehit.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nRelease dates\n\nReferences \n\n2013 singles\n2013 songs\nSpanish-language songs\nBelinda Peregrín songs\nItalian pop songs\nIl Volo songs\nSongs written by Diane Warren\nUniversal Music Latin Entertainment singles",
"\"Egoísta\" (English: \"Selfish\") is a song by Spanish-born Mexican actress and singer Belinda, released as the lead single from album Carpe Diem on February 8, 2010 to radio stations, and digitally on February 23, 2010. The song features Cuban rapper Pitbull. The song was originally recorded in Spanish, but later was re-released in English as well. Also a music video was filmed for this version.\n\nSong information \nIn late 2009, Belinda confirmed that she would be recording a song with rapper Pitbull for her then upcoming album. In November of that year, the song \"Culpable\" was announced to be the first single of Belinda's album Carpe Diem. But it was later confirmed through Belinda's Twitter account that the album and single release would be delayed to 2010 after finishing Camaleones, and that \"Egoísta\" would instead be selected as the first single. An English version of the song was recorded on March 18, 2010 with Pitbull in Los Angeles. This version was not included on the album and was released in June 2010. On Radio Disney Latin America, certain lyrics including \"morfina\" (\"morphine\") and \"maldito cromagñon\" (\"damn cro-magnon\") were censored.\n\n\"Egoísta\" debuted at number #17 on the Venezuelan Latin Singles Chart, making it her highest debut ever on the chart. The song also debuted on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs at number 45, on the Latin Pop Songs the song debuted at number 34, on the Latin Tropical Songs at number 29 and finally on the Latin Rhythm Songs at number 17, making it her first top 20 on the chart.\n\nLive performances \nBelinda sang the song along with Pitbull for the first time on the television show El Show de Cristina on April 26, 2010. Both artists were lip-syncing. This became noticeable when Pitbull made some slight mistakes, first when his verse unexpectedly started playing and he wasn't singing along to the song, and also when Pitbull started singing into his microphone with Belinda in the Egoísta chorus, which Belinda sings alone.\nBoth Belinda and Pitbull teamed up once again to sing their hit song at the annual Premios Juventud 2010. This time both were singing.\n\nMusic video \n \nA part of the music video was shot in Miami along with Pitbull in late March 2010. In May 2010 she filmed the second and final part of the video, in which she wore four different outfits, including a white dress with black bands and a big pink bow in her head, like on the Carpe Diem album cover, at the request of the public. She is the director of the video along with Vance Burberry. The video was produced by Belinda and Nacho Peregrín.\n\nThe video is set in a Gothic setting with the scenery of a castle and elements of black, pink and red, and the company of dancers and two dogs. The music video was released in English and Spanish version, since the recording is being done simultaneously with the collaboration of photography director Vance Burberry, who has worked with artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears, Marilyn Manson and Santana.\n\nThe script was co-written by Belinda, Daniel Shain, and Nacho Peregrín. The music video was released on June 21 on her official YouTube account and released on June 22 in MTV Latin America and others music video channels.\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nCover versions \nIn June 2010, Georgian singer Tamta performed a Greek version of the song with Isaias Matiamba at the 2010 MAD Video Music Awards and subsequently released the song as a part of a rerelease of her 2010 album Tharros I Alitheia.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nListen online: \"Egoísta\"\n\n2010 singles\nSpanish-language songs\nBelinda Peregrín songs\nPitbull (rapper) songs\nSongs written by Pitbull (rapper)\nSongs written by Belinda Peregrín\nSongs written by Jimmy Harry\nCapitol Latin singles\nSongs written by Nacho Peregrín\n2009 songs\nSong recordings produced by Jimmy Harry"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.",
"What was going on with Belinda during this time?",
"Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy."
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
Did Belinda release any more albums?
| 7 |
Did Belinda Carlisle release any more albums besides Unforgiven?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
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Carlisle released her seventh album,
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Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 (released in the United States as Her Greatest Hits) is the fifth album by American singer Belinda Carlisle, released in 1992 by Virgin Records. It is Carlisle's first greatest hits compilation album and includes her hits from 1986 to 1991. It is the only Carlisle album to have topped the UK Albums Chart. The Australian and Japanese cover art differs from the International versions as does the American release.\n\nTrack listing\n\nInternational version\n\nAustralian version\n\nUS version (Her Greatest Hits)\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications and sales\n\nSee also \n List of number-one albums from the 1990s (UK)\n\nReferences \n\n1992 greatest hits albums\nBelinda Carlisle albums\nVirgin Records compilation albums",
"Voila is the seventh studio album by the American singer Belinda Carlisle, released in 2007. It was Carlisle's first studio album in over a decade, and is a covers album of \"classic French chansons and pop standards\", much different from Carlisle's previous English language pop records.\n\nThe album was critically praised however did sell moderately. Although all of the songs are sung in French, many of the musicians featured on the album are Irish. The album features keyboard arrangements from Brian Eno.\n\nBackground\nIn an October 2006 press release describing the album, Carlisle said \"After I moved to France, I became familiar with the classic French chansons and a lot of French pop music. I realized there was a whole world of artists and singers I was not familiar with. As I discovered all these amazing songs, I came to love this music and wanted to record some of them with a playful, contemporary feel.\"\n\nDescribing how music can transcend any language barrier Carlisle stated, \"You don't really have to know what's being sung to know that 'Avec Les Temps' [sic] is a devastating love song. When I heard that song the first time, it broke my heart.\"\n\nUpon the album's initial release, a limited edition version was available with a bonus second CD featuring four additional tracks sung in English. Despite the favourable reviews, Allmusic wrote \"... not just a rewarding detour but one of her best album\", in the US, the album sold a modest 3,000 copies in its first two weeks.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\n\nReferences\n\n2007 albums\nBelinda Carlisle albums\nRykodisc albums\nFrench-language albums\nAlbums produced by John Reynolds (musician)"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.",
"What was going on with Belinda during this time?",
"Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.",
"Did Belinda release any more albums?",
"Carlisle released her seventh album,"
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
What was the name of the album?
| 8 |
What was the name of the seventh album of Belinda Carlisle?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
Voila,
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"White Witch is the title of the second studio album by the group Andrea True Connection. It was released in 1977. The album had two singles: and \"N.Y., You Got Me Dancing\" and \"What's Your Name, What's Your Number\". This was the last album released by the group and the vocalist Andrea True would release a new album as a solo release only in 1980.\n\nBackground and production\nAfter the success of her first album and the gold-certified single More, More, More, the band begun to prepeare for their second release. The album production included studio musicians with a new band assembled for the tour, the second line-up, which included future Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick, it was also produce by the disco pioneers Michael Zager and Jerry Love.\n\nSingles\nThe first single of the album was \"N.Y., You Got Me Dancing\", it was released in 1977 and became True's second biggest hit, reaching No. 27 on Billboard's pop chart, and #4 on the U.S. club chart, it also peaked #89 in the Canadian RPM's chart. \"What's Your Name, What's Your Number\" was released as the second and last single of the album (and also of the group) in 1978 and reached #9 on the U.S. club chart, #34 in the UK and #56 on the Billboard Hot 100\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe album received mixed reviews from music critics. Alex Henderson from the Allmusic website gave the album two and a half stars out of five in a mixed review which he wrote that \"while White Witch isn't a bad album, it falls short of the excellence her first album, More, More, More.\" He also stated that there are a few gems in the album \"including the Michael Zager-produced \"What's Your Name, What's Your Number\" and the exuberant, Gregg Diamond-produced \"N.Y., You Got Me Dancing\"\" according to him they're both \"exercises in unapologetically campy fun.\" He concluded that the album \"LP is strictly for diehard disco collectors.\"\n\nTrack listing\nsource:\n\nReferences\n\n1977 albums\nAndrea True albums\nBuddah Records albums",
"Third Eye Open is a 1992 album by American funk/rock supergroup Hardware. Hardware consists of lead guitarist Stevie Salas, P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins, and drummer Buddy Miles, formerly of the Band of Gypsys. The album was produced by Bill Laswell and Salas, and was the first release to be part of Laswell's Black Arc Series, which includes Lord of the Harvest by Zillatron, Out of the Dark by O.G. Funk, and Under the 6 by Slave Master.\n\nAlbum history\nWhen the album was first released in Japan on the Polystar label, the band was called The Third Eye and the name of the album was \"Hardware\". When the album secured distribution in the U.S., it was found that another band had owned the name \"The Third Eye\". To avoid any further legal hassles, it was opted that the title of the album and the name of band would simply be switched, thus the name of the band would be Hardware and the title of the album became Third Eye Open.\n\nThe song \"Leakin'\" is a version of a track that appeared on Collins' 1988 album What's Bootsy Doin'?, which featured Salas playing guitar. On this album, the song is credited to Salas, whereas the previous version is credited to Collins, George Clinton and Trey Stone.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nStevie Salas – guitars, vocals\nBootsy Collins – space bass, vocals\nBuddy Miles – drums, fuzz bass, vocals\nGeorge Clinton, Gary \"Mudbone\" Cooper, Bernard Fowler – background vocals\nDavid Friendly, Vince McClean, Matt Stein – digital bollocks\n\nHardware (band) albums\n1992 albums\nAlbums produced by Bill Laswell\nRykodisc albums"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.",
"What was going on with Belinda during this time?",
"Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.",
"Did Belinda release any more albums?",
"Carlisle released her seventh album,",
"What was the name of the album?",
"Voila,"
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
Who worked on this album?
| 9 |
Who worked on Voila?
|
Belinda Carlisle
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In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
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The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards.
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Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"Land Air Sea is the third album by The Special Goodness. It was originally released in February 2003 by N.O.S. Recordings and a remastered, remixed, and re-ordered edition was released on Epitaph Records on January 20, 2004. The original N.O.S. version had three different covers while the Epitaph version just has one. Patrick Wilson considers this to be his \"first true release\" despite it being the third official Special Goodness album.\n\nPersonnel\nPatrick Wilson appears on vocals, guitars and bass and Atom Willard appears on drums. On this album, Wilson worked with many in-studio personnel that often worked with Weezer. The album was mixed by Pinkerton mixer Joe Barresi, who also mixed the band's Christmas EP Winter Weezerland. The band self-produced the album along with Chad Bamford, who engineered Maladroit and received a co-producing credit for Make Believe.\n\nTrack listing\n\n2003 N.O.S. version\n\"Pardon Me\"\n\"Life Goes By\"\n\"Day In The Autumn\"\n\"N.F.A.\"\n\"Oops\"\n\"Inside Your Heart\"\n\"Pay No Mind\"\n\"Whatever's Going On\"\n\"In The Sun\"\n\"Move It Along\"\n\"The Big Idea\"\n\"You Know I'd Like...\"\n\n2004 Epitaph version\n\"You Know I'd Like...\"\n\"Life Goes By\"\n\"Day In The Autumn\"\n\"N.F.A.\"\n\"Oops\"\n\"The Big Idea\"\n\"Whatever's Going On\"\n\"In The Sun\"\n\"Pardon Me\"\n\"Inside Your Heart\"\n\"Move It Along\"\n\"Pay No Mind\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2004 albums\nThe Special Goodness albums",
"The State I'm In is the first country music studio album from Leigh Nash. She released the project on September 18, 2015. Nash worked with producer Brendan Benson, in the production of this album.\n\nBackground\nNash worked with producer Brendan Benson, in the creation of this album. The album has a traditional country feel, and Nash cited country artists such as Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves as influences. The album a recurring theme of being homesick. A single, \"Somebody's Yesterday\", co-written with Gerry House, was released from the album.\n\nThe album debuted on Top Country Albums chart at No. 39, and No. 18 on the Heatseeker Albums chart, with 1,100 copies sold on its debut week.\n\nCritical reception\n\nAwarding the album five stars from Jesus Freak Hideout, Ryan Barbee states, \"it's fresh, melancholy but hopeful, whimsical, and endearing.\"\n\nAccolades\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2015 albums\nLeigh Nash albums\nCountry albums by American artists"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.",
"What was going on with Belinda during this time?",
"Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.",
"Did Belinda release any more albums?",
"Carlisle released her seventh album,",
"What was the name of the album?",
"Voila,",
"Who worked on this album?",
"The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards."
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
What did this album sound like?
| 10 |
What did Voila sound like?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"Slurrup is the fifth studio album by American artist Liam Hayes, released in January 2015. It is full of short and tight songs with searing double tracked guitars and odd keyboards, which contrasts with the expansive, ornate pop of his previous album, Korp Sole Roller. Liam Hayes and Nathan Cook produced the album together in Chicago. The pair loaded the album with clever production flourishes, including phasing effects, backwards chords, echo, generous use of reverb on the guitars, and occasional orchestral backing tracks.\n\nBackground and recording\nIn a 2015 interview with the Chicagoist magazine, Hayes discussed the creation of the album:\n\n\"I've always liked rock'n'roll, so I'm kind of going back to things that I really liked in the past but had never thought of as a valid way to present my songs. I kind of wanted to reconnect with some of the things I liked when I started out with music as a kid. You know things like rock'n'roll and pranks and magic. It's actually what my first album might have sounded like if I had made an album before I made my first single.\n\nI've done a lot of things on records in a lot of different ways, but I've never done anything that might be considered scaled-back, or rudimentary, or raw. However, as much as the band is the center of this album, we didn't just turn on some mics and bang out the tunes. Just because it doesn't immediately sound densely layered, it doesn't mean that the songs aren't well arranged. The overdubs on Slurrup are closer to supporting the overall sound of the band, which is something that Nathan and I really worked hard on. I really wanted this album to sound and feel more like a band, and I think that we were able to do that. I think we were able to capture that sense of interaction that happens when people play together in a room and not bury it under too much other stuff.\"\n\nIn spite of the record being closer to the sound of three people in a room, Hayes and his companions on Slurrup - John San Juan on bass and Eric Reidleberger on drums, found ways to replicate a layered sound with a stripped down band. For example, San Juan's bass lines are more like counter melodies rather than a simple driving force.\"\n\n\"When you're doing something like what we did with less instrumentation, the challenge is to imply the other things that need to be there without overdoing it,\" Hayes explained. \"It really helped a lot for John to not just play the bottom root notes or the fifths on the bass, but to add in counter melodies to make it work.\"\"\n\nSlurrup is full of strange instrumental interludes and surreal yet humorous sound collages. Channel 44 contains three minutes of what sounds like an amusement park ride from the other side, and the album ends with the sound of something slurping from a bowl.\n\nTrack listing\n\nSide One\n \"Slurrup\"\n \"One Way Out\"\n \"Nothing Wrong\"\n \"Get It Right\"\n \"Theme From Mindball\"\n \"Fokus\"\n \"Greenfield\"\n\nSide Two\n \"Keys To Heaven\"\n \"Long Day\"\n \"Channel 44\"\n \"Outhouse\"\n \"August Fourteen\"\n \"Fight Magic With Magic\"\n\nReferences\n\n2015 albums\nLiam Hayes albums\nFat Possum Records albums",
"The Sound of Sunshine is the seventh studio album by Michael Franti & Spearhead, released by Capitol Records on September 21, 2010.\n\nBackground\nThe inspiration for the title 'The Sound Of Sunshine' came from when Franti was on tour in 2009 and ruptured his appendix. As, in March 2011, he told noted UK soul writer - and Assistant Editor of Blues & Soul - Pete Lewis: \"Because the doctors weren't sure what was wrong with me, seven days actually passed before they were able to diagnose it was my appendix - by which time I'd just completely fallen over and was DYING! So, after they eventually did the surgery on me, while I did feel a huge amount of gratitude to be alive, at the same time every moment of the day I was CRYING! Like someone would walk in the room who I hadn't seen for a while, and I'd just look at them and CRY! And when they'd go 'What are you crying about?', I'd be like 'I don't KNOW! I'm just really glad to be here, to be alive and to SEE you!'... It was like I was seeing everything with new EYES. Every day I'd go to the window to see if the sun was shining - and if it WAS, I'd have this feeling of OPTIMISM! Like 'WOW! I'm gonna beat this infection and I'm gonna get BETTER!'... And so for this album I wanted to put that feeling into words and into MUSIC.\"\n\nSingles\n\"Shake It\" is the first single from the album. It was released to radio on May 20, 2010.\n\"The Sound of Sunshine\" is the second single released from the album. It was released on June 1, 2010.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe Sound of Sunshine received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 61, based on 7 reviews, which indicates \"generally favorable reviews\". Allmusic gave the album three and a half stars citing, \"The Sound of Sunshine is the “seize the day” result to a reggae-pop, jam band beat, filled with bliss and gratitude plus a bit of swagger and some pointed political moments that remind you this isn't Jack Johnson or John Mayer.\" Rolling Stone gave the album a mix review.\n\nRhapsody gave the album a favorable review adding, \"Michael Franti is an intriguing artist. His mix of hip-hop beats, reggae and soulful folk-rock has influenced a seemingly endless parade of radio-ready singer-songwriters. And yet Franti himself has always remained on the mainstream's periphery. That's by design -- as The Sound of Sunshine clearly proves.\" Metromix gave it a mixed review, \"The title track, which kicks off the record and then is revisited in a reworked version at the end, is the perfect bookend for this 11-track set that should only expand Franti's growing fan base. [...] While not all of the songs live up to the best three or four, the strength of those tunes makes it easier to forgive the weaker ones.\" Jon Dolan of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+ and said that it \"sets evocations of hard-won happiness to similarly strummy, globally grooved hip-hop.\"\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nMichael Franti albums\n2010 albums\nCapitol Records albums"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.",
"What was going on with Belinda during this time?",
"Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.",
"Did Belinda release any more albums?",
"Carlisle released her seventh album,",
"What was the name of the album?",
"Voila,",
"Who worked on this album?",
"The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards.",
"What did this album sound like?",
"Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers"
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
What covers were on the album?
| 11 |
What covers were on Voila?
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Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
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Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics,
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Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| false |
[
"Keke Covers is cover album by American R&B recording artist Keke Wyatt. It was released on February 14, 2017, through Aratek Entertainment.\n\nThe album features covers from Mary J. Blige's cover of Rose Royce, Beyoncé, Jeremih, Prince and The New Power Generation, Rihanna, Zayn, Whitney Houston's cover of I Will Always Love You, Calvin Harris, Marvin Gaye and Chris Stapleton.\n\nBackground and release\nAfter the success of the lead single Sexy Song taken from her fourth studio album Rated Love, Wyatt uploaded a cover music video of Mary J. Blige's version of \"I'm Goin' Down\" to her YouTube channel, announcing a series of covers titled \"Keke Covers\" on January 28, 2016. On February 2, 2016, in the fourth anniversary passing of Whitney Houston Wyatt released her second cover video covering \"I Will Always Love You\" paying a tribute to the singer. On March 1, 2016, a cover of Beyoncé's \"Love On Top\" was released to Wyatt's YouTube channel. On March 15, 2016, a cover of \"Diamonds\" by Rihanna was uploaded.\n\nOn April 12, 2016, Wyatt uploaded a cover of Jeremih's \"Oui\", a remix version featuring both Wyatt and Jeremih's vocals was uploaded on May 16, 2016. Following the death of Prince, Wyatt uploaded a cover of \"Diamonds and Pearls\" on May 2, 2016 paying homage to the late singer. Wyatt uploaded a cover of Zayn's \"Pillowtalk\" on May 31, 2016. On June 29, 2016, a cover of \"Tennessee Whiskey\" by Chris Stapleton originally by David Allen Coe was released to her YouTube account. On July 27, 2016, an acoustic version of Marvin Gaye's \"What's Going On\" featuring brother Keever West was released. It was announced on January 31, 2017, via Wyatt's social media accounts that a covers album would be released, \"My YouTube cover series #kekecovers comes the cover album 'Keke Covers' #COMINGSOON #FEB14 #LOVERSDAY2017\". On February 14, 2017, the album was released through digital markets and streaming services worldwide via iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Tidal. A music video for This Is What You Came For was uploaded to Wyatt's YouTube channel on the day of the album's release.\n\nTrack listing\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2017 albums\nKeke Wyatt albums",
"The Covers Record is the fifth album by Cat Power, the stage name and eponymous band of American singer-songwriter Chan Marshall. It was released in 2000 on Matador Records.\n\nThe album consists entirely of cover songs, with the exception of a new version of Marshall's song \"In this Hole,\" which initially appeared on Cat Power's 1996 album What Would the Community Think.\n\nBackground \nThe success of Cat Power's fourth album, Moon Pix (1998), led to high expectations for her follow-up, and made it difficult for her to live what she called “a normal life.” She elected to release an album of covers in part because she felt more comfortable playing covers than her own material. Between Moon Pix and what became The Covers Record, she scheduled a number of solo shows during which she played only covers. In order to take attention away from herself, she projected the 1928 French silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc behind her onstage.\n\nMarshall's decision to release a covers album was reportedly disappointing to Matador, who considered her a “genius songwriter” and wanted to capitalize on the success of Moon Pix. According to Gerard Cosloy, the promotional campaign for The Covers Record, which he calls “a great album,” was intentionally “muted,” in order to allow it to “find its audience.” However, Marshall saw The Covers Record as a personal and important release, and interpreted this as lack of faith on the record company's behalf in the record's ability to connect with her audience.\n\nMarshall's contract for The Covers Record was allegedly drafted on the spot on a Post-it note.\n\nRecording \nThe Covers Record features sparse instrumentation, with only Marshall on vocals and guitar or piano. The song “Salty Dog” features guitar by American musician Matt Sweeney.\n\nThe album was recorded at Night Owl Studios, Kampo Studios and Rare Book Room Studios, in New York City, in 1998 and 1999. According to Marshall, “I ended up in the studio recording with this young man at this place called Night Owl Studios across from Penn Station. I did most of the songs there just very, very, very, very quickly, and there’s like four songs that are from different recording sessions.”\n\nReception and legacy \n\nRob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called the album \"a stopgap\" until the release of her next album of original material, but described her stripped-down version of the Rolling Stones' \"Satisfaction\" as \"powerful.\" Spin called the album \"essential,\" and wrote, \"With only a guitar or piano, and a voice that is developing into one of the most expressive in rock, Marshall crafts deeply textured explorations of heartache, terror, longing, dismay, and emotions I'm pretty sure I've not found yet.... Rock will see few finer releases this year.\" Rhapsody (online music service) praised the album, calling it one of their favorite cover albums.\n\nDave Grohl, vocalist and guitarist of the Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana, cited the album in a 2000 issue of NME, saying, \"'Satisfaction' is the hit off that record, or so everybody thinks. But for me, it's that Velvet Underground song, \"I Found a Reason\". It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. My favourite.\" Grohl would work with Marshall on Cat Power's subsequent release, You Are Free (2003).\n\nIn 2005 the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series.\n\nSeveral songs on the album have been used in films, including \"I Found a Reason\" (Saving Face, Dandelion andV for Vendetta), \"Sea of Love\" (Juno), and \"Wild Is the Wind\" (Into the Forest).\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nChan Marshall – vocals, guitar, piano\nMatt Sweeney – guitar (\"Salty Dog\")\n\nCharts \nAlbum – Billboard\n\nAs of March 2003 it has sold 52,000 units in United States. Combined sales of The Covers Record and Moon Pix is 200,000 copies as of 2001.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Notes on Cat Power's The Covers Record @ Lauriston.com\n\nCat Power albums\n2000 albums\nCovers albums\nMatador Records albums"
] |
[
"Belinda Carlisle",
"2001-2009",
"What did Belinda do in 2001?",
"In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material,",
"What singles did they release?",
"the only released single \"Unforgiven\".",
"Was the album well received?",
"God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics.",
"What else was said about the music?",
"Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote \"Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material.",
"Did the album do well on the charts?",
"In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57.",
"What was going on with Belinda during this time?",
"Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.",
"Did Belinda release any more albums?",
"Carlisle released her seventh album,",
"What was the name of the album?",
"Voila,",
"Who worked on this album?",
"The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards.",
"What did this album sound like?",
"Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers",
"What covers were on the album?",
"Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics,"
] |
C_34b3948073934ecca37408d407d480e4_0
|
What did she do at this point in her career?
| 12 |
What did Belinda Carlisle do after Voila in her career?
|
Belinda Carlisle
|
In 2001, The Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven". God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While The Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, The Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag". In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of The Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy. In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Francoise Hardy and Edith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007. In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy. CANNOTANSWER
|
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars,
|
Belinda Jo Carlisle (; born August 17, 1958) is an American musician, singer, and author. She gained fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
Raised in Southern California, Carlisle became the lead singer of the Go-Go's after the band's formation in 1978. With their chart-topping debut release Beauty and the Beat in 1981, the group helped popularize new wave music in the United States. The Go-Go's were the first (and to date only) all-female band in history who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to achieve a No. 1 album. The Go-Go's have sold over seven million records worldwide.
After the dissolution of the Go-Go's in 1985, Carlisle went on to have a successful solo career with radio hits such as "Mad About You", "I Get Weak", "Circle in the Sand", "Leave a Light On", and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". The Go-Go's reformed in 1999, and Carlisle continues to perform with them regularly while also maintaining her solo career.
Carlisle's autobiography, Lips Unsealed, published in June 2010, was a New York Times Best Seller and received favorable reviews. In 2011, Carlisle, as a member of The Go-Go's, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.
Early life and education
Belinda Jo Carlisle was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on August 17, 1958 to Harold Carlisle, a gas station employee, and his wife, Joanne (née Thompson), a homemaker. Her mother met her father, who was 20 years her senior, at age 18, and Carlisle was born nine months later. She was named after her mother's favorite film, Johnny Belinda (1948). Carlisle was the first of seven siblings; she has three brothers and three sisters. When she was five years old, Carlisle's father abandoned their family, and she has stated that she spent most of her childhood impoverished. As a teenager, she recalled owning "like, two outfits." According to Carlisle, her mother was very religious, while her father was not. In an interview with Slash magazine, she described herself as a reject from a Southern Baptist household.
Her mother later remarried Walt Kurczeski, who Carlisle says was an alcoholic, and with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. The family moved frequently during her childhood, from Simi Valley to Reseda, before settling in Burbank when Carlisle was seven years old. At age ten, Carlisle began to express interest in music, and recalled the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals as being early musical influences.
The family relocated again during Carlisle's adolescence, this time to Thousand Oaks, California; she attended Colina Junior High School in Thousand Oaks, where she was a 3rd-string guard on the men's basketball team, and later Newbury Park High School, where she was a cheerleader. During her teenage years, Carlisle became rebellious: "By the time I hit fourteen, I'd gone really wild," she said. "I ran away from home, smoked pot, dropped acid ... you name it, I'd try it." After high school, Carlisle worked at a House of Fabrics store, and as a photocopier at the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Los Angeles at age 18. She took night classes attending beauty college, but dropped out in the first year. At the age of 19, Carlisle left her parents' home to pursue a career in music.
Career
Early ventures and the Go-Go's
Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band the Germs, under the name Dottie Danger. She was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. However, her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the Germs. According to Germs guitarist Pat Smear, upon quitting, she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Carlisle does appear on one recording introducing the band at a 1977 performance at the Whisky a Go Go, heard on the live album Germicide (1977). Around this time, Carlisle did some back-up singing for Black Randy and the Metrosquad.
Soon after leaving the Germs, she co-founded the Go-Go's (originally named the Misfits) with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. All five women were largely untrained musicians, and Carlisle recalls having to use tape as fret markers during their initial songwriting: "[Charlotte] had to show us how to plug in our amps," she said.
The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album, Beauty and the Beat, which featured the hits "We Got the Beat" and "Our Lips Are Sealed". The Go-Go's recorded two more studio albums on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's Vacation, which went gold. "Head over Heels", from their 1984 album Talk Show, made it to No. 11.
In 1984, Carlisle made a foray into acting in the movie Swing Shift, appearing as a band singer alongside Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
Solo career
1985–1990
The Go-Go's disbanded in 1985, and Carlisle embarked on a solo career. Carlisle's first solo album Belinda was released in 1986, also on I.R.S. Records. This album was successful in North America and was certified Gold in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Her summer hit "Mad About You" peaked at No. 3 in the United States, topped the Canadian Singles Chart, and charted in the top 10 in Australia. "Mad About You" was followed by the Motown-influenced single "I Feel the Magic" written by Charlotte Caffey, and by a cover version of the Freda Payne song "Band of Gold". All three songs were included on her debut album. The single "Since You've Gone", co-written by Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, was used only for promotion. Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single "I Need a Disguise" in which she also sang back-up vocals along with Jane Wiedlin. Duran Duran's Andy Taylor played guitar on some album tracks and appeared in her "Mad About You" video clip.
During this time, Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably "In My Wildest Dreams" from the movie Mannequin, "Shot in the Dark" from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller Out of Bounds, as well as "Dancing in the City" from the Whoopi Goldberg movie Burglar (1987).
The musical style of 1987's Heaven on Earth eschewed the 1960s-influenced pop of Carlisle's first album in favor of slickly produced 1980s power-pop. It was released in the United States through MCA, and in the United Kingdom through Virgin Records. The album became a Top 5 bestseller in the UK and Australia, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.
The album's first single, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, with the dance mix of the song also topping the Billboard dance chart in the United States. The promotional video was directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was the Diane Warren-penned "I Get Weak", which peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand", another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London.
Carlisle's follow-up to the success of Heaven on Earth was Runaway Horses, released on October 23, 1989. The album hit the Top 5 in both Australia and the UK, certified double platinum in Australia and platinum in the UK and in Canada. The first release, "Leave a Light On", peaked at No. 11 in the United States, and became another Top 5 smash in the UK, Australia and Canada.
1989 also saw Carlisle performing vocals with The Smithereens in a duet with Pat DiNizio on the song "Blue Period". The song was featured on their album "11".
The second United States single, "Summer Rain", reached No. 30 in early 1990. The song reached No. 6 in Australia. It was the final release from Runaway Horses in the UK where it was released as the album's sixth single in December 1990, peaking at No. 23 in January 1991. Three further singles were released: the title track; "La Luna", which reached the Top 10 in Switzerland and Top 20 hit in Germany and Australia; and "(We Want) The Same Thing", which reached No. 6 in the UK.
In the late autumn of 1990, the Go-Go's reunited for a tour to support their first best-of album, Greatest, including a new recording of the cover song "Cool Jerk" (The Go-Go's original cover was featured on their 1980 European EP, with a second version being released in 1982). A notable feature of the tour was an anti-fur campaign, where the band members supported the animal rights organization PETA.
1991–1999
In 1991, Carlisle released her fourth solo album, Live Your Life Be Free. The album marked somewhat of a return to 1960s-influenced music for Carlisle and included songs mainly written and produced by Rick Nowels but also two songs co-written by Carlisle. The single "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" was accompanied by a video inspired by the B movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The title track, "Live Your Life Be Free", released as first single outside the United States, was a Top 20 hit single in many countries reaching No. 12 in the UK and No. 13 in Australia. Subsequent releases "Half the World" and "Little Black Book" (co-written by Marcella Detroit under her real name Marcy Levy) were also hits outside the United States. The album was also a success in Europe (Top 10 in the UK and Gold certification). To date, "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" is Carlisle's final single to enter in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 73.
Still active in Europe and Australia with a record contract at Virgin Records, her 1992 greatest hits album The Best of Belinda, Volume 1 reached No. 1, and was certified double platinum in the UK and platinum in Australia. This first greatest hits album included all the hits taken from Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, and Live Your Life Be Free. The United States version of the album was named Her Greatest Hits and also included songs from the first album Belinda.
Carlisle's fifth solo album, Real, was released in 1993 on the Virgin label in the United States and in Europe. Produced without Nowels, the disc was a departure from Carlisle's polished pop music formula. Even the album's cover photograph featured her with little or no make-up. Carlisle co-produced and co-wrote much of the album, collaborating heavily with friend and ex-Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. The album was Carlisle's fifth consecutive to reach the UK Top 10 peaking at number 9. It peaked also at number 23 in Sweden. Its first single, "Big Scary Animal", peaked at No. 12 in the UK. The second single from Real was "Lay Down Your Arms", which made the Top 30 in the UK. Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals co-wrote the single "Here Comes My Baby". Also in 1993, Carlisle provided guest vocals on The Lemonheads album Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
The Go-Go's reunited in 1994 to support the retrospective double-CD Return to the Valley of The Go-Go's, their second collection, which featured three new songs, including the single "The Whole World Lost Its Head". However, the band broke up again, soon after the promotional tour.
Carlisle returned to the recording studio, and resumed working again with Rick Nowels. In 1996 she released in the UK and Australia her sixth solo album, A Woman and a Man, on the Chrysalis label. This album, consisting of mostly relaxed adult pop, revitalized her solo career in Europe, and included several hits. The leadoff single, "In Too Deep", returned Carlisle to the UK Top 10 for the first time in six years, reaching No. 6. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Roxette's Per Gessle, also made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 8.
The album spawned two further hits in the UK: "Love in the Key of C", and "California", which featured arrangement and back-up vocals by Brian Wilson. The album reached No. 12 in the UK, and was certified gold. As a result of A Woman and a Mans UK success, the album was released in the United States during the summer of 1997 on the small Ark21 label. In 1997, she recorded "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" for the Disney movie Hercules. The song was released as a single exclusively in France and Germany.
In 1999, Carlisle released a greatest hits album in the UK, a double-disc on the Virgin label, collectively titled A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits. The first disc featured Carlisle's hits plus three new tracks recorded for the album: the single "All God's Children", and the songs "A Prayer for Everyone" and "Feels Like I've Known You Forever". The second disc, subtitled A Place on Earth, contained previously released remixes of some of her hits and some B-sides which had not previously been released on CD. Some of the remixes were by William Orbit. A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits was certified Gold in the UK and went on to sell in excess of one million copies worldwide. A European version was marketed with an interview CD in which Carlisle provides answers to over 40 questions sent in by fans.
Later recordings and Go-Go's reunions
2001–2009
In 2001, the Go-Go's reunited again and released an album of new material, God Bless The Go-Go's. Green Day's lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong co-wrote the only released single "Unforgiven".
God Bless The Go-Go's received mixed reviews from critics. Peter Fawthrop of AllMusic wrote "Every bit as Go-Go's, that is, as their non-hits and less remarkable material. While the Go-Go's sound is intact, there is not a "We Got the Beat" or a "Head Over Heels" to be found. It is feasible that in this age of pop rebirth, the Go-Go's decided it was now or never ... The album doesn't attempt to update the band's sound with hip-hop moves or electronic frippery, for which God should bless 'em, indeed. The girls' hold on the current pop world remains so strong that Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong co-writes a song ("Unforgiven") in impeccable Go-Go's drag".
In spite of the mixed reviews, the album charted in the US Billboard 200, peaking at number No. 57. Around the time of the Go-Go's definitive reunion tour, Carlisle appeared nude for the cover feature and a full pictorial of the August 2001 edition of Playboy.
In 2007, Carlisle released her seventh album, Voila, which was her first full-length solo studio album in more than ten years. The album was produced by John Reynolds and included Brian Eno on keyboards. Consisting of a mix of French pop tunes and chanson standards, including covers of Françoise Hardy and Édith Piaf classics, Voila was released via Rykodisc in the UK on February 5 and in the United States the following day, February 6, 2007.
In early 2009, Carlisle was on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, paired with Jonathan Roberts. She was the first star to be eliminated from the competition, on March 17. In October 2009, Carlisle took over the role of Velma Von Tussle in London's West End production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She remained with the show till late January 2010 and was replaced by Siobhán McCarthy.
2010–present
Between 2011 and 2012, Carlisle embarked on a United States tour with the Go-Go's, which included concerts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in August 2011 and the Hollywood Bowl in September 2012. In March 2013, Carlisle released her first U.S. single in 17 years titled "Sun", an up-tempo pop song, which was included on "ICON", a new greatest hits compilation album. The single was also released in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's and singer-songwriter Gabe Lopez. Lopez also produced the song. While the track did not chart, it received positive reviews.
In August 2013, Edsel Records released remastered, three-disc versions of Heaven on Earth, Runaway Horses, Live Your Life Be Free and Real. Each album comprised a remastered version of the original LP followed by the 7-inch or radio edits of each single from that album, a second disc of remixes and 12-inch versions of all the singles, and a DVD comprising the promotional videos for the singles. Some of singles and remixes had never previously been released on CD. In March 2014, a new Greatest Hits titled The Collection was released containing 18 hits and one new song, "Goodbye Just Go", along with a DVD of 18 videos. The album reached number 24 in the UK albums chart.
Also in March 2014, another digitally remastered, five-disc retrospective collection titled Anthology was released. The anthology included "Dancing in the City", which had previously only been available on the Japanese LP/CD for the soundtrack to the 1987 movie "I Won't Say I'm in Love" which had previously only been released in 1997 as a CD single in France. It also included all three singles from her first album and all four singles from A Woman and a Man. Later in 2014, Carlisle's three other studio albums, Belinda, A Woman and a Man and Voila were re-issued by Edsel on CD, although there were a number of issues with their production.
Carlisle confirmed in a radio interview in August 2015 that she has completed work on a new album, tentatively earmarked for release in January 2016. She commented that the music on the album will be partly inspired by Kundalini yoga, which she had taken up while pregnant in 1991/1992 and of which she had qualified as a teacher since becoming sober in 2005. Also in August 2015, Edsel released a box set of all the commercially released singles from Carlisle's studio albums, plus a bonus disc featuring a previously-unreleased recording of "In My Wildest Dreams", which had featured in the 1987 film Mannequin. In late 2016, the Go-Go's completed an international tour with Best Coast as a supporting act, which Carlisle stated would likely be their last tour together.
Carlisle's eighth studio album, a selection of Gurmukhi chants titled Wilder Shores, was released in September 2017.
Carlisle and the Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020 however in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band confirmed plans for a 2022 UK tour with Billy Idol that would start in June 2022. The band was forced to postpone a short West Coast tour scheduled for the first week of January 2022 due to a COVID-19 case involving someone on the tour. New rescheduled dates for the shows would be announced very soon.
Musical style and influences
Carlisle has been noted by critics for her dynamic soprano vocal range. While Carlisle's discography both with the Go-Go's and in her solo work have been predominately characterized as pop music, some music scholars such as Greil Marcus have noted a confluence of subtle punk influences as well as pop rock, specifically in the Go-Go's early releases (Marcus suggests that any traces of punk influence were carried over from Carlisle's brief tenure in the Germs).
Carlisle has been alternately described by critics as a "punk diva" and "pop princess". As a singer in the Go-Go's, Carlisle was associated with the new wave genre, and the band was remarked by critics for their style that "inject[ed] punk with the sound of California surf music." Her subsequent solo releases, beginning with her self-titled solo debut, Belinda (1986), were remarked by critics as more polished contemporary pop music.
Her early inspirations during her childhood were the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Stylistics, and the Animals. As a teenager, she saw Iggy Pop on the cover of the Stooges' Raw Power in a record store, an album which she credited as a gateway exposing her to punk and art rock acts such as the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Roxy Music, and the Sex Pistols. In a 2013 interview, Carlisle stated that despite having recorded an abundance of it throughout her career, she "didn't really listen to pop music", and had recently been inspired by jazz artists such as Miles Davis.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Carlisle had a two-year relationship with Bill Bateman, drummer for the Blasters, in the early 1980s. She broke up abruptly with Bateman because she had taken up with Mike Marshall of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Her cocaine use was a negative influence on these relationships.
In 1986, Carlisle married political operative and film producer Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. He made appearances in Carlisle's music videos "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". They have one son, James Duke Mason, who was born in 1992. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Carlisle and her family moved to Fréjus in south-eastern France. They lived between there and the U.S. In 2017, the couple moved to Bangkok.
In a 1990 interview with Spin, Carlisle stated that she was not close with her siblings or parents, saying: "I want to be close to them. I kind of feel uncomfortable. I think I feel guilty sometimes about my success in some ways."
Health
During the initial stages of her tenure with the Go-Go's, Carlisle developed a serious addiction to cocaine and alcohol that went on to span 30 years. Simultaneously, she had also developed an eating disorder, which she said stemmed from media comments regarding her appearance; her excessive cocaine use helped keep her weight down. Additionally, Carlisle admitted to using LSD, quaaludes, and MDA regularly as both a teenager and adult. In a 2017 interview, she told The Guardian that she "couldn't believe [she wasn't] dead".
In 2005, at the height of her drug abuse, Carlisle spent three days isolated in a London hotel room binging cocaine. At one point, she recalled that she looked at herself in the mirror and was alarmed that she "didn't see a light or a soul" in her eyes. "I sat in my room and did [cocaine] all evening. Between lines [of cocaine], I smoked cigarettes, played games on my laptop, and paced the room. I must have smoked ten packs of cigarettes in two days." On the third day, Carlisle said she had a vision of herself being found dead in a hotel, accompanied by an auditory hallucination in which a loud voice informed her: "You are going to die here if you carry on like this." The incident jarred Carlisle into seeking sobriety, and she says she has been sober since 2005.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2014: "I don't smoke anymore, I don't drink any more and I don't do drugs any more. I am very much into my Buddhism. I found turning 40 [in 1998] a real passage in time for me." Carlisle states in her autobiography Lips Unsealed: A Memoir that she has practiced Nichiren Buddhism as a member of the Soka Gakkai International since 2002, and she often mentions in press interviews that she chants Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō daily. She has also credited the practice with helping her maintain sobriety.
Activism
Carlisle supports LGBT rights, which she made public after her son, Duke, came out to her at age fourteen.
In 2014, Carlisle co-founded Animal People Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Calcutta, India, that raises funds and trains and employs impoverished women to care for street animals. "We are teaching people that animals have feelings," says Carlisle. "How to recognize a street animal in distress. There is a middle class developing and they still don't have proper vet care, so a lot of what we do will be educational. We're partnering with a hospital in Calcutta to teach about adoption and to get access to emergency rooms."
In popular culture
In 1999, Carlisle was ranked #76 with the Go-Go's in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2018, a series of Progressive commercials paid homage to her song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth". In 2016, "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" was the theme song of "San Junipero", an LGBT-themed episode of the anthology Netflix series Black Mirror which was set in the late 1980's. In 2020, "Heaven is a Place on Earth" was the theme song featured in an episode of The CW Network's DC's Legends of Tomorrow, "Slay Anything" (Season 5,Episode 4) which was also set in the late 1980's and featured both straight and LGBT characters in a High School Prom setting which had a happy hero's ending.
Awards and nominations
Billboard Music Awards
!Ref.
|-
| rowspan=6|1986
| rowspan=4|Herself
| Top Billboard 200 Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Belinda
| Top Billboard 200 Album
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1987
| rowspan=2|Herself
| Top Hot 100 Artist
|
| rowspan=2|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1988
| rowspan=5|Herself
| Top Female Artist
|
| rowspan=6|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Billboard 200 Artist - Female
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist - Female
|
|-
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Top Hot 100 Song
|
Other Awards
{| class=wikitable
|-
! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result
|-
| rowspan=2|1986
| rowspan=2|American Music Awards
| Herself
| Favorite Female Pop/Rock Video Artist
|
|-
| "Mad About You"
| Favorite Pop/Rock Video
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1988
| rowspan=2|Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| rowspan=2| Herself
| Best Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Worst Female Solo Singer
|
|-
| Grammy Awards
| "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"
| Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
|
|-
| 1989
| Brit Awards
| Herself
| International Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| 1996
| Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
| Herself
| Best Female Singer
|
|-
| 2016
| Independent Music Awards
| "California Blues" (ft. Gabe Lopez)
| Best Pop Single
|
|-
| 2018
| Music Week Awards
| Herself
| Catalogue Marketing Champaign
|
Discography
Studio albums
Belinda (1986)
Heaven on Earth (1987)
Runaway Horses (1989)
Live Your Life Be Free (1991)
Real (1993)
A Woman and a Man (1996)
Voila (2007)
Wilder Shores (2017)
See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
List of artists who reached number one in Ireland
List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
References
Sources
External links
Official Facebook page
Official Go-Go's website
1958 births
Living people
American animal rights activists
American autobiographers
American Buddhists
American emigrants to France
American expatriates in Thailand
American women pop singers
American women rock singers
American new wave musicians
American sopranos
American women drummers
California Democrats
Converts to Buddhism from Protestantism
Converts to Sōka Gakkai
Women new wave singers
Former Baptists
Germs (band) members
The Go-Go's members
I.R.S. Records artists
LGBT rights activists from the United States
MCA Records artists
Members of Sōka Gakkai
Nichiren Buddhists
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
People from Newbury Park, California
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Pop punk singers
Rykodisc artists
Singers from Los Angeles
Virgin Records artists
20th-century American drummers
20th-century Baptists
21st-century Baptists
21st-century Buddhists
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
21st-century American women singers
James Mason family
Women punk rock singers
| true |
[
"Kylie Watson (born 7 May 1978) is an Australian actress, interior designer and model. She is best known for playing Shauna Bradley in the Australian soap opera Home and Away between 1999 and 2002. She is now a successful interior designer.\n\nCareer\nIn her teens, Watson was an international model, travelling to Asia for several contracts.\n\nIn February 1999, Watson received an audition for Home and Away. However, she decided not to attend the audition because she did not think she stood a chance of winning the part. Her agent persuaded her to change her mind and she went on to receive the role of Shauna Bradley. It was her first acting role and she revealed \"So at that point, I thought 'What am I going to do? I've never done this before, never acted in my life.' My agent booked me into acting classes – I think I had about eight weeks before I started so I was absolutely petrified. I think I was really bad, to be honest, at the beginning. But like anything if you really put your mind to it and love what you do, you invest the time to grow and educate yourself and I did do that.\"\n\nAfter leaving Home and Away in 2002, Watson completed a diploma in interior design. She began her own business called KW Design.\n\nIn 2009, Watson starred in Lightswitch, a short film directed by Emma Keltie and written by Natalie Krikowa and Penny Glasswell. The film played at various LGBT festivals.\n\nPersonal life\nWatson is lesbian. She came out in an issue of Cherrie magazine in March 2008. Watson told Katrina Fox \"I've never made a point of letting people know about my sexuality because I've never thought it was relevant, but it's who I am and I'm not ashamed of it. However in saying that, I think in this particular day it's a lot easier to be identified as a not-so-straight woman particularly with The L Word series out where it's glamorised if you like; it's almost a bit of a fad like we're in fashion.\"\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nAustralian soap opera actresses\nAustralian interior designers\n1978 births\nLiving people\nAustralian lesbian actresses",
"Elena Bianchini-Cappelli (1873 – September 19, 1919) was an Italian dramatic soprano opera singer.\n\nEarly life\nElena Bianchini-Cappelli was from Rome. She studied voice with Guglielmo Vergine in Naples, while he was also teaching Enrico Caruso.\n\nCareer\n\nShe appeared with Caruso in 1895, in Cavalleria Rusticana at Caserta. The pair also appeared together in Puccini's Manon Lescaut in Cairo in 1895; the two were only given five days to learn the show before opening night, so Caruso fastened the score to Bianchini-Cappelli's back, limiting her stage movement: \"I was helpless to do more than hold as still as possible, serving as a human music rack for my comrade,\" she recalled. \"And what did the rascal do? He was bursting to laugh!\"\n\nIn 1899 she was in the cast of Wagner's Siegfried at La Scala. She was in the cast of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera when it was conducted by Arturo Toscanini at Trento. She first performed in the United States in 1902, the year she sang \"Sylvia\" in Zanetto at the Metropolitan Opera House, under the direction of composer Pietro Mascagni.\n\nIn her forties she taught voice in New York City, endorsed by her old friend Caruso.\n\nPersonal life and legacy\nElena Bianchini-Cappelli died in 1919, at her villa in Rimini, aged 46 years.\nThere is a street named for Elena Bianchini-Cappelli in Rimini.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Elena Bianchini-Cappelli's page at La Voce Antica, including a chronology of her career. (In Italian)\n\n1873 births\n1919 deaths\nItalian opera singers"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists"
] |
C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
|
What was the first shortlist she appeared on?
| 1 |
What was the first shortlist Nadine Dorries appeared on?
|
Nadine Dorries
|
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
|
Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
|
Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
| true |
[
"The shortlists were announced on 20 November 2007. The winners in each category were announced on 3 January 2008, and the overall winner for Book of the Year was announced on 22 January 2008.\n\nBook of the Year\nA. L. Kennedy, Day\n\nChildren's Book\n\nWinner:\nAnn Kelley, The Bower Bird\nShortlist:\nElizabeth Laird, Crusade\nMeg Rosoff, What I Was\nMarcus Sedgwick, Blood Red Snow White\n\nFirst Novel\n\nWinner:\nCatherine O'Flynn, What Was Lost\nShortlist:\nTahmima Anam, A Golden Age\nNikita Lalwani, Gifted\nRoma Tearne, Mosquito\n\nNovel\n\nWinner:\nA. L. Kennedy, Day\nShortlist:\nNeil Bartlett, Skin Lane\nRupert Thomson, Death of a Murderer\nRose Tremain, The Road Home\n\nBiography\n\nWinner:\nSimon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin\nShortlist:\nJulie Kavanagh, Rudolf Nureyev\nBen Macintyre, Agent Zigzag\nMichael Simkins, Fatty Batter\n\nPoetry\n\nWinner:\nJean Sprackland, Tilt\nShortlist:\nIan Duhig, The Speed of Dark\nJohn Fuller, The Space of Joy\nDaljit Nagra, Look We Have Coming to Dover!\n\nReferences\n\nPrevious winners\n\nCosta Book Awards\nCosta Book Awards\nCosta Book Awards",
"The 2018 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 16 October 2018. The Man Booker dozen of 13 books was announced on the 24th of July, and was narrowed down to a shortlist of six on the 20th of September. The longlist included Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, the first in Booker Prize history to nominate a graphic novel.\n\nAnna Burns was awarded the 2018 Booker Prize for her third novel, Milkman, receiving £50,000; she became the first Northern Irish author to win the prize.\n\nJudging panel\nKwame Anthony Appiah\n Val McDermid\n Leo Robson\n Jacqueline Rose\n Leanne Shapton\n\nNominees\n\nShortlist\n\nLonglist\n\nSee also\n List of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction\n\nReferences\n\nMan Booker\nBooker Prizes by year\n2018 awards in the United Kingdom"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists",
"What was the first shortlist she appeared on?",
"Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:"
] |
C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
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Why did they press for a female?
| 2 |
Why did Conservative Campaign Headquarters press for a female?
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Nadine Dorries
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In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
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Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired.
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Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
| true |
[
"For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War is a book by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author James M. McPherson. The book was published by Oxford University Press in 1997 and covers the lives and ideals of American Civil War soldiers from both sides of the war. Drawing from a compilation of over 25,000 letters and 250 personal diaries, For Cause and Comrades tells the story of the American Civil War's soldiers through their own uncensored point of view.\n\nOverview\n\nConfederate motivations\nIn the book, McPherson contrasts the views of the Confederates regarding slavery to that of the colonial-era American revolutionaries of the late 18th century. He stated that while the American colonists of the 1770s saw an incongruity with slave ownership and proclaiming to be fighting for liberty, the Confederates did not, as the Confederacy's overriding ideology of white supremacy negated any contradiction between the two:\n\nMcPherson states that the Confederates did not discuss the issue of slavery as often as Union soldiers did, because most Confederate soldiers readily accepted as an obvious fact that they were fighting to perpetuate slavery, and thus did not feel a need to debate over it:\n\nContinuing, McPherson also stated that of the hundreds of Confederate soldiers' letters he read, none of them contained any anti-slavery sentiment whatsoever:\n\nHowever, McPherson notes that in his sampling of letters, Confederates from slave-owning families were over-represented.\n\nUnion motivations\nMcPherson also examined the motivations behind Union soldiers and what drove them to fight for the United States in the war. He stated that although Union soldiers primarily fought to preserve the United States as a country, they fought to end slavery as well, stating that:\n\nReception\nReaction to the book was highly positive. According to the School Library Journal Review, \"This powerful commentary by today's premier Civil War historian is truly compelling in its depth and intensity.\" \n\nThe School Library Journal Review also gave a favorable review, saying \"McPherson uses these letters well: they not only support his arguments but provide the intensely human elements of fear, sickness, loneliness and exhaustion that make the question of motivations so poignant.\" \n\nThe Choice Review lauded the book as well, saying \"McPherson offers a persuasive and provocative account of why Civil War soldiers fought.\"\n\nAwards\nFor Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War won the Lincoln Prize in 1998.\n\nSee also\n\nBattle Cry of Freedom\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nPresentation by McPherson on For Cause and Comrades, May 21, 1998\n\n1997 non-fiction books\nAmerican history books\nHistory books about the American Civil War\nOxford University Press books",
"Ava Leavell Haymon is the 2013–2015 Poet Laureate of Louisiana.\n\nCareer\nShe is the author of four collections of poetry, including Eldest Daughter, Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread, Kitchen Heat and The Strict Economy of Fire, along with five chapbooks.\n\nShe is the editor of the forthcoming Louisiana State University Press, Barataria Poetry Series (Spring 2014) and has been awarded the Louisiana Literature Prize for poetry in 2003, the L.E. Phillabaum Poetry Award for 2010, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters 2011 Award in Poetry and has taught as an Artist in the Schools for a number of years.\n\nHer third book, Why The House Was Made Of Gingerbread, was chosen as one of the top ten books of 2010 by Women's Voices for Change.\n\nAva's work has appeared in Northwest Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry, and others.\n\nSelected works\n\nBooks\n\nChapbooks\nWhy the Groundhog Fears Her Shadow. Greensboro, North Carolina: March Street Press, 1996. \nBuilt in Fear of Heat. Troy, Maine: Nightshade Press, 1994. \nStaving Off Rapture. Chico, California: Flume Press, 1994. \nA Name Gift for Every Child. Baton Rouge: Mother Daybreak Press, 1991.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website\n\"Ava Leavell Haymon\", Poets & Writers\n\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nAmerican women poets\nPoets from Louisiana\nPoets Laureate of Louisiana\n21st-century American women"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists",
"What was the first shortlist she appeared on?",
"Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:",
"Why did they press for a female?",
"Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired."
] |
C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
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Was Dorries selected from that list?
| 3 |
Was Nadine Dorries selected from the 17 safe seats?
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Nadine Dorries
|
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
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In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists
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Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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[
"Boris Johnson carried out the second significant reshuffle of his majority government from 15 September to 18 September 2021, having last done so in February 2020.\n\nCabinet-level changes\n\nJunior ministerial changes\n\nWhips' Office appointments\n\nReaction\n\nDemotion of Dominic Raab \n\nThere had been growing speculation that Dominic Raab would be demoted from his position as Foreign Secretary, as a result of his handling of the Taliban offensive in August 2021. On the day of the reshuffle, Raab met with the Prime Minister for a considerable length of time, having initially refused to leave the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The Financial Times reported that Raab was \"throwing his toys out of [the] pram\". Sources are alleged to have told Sky News that Raab was \"very angry\" at Johnson's decision to move him. Eventually, Raab accepted his new position as Secretary of State for Justice and was given the additional role of Deputy Prime Minister, making him the first minister to hold the office since Nick Clegg during the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition (2010–2015).\n\nAppointment of Nadine Dorries \nThe appointment of Nadine Dorries as Culture Secretary was heavily criticised in the arts and culture sectors. Her promotion to the Cabinet was questioned due to her right-wing views and inexperience Dorries was dubbed by some as the new \"Secretary of State for Culture Wars\", with concerns raised about her extreme views on cultural issues. Following her appointment, the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union called on the new minister to \"focus more on supporting our cultural industries and less on stoking divisive culture wars\".\n\nNotable dismissals \nAfter Robert Buckland was dismissed as Secretary of State for Justice and replaced by Dominic Raab, there was some criticism from Sir Bob Neill, chairman of the Justice Select Committee. Neill told Sky News that removing Buckland from his position was \"unjust, outrageous\" and that he had been \"shabbily treated\" by Johnson. Derek Sweeting, chairman of the Bar Council, appeared to criticise the turnover of justice secretaries, stating: \"As we welcome the eighth justice secretary in the last 10 years to play this vital role, the need for a consistent and strong voice in government for our justice system could not be greater\".\n\nAlix Culbertson wrote that Gavin Williamson's sacking was of \"little surprise\" following his handling of GCSE grades. He was also criticised for confusing rugby player Maro Itoje with Marcus Rashford. Wes Streeting responded to reports that Williamson had been ‘tipped for knighthood’ saying \"there should be no rewards for failure.\" On the 24th September 2021, Williamson unfollowed Boris Johnson on Instagram.\n\nLater changes \nIn December 2021, Wendy Morton and Chris Heaton-Harris swapped ministerial jobs (Minister of State for Europe and Minister of State for Transport).\n\nSee also \nSecond Johnson ministry\nPremiership of Boris Johnson\nList of departures from the second Johnson ministry\n2021 in politics and government\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n\nCabinet reshuffles in the United Kingdom\nBoris Johnson\nSeptember 2021 events in the United Kingdom\n2021 in British politics",
"Robert Oxley is a British public relations officer and government appointee who was selected by Boris Johnson to serve as Downing Street Press Secretary from 24 July 2019.\n\nCareer \nOxley worked at the online food delivery company Deliveroo and for James Starkie, a former advisor to Michael Gove and Dominic Raab. Oxley appeared as an advocate of the Bedroom tax in a debate with journalist and Labour Party activist Owen Jones on behalf of the TaxPayers' Alliance in 2013. \n\nOxley formerly served as an advisor to Priti Patel and Michael Fallon. Along with former-Director of Communications Lee Cain, Oxley worked as a press officer on the Vote Leave campaign.\n\nOxley was appointed Downing Street Press Secretary by Boris Johnson upon the start of his premiership on 24 July 2019.\n\nOn 11 December 2019, a day before the general election, Oxley was filmed blocking a reporter from Good Morning Britain and swearing at him. The reporter was attempting to interview Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nOxley served as a special adviser at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office beginning in March 2020. In September 2021 he moved to work for Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nBritish political consultants\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists",
"What was the first shortlist she appeared on?",
"Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:",
"Why did they press for a female?",
"Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired.",
"Was Dorries selected from that list?",
"In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists"
] |
C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides shortlist of women, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Nadine Dorries
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In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
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In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs".
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Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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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"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists",
"What was the first shortlist she appeared on?",
"Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:",
"Why did they press for a female?",
"Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired.",
"Was Dorries selected from that list?",
"In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create \"two classes of MPs\"."
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C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
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Did she have other comments about the use of all women shortlists?
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Aside from creating "two classes of MPs", did Nadine Dorries have other comments about the use of all women shortlists?
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Nadine Dorries
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In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
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"Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
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Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
| true |
[
"All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political party. Only the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats currently use this practice. Political parties in other countries, such as South Korea and various Latin American countries have used practices analogous to AWS, especially in relation to government sex quotas.\n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nBackground\nIn the 1990s, women constituted less than 10% of MPs in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Political parties used various strategies to increase female representation, including encouraging women to stand and constituency associations to select them, and providing special training for potential female candidates.\nAnother strategy, the creation of all-women shortlists, is a positive discrimination strategy making it compulsory for selection of women candidates in some constituencies.\n\nThe strategy has been criticised as undemocratic, as \"bypassing competitive principles and hence as ignoring the merit principle,\" and as \"a form of discrimination against men.\" For the 1992 general election, the Labour Party had a policy of ensuring there was at least one statutory female candidate on each of its shortlists, however few of these women were successful in being selected in winnable seats (seats within a 6% swing). Following polling that suggested women were less likely to vote Labour than men, the party introduced All-women shortlists at their 1993 annual conference.\n\n1997 general election\n\nLabour used all-women shortlists to select candidates in half of all winnable seats for the 1997 general election, with the aim of reaching 100 female MPs post-election; a goal that was achieved. The shortlists provoked controversy, however. In 1996, Labour Party branches in Croydon Central, Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney, Bishop Auckland and Slough all submitted hostile motions criticising the policy.\n\nConcern about such sex discrimination was especially strong in Slough where the local party refused to even co-operate in selecting a candidate after having an AWS imposed. Another concern was that AWS were being used as a device to keep out certain men who might have made trouble for Tony Blair, Prime Minister at the time; then-Labour Party leader Tony Blair stated that AWS were \"not ideal at all\" in 1995.\n\nIn December 1995, Peter Jepson and Roger Dyas-Elliott, prevented from standing on Labour shortlists because of their gender, challenged the policy in court. Supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission, they claimed that they had been illegally barred from applying to be considered to represent the party and that the policy contradicted Labour's policy of aiming to promote equality of opportunity.\n In January 1996, an industrial tribunal found the Labour Party had broken the law, unanimously ruling that all-women shortlists were illegal under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in preventing men from entering a profession.\n\nThe 34 candidates who had already been selected by all-women shortlists were not required to seek re-selection, but all 14 unfinished all-women shortlist selections were suspended. Dr Jepson and Mr Dyas-Elliott did not seek compensation for their loss.\nAt the 1997 general election, 35 out of 38 Labour AWS candidates were elected.\n\nThe Conservative Party also opposed gender quotas, preferring to persuade constituencies to select female candidates in winnable seats.\n\nPrior to the 1999 European parliament elections, the Liberal Democrats used a system called \"zipping\" in which equal numbers of men and women were elected as MEPs.\n\n2005 general election\nFollowing the reduction in female MPs after the 2001 general election and increased lobbying by gender equality advocates, Labour introduced the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002, which allows parties to use positive discrimination in the selection of candidates. They were to remain legalised until the end of 2015, due to the \"Sunset Clause\", but that deadline was extended to 2030 as part of the Equality Act 2010.\n\nIn contrast, the Liberal Democrats rejected a proposal to use AWS in 2001; suggesting such shortlists were illiberal and unnecessary. Prominent women MPs of the party opposed the use of all-women shortlists. Party members argued that the main problem was not discrimination, but a lack of female candidates. Instead the party set a target of having 40% female candidates in winnable seats.\n\nAt the 2005 general election, the shortlists helped to increase the number of female MPs in Parliament to 128, with the Labour Party's 98 women constituting 77% of the total. However, a Labour-controlled \"safe seat\" was lost when explicitly anti-AWS independent candidate Peter Law won the Blaenau Gwent constituency in Wales beating Maggie Jones who had been selected using Labour's All-women shortlist policy. The loss was widely blamed on controversy over AWS.\n\n2010 general election\nA Speaker's conference was set up in 2008 to study the reasons why MPs were predominantly white, male and able-bodied. An interim report released in July 2009 called for women to make up at least 50% of new candidates at the following general election. However, all-women shortlists continued to elicit criticism. Conservative Ann Widdecombe criticised the use of AWS stating that women in the past who fought for equality such as the Suffragettes \"wanted equal opportunities not special privileges\" and \"they would have thrown themselves under the King's horse to protest against positive discrimination and all-women shortlists\".\n\nDiane Abbott, one of the early supporters of all women shortlists criticised their failure to recruit ethnic minority women into politics, stating that they had in effect \"been all white women shortlists\" As evidence of this claim, she cited the 1997 Parliamentary intake; where none of the MPs selected using all women shortlists were black.\nConservative Party leader David Cameron tried to institute AWS in 2006. There was opposition from some female Conservative MPs, such as Nadine Dorries and Ann Widdecombe.\n\nIn October 2009, David Cameron stated that the under-representation of women and ethnic minorities was \"a real problem for Parliament and for my party\", and reversed his opposition to AWS. In February 2010, he indicated that he would impose AWS because the pace of change towards the selection of more female MPs had been too slow.\nIn 2009, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg stated that he would consider introducing all-women shortlists if the number of female MPs did not increase following the next election, but he did not see this as a long-term solution for the unrepresentative nature of parliament.\n\n2015 general election \nThe Conservative Party used AWS for selection of a few candidates in the 2015 general election. Helen Whately was selected in Faversham and Mid Kent.\n\n2017 general election\nAt the 2017 election, a \"record number of female MPs\" entered Parliament, although the gender balance was highly skewed between parties. In Labour, 45% of MPs were women, in the Scottish National Party 34%, in the Liberal Democrats 33%, but in the Conservatives just 21%. This meant the House of Commons was 32% women overall.\n\n2019 general election\nThe record for most female MPs elected was broken at the 2019 election, which marked the first time that female representation in the House of Commons is more than 33%. It saw an increase in the percentage of women elected from both Conservative and Labour. Although 51% of Labour MPs are now women, the lack of any stop mechanism in party rules means preferential AWS shortlists may continue this rise until the legal exception sunsets in 2030. The most Conservative women in their party's history entered the House after this election, without the aid of an AWS. The Liberal Democrats held the highest percentage of any party's female MPs represented despite a small increase in the number of first-time members elected, which was the case for the SNP.\n\nImpact\nAll-women shortlists had been credited with breaking down prejudices that impeded the selection of women and discouraged women from offering their candidacy. In both 1997 and 2005, 50% of women MPs elected were selected from all-women shortlists.\n\nThe increase in women in politics brought increased parliamentary priority to issues such as women's health, domestic violence against women, and childcare. In addition, the increased number of women MPs and greater focus on women's concerns likely resulted in increased female support for Labour at the polls. AWS may also have made it easier for women to be selected non-all-women shortlist seats. The shortlists also gave rise to the appointment of the first British female Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith in June 2007.\n\nOther countries\nMany countries today use political gender quotas.\nAmong the first to use party reservations for female candidates by political parties were Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In 1983, the Norwegian Labour Party mandated that \"at all elections and nominations both sexes must be represented by at least 40 per cent\", and in 1994, the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party mandated \"every second on the list a woman\", which meant that male and female candidates would be alternated between each other on the party list of preferred candidates, a format known as a \"zipper quota\". The quota was imposed on 290 local parties by the national party organization. Furthermore, the party created a handbook for women with advice about how to seek political office. In 1988, the Danish Social Democrats \"each sex has the right to a representation of at least 40 per cent of the Social Democratic candidates for local and regional elections. If there is not a sufficient number of candidates from each sex, this right will not fully come into effect\"; however, this party law was abolished in 1996.\n\nIraq held its first post-Saddam parliamentary elections in January 2005 under an electoral law providing for compulsory integration of women on the candidate lists, like several European countries with a proportional electoral system.\n\nLatin America \nLatin American political parties' gender policies for candidates often have a relationship to their respective countries' legalized gender quotas for governing bodies. Fourteen Latin American countries have such a quota for their legislatures; these countries consist of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Political parties in Latin American countries utilize a variety of systems to pick their candidates for office, with Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay having \"fairly informal selection rules\" for their candidates, in which party elites have large amounts of influence, while those in Paraguay and Costa Rica use more stringent methods of selection described by formal and written rules within the political parties. Political parties with more bureaucratized, stricter candidate selection processes in Latin American countries with legislative-body quotas run women as, on average, 37.8% of their candidates for legislative bodies, while in those parties with less formalized selection processes, on average, women constitute 31.5% of candidates.\n\nSouth Korea \nSouth Korea has a system in which gender quotas exist for its single national legislative body, the National Assembly, with a requirement that women hold 30% of the National Assembly's 246 single-member constituency seats and 50% of its 54 proportionally elected seats. However, \"neither of the two major political parties has thus far nominated women to more than 10 percent of the single-member district seats,\" resulting in women constituting 15.7% of National Assembly members. This situation is largely due to the candidate selection process of South Korean political parties, whose \"rules governing candidate selection lack routinization,\" allowing party leaders to have significant influence regarding candidates and the ability to circumvent gender quotas.\n\nCriticisms \nAll-women shortlists and similar policies have largely drawn the same criticisms as the gender quotas of which they represent a subset. One category of criticism asserts that gender quotas represent a positive step, but do not accomplish enough. Some criticism in this vein asserts that quotas should include penalties for groups who do not follow them. Similarly, some critics argue that quotas in corporations in addition to those in governing bodies, should be instituted among other measures to improve public and private sector career opportunities for women.\n\nHowever, other critics believe that gender quota policies, like those of which all-women shortlists represent a subset, do not, no matter their requirements, provide a way for women to achieve equality in government. For instance, some critics in this arena believe that gender quotas and debate regarding them does not represent real or substantive gains for women. Similarly, some criticisms of gender quotas, including all-women shortlists, argue that even with quotas in place, societal norms discouraging women from holding leadership positions still prevent significant changes. More specifically, these critics assert that even when women do run for office under quota systems, they face a lack of monetary support and as a result often do not win elections.\n\nSee also\n Critical mass (gender politics)\n Identity politics\n List of female Members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom\n List of female political office-holders in the United Kingdom\n Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918\n Positive discrimination\n Racial quota\n Reserved political positions\n Timeline of Female MPs in the House of Commons\n Widow's succession\n Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom\n\nReferences\n\nFeminism in the United Kingdom\nSexism\nAffirmative action\nBritish women in politics\nElection law in the United Kingdom\nPolitical parties\nWomen's rights in the United Kingdom",
"This list shows women who have been elected as Members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, European Union and other British devolved assemblies.\n\nList of female members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom\n\nList of female members of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom\n\nNotes\n\nSee also \n\n Timeline of female MPs in the House of Commons\n All-women shortlists\n Election results of women in United Kingdom general elections (1918–1945)\n Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918\n Records of members of parliament of the United Kingdom § Women\n Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom\n Widow's succession\n\nReferences \n\n \nFemale"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists",
"What was the first shortlist she appeared on?",
"Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:",
"Why did they press for a female?",
"Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired.",
"Was Dorries selected from that list?",
"In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create \"two classes of MPs\".",
"Did she have other comments about the use of all women shortlists?",
"\"Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided.\""
] |
C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
|
What does the word "selection" in the section title refer to?
| 6 |
What does the word "selection" in the section title refer to?
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Nadine Dorries
|
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
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Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency.
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Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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"Diakonissa is a Greek title of honor that is used to refer to a deacon's wife. It is derived from diakonos—the Greek word for deacon (literally, \"server\"). There does not currently seem to be any standard English equivalent, so most English-speaking Orthodox Christians will use the title most common in the old country churches from which their local family or parish finds its origin.\n\nDiakonissa was also the term used in the ancient Church for the order of deaconess, a class of ordained women who saw to the care of women in the community.\n\nOther languages\nIn Arabic, a deacon's wife is called Shamassy (derived from Shamas, Arabic for \"deacon\"). Romanian uses a derivative from the Greek term, Diaconiţa, as does Serbian, Đakonica/Ђаконица (pronounced jack-on-eet'-sa). Other Slavic traditions generally use the same word for a deacon's wife that is used for a priest's wife: Matushka (Russian), Panimatushka (Ukrainian), etc.\n\nSee also\n Episcopa Theodora\n Presbytera\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nClergy Etiquette\n\nEastern Christian ecclesiastical offices",
"In linguistics, locality refers to the proximity of elements in a linguistic structure. Constraints on locality limit the span over which rules can apply to a particular structure. Theories of transformational grammar use syntactic locality constraints to explain restrictions on argument selection, syntactic binding, and syntactic movement.\n\nWhere locality is observed\nLocality is observed in a number of linguistic contexts, and most notably with:\n\n Selection of arguments; this is regulated by the projection principle\n Binding of two DPs; this is regulated by binding theory\n Displacement of wh-phrases; this is regulated by wh-movement\n\nSelection\nThe projection principle requires that lexical properties — in particular argument structure properties such as thematic roles — be \"projected\" onto syntactic structures. Together with Locality of Selection, which forces lexical properties to be projected within a local projection (as defined by X-bar theory), the projection principle constrains syntactic trees. Syntactic trees are represented through constituents of a sentence, which are represented in a hierarchical fashion in order to satisfy locality of selection through the restraints of X-bar theory. In X-bar theory, immediate dominance relations are invariant, meaning that all languages have the same constituent structure. However, the linear precedence relations can vary across languages. For example, word order (i.e. constituent order) can vary with and across languages.\n\nIf α selects β, then β depends on α. If α selects β, and if locality of selection is satisfied, then α and β are in a local dependency. If α selects β, and if locality of selection is not satisfied, then α and β are in a non-local dependency. The existence of a non-local dependency indicates that movement has occurred.\n\nFrom the perspective of projection, an element can be \"stretched\" to occupy the following projection levels:\n\nminimal (X)\n\nintermediate (X')\n\nmaximal (X max)\n\nThese occupying elements appear valid for all syntactically relevant lexical and functional categories.\n\nHead-complement selection \n\nAccording to locality of selection, the material introduced in the syntactic tree must have a local relationship with the head that introduces it. This means that each argument must be introduced into the same projection as its head. Therefore, each complement and specifier will appear within the local projection of the head that selects it.\n\nFor example, the contrast between the well-formed (1a) and the ill-formed (1b) shows that in English, an adverb cannot intervene between a head (the verb study) and its complement (the DP the report).\n\nIn structural accounts of the contrast between (1a) and (1b), the two sentences differ relative to their underlying structure. The starting point is the lexical entry for the verb study, which specifies that the verb introduces two arguments, namely a DP which bears the semantic role of Agent, and another DP which bears the semantic role of Theme.\n\n lexical entry for study: V, ,DPTHEME>\n\nIn the tree for sentence (1a), the verb, studies, is the Head of the VP projection, the DPTHEME, the report, is projected onto the Complement position (as sister to the head V), and the DPAGENT , John, is projected onto the Specifier (as sister to V'). In this way, (1a) satisfies Locality of Selection as both arguments are projected within the projection of the head that introduces them. The adverb phrase, AdvP carefully attaches as an unselected adjunct to VP; structurally this means that it is outside of the local projection of V as it is sister to and dominated by VP. In contrast, in the tree for sentence (1b), the introduction of the AdvP carefully as sister to the verb study violates Locality of Selection; this is because the lexical entry of the verb study does not select an AdvP, so the latter cannot be introduced in the local projection of the verb.\n\nMorphological selection \nLocality can also be broken down into a morphological perspective, by analyzing words with some, or many affixes. A speaker who can make sense of a word with many morphemes (e.g. affixes) must know: how the morpheme is pronounced and what kind of morpheme it is, (free, prefix, suffix). If it is an affix, then the speaker also must know what the affix c-selects. The speaker must also know that the c-selected element must be adjacent to the affix, amounting to the requirement that branches of a tree never cross. Crossing branches is not included in the lexicon, and it is a general property of how linguistic structures are grammatically structured. This is true because lexical entries do no impose a requirement on a part of word structure that it is not sister to. This relates to the fact that affixes cannot c-select for an element which is not a sister. Additionally, the speaker must know what kinds of thing results after c-selection. These key aspects that a speaker must know can be observed in the lexical entries below, with the example \"denationalization\".\n\nLexical selection \nWhen meeting selection requirements, the semantic content of the constituent selected by the head must be taken into consideration. For example, the thematic role of the constituent that is selected, and the properties of the head which selects it. Take, for example, the verb head elapse, which selects for a DP subject.\n\nE.g. a) *[DP Johnagent] elapsed.\n\nb) [DP Timeagent, can elapse] elapsed.\n\nHowever, while [DP John] is syntactically in subject position, it gives an ungrammatical sentence as [DP John] cannot elapse, it has no thematic quality to elapse, and as such cannot meet the lexical selection requirements of [VP elapse]. However, [DP Time] in subject position does have this thematic quality and can be selected by [VP elapse].\n\nLexical selection is specific to individual word requirements, these must abide to both Projected Principle and Locality requirements.\n\nDetecting selection \nCrucially, selection determines the shape of syntactic structures. Selection takes into consideration not only lexical properties but also constituent selection, that is what X-Bar Theory predicts as appropriate formulations for specific constituents.\n\nCovariation \nOne way to determine which syntactic items relate to each other within the tree structure is to examine covariances of constituents. For example, given the selectional properties of the verb elapse, we see that not only does this verb select for a DP subject, but is specific about the thematic role this DP subject must have.\n\nCase \nIn English, case relates to properties of the pronoun, nominative, accusative, and genitive. Case can be selected by heads within the structure, and this can affect the syntactic structure expressed in the underlying and surface structure of the tree.\n\nEPP properties \nEPP properties, or Extended Projection Principle, is located in certain syntactic items, which motivate movement due to their selection requirements. Such can be found most commonly in T, which in English, requires a DP subject. This selection by T creates a non-local dependency, and leaves behind a 'trace' of the moved item.\n\nBinding \nBinding Theory refers to 3 different theoretic principles that regulate DP's (Determiner Phrase). In consideration of the following definitions of the principles, the local domain refers to the closest XP with a subject. If a DP(1) is bound, this means it is c-commanded and co-indexed by a DP(2) that is sister to the XP dominating over DP (1) .To contrast, if it is free, then the DP in question must not be c-commanded and co-indexed by another DP.\n\nPrinciple A \nPrinciple A for locality in Binding Theory refers to the binding of an anaphor and its antecedent which must occur within its local domain. Principle A states that anaphors must be bound in their local domain, and that DP's must be in a local relation. The local domain is the smallest XP containing a DP, in order to satisfy Binding Theory, the DP must c-command the anaphor and have a subject. Therefore, the antecedent must be in the same clause that contains the anaphor if it is to abide to Binding Theory.\n\nAn anaphor is considered to be free when it is not c-commanded or co-indexed. A node is c-commanded if a sister node of the first node dominates it, (i.e. node X c-commands node Y if a sister of X dominates Y). A node is co-indexed if the DPs in question both are indexed by a matching subscript letter, as seen in the DPs of (2) a. and (2) b.\n\nIn English, Principle A governs over anaphors, which include lexical items like reflexives, (e.g. myself, yourself...etc.), and reciprocals, (e.g. each other, etc.). These items must refer back to a previous item in the constituent in order to satisfy its semantic meaning, and in turn, abide to Principle A.\n\nThe following examples show the application of Binding Theory, Principle A, in relation to reflexives:\n\nExample (2a) is predicted to be grammatical by Principle A of binding theory. The anaphor, [DP himself]i, and antecedent, [DP John]i, are selected within the same local domain. TP is the smallest XP that contains the anaphor and DP subject (in this case, the subject is the antecedent). Given that the antecent, [DP John]i, is governed by VP, which is sister to PP, and PP is the maximal node dominating over [DP himself]i, the anaphor, [DP John]i can therefore c-command [DP himself]i. As co-indexation is already established by the matching subscript letter i, this sentence is grammatical and abides to Principle A. \n\nHowever, in example (2b), the anaphor [DP himself]i has within its local domain antecedent, [DP Mary], which would serve as a candidate for binding. However, [DP himself]i is co-indexed to [DP John]i, which is a pronoun. Two factors have gone wrong here. Firstly, as shown in Principle B below, pronouns must be free in their local domain, and as [DP John]i is being bound locally by [DP himself]i, this does not abide to Binding Theory and is considered ungrammatical. Secondly, and most important to this section, Principle A establishes that an anaphor must be bound locally. [DP himself]i is not c-commanded by any local DP, nor any DP, in fact, [DP himself]i is c-commanding [DP John]i instead.\n\nAs discussed previously, the local DP which could bind [DP himself]i, [DP Mary]. However, while [DP Mary] can c-command [DP himself]i, and can be co-indexed to complete binding, this sentence would still be ungrammatical. This is because, in English, anaphors and their antecedent must agree in gender. As such, attempting to fix 2b by binding [DP himself]i with [DP Mary] would still render an ungrammatical sentence.\n\nThis is exemplified below:\n\nAttempted correction of (2b)\n\ni) *[DP Mary]i revealed [DP himself]i to [DP John]\n\nii) [DP Mary]i revealed [DP herself]i to [DP John]\n\nThe following examples show the application of Binding Theory, Principle A, in relation to reciprocals:\n\nExample (3) follows the same explanations to example (2).\n\nAs predicted by Binding Theory, Principle A, (3a) is grammatical because the anaphor [DP each other]i is bound within the same domain as the antecedent [DP their]i. However, example (3b) is ungrammatical because the anaphor is bound by the antecedent non-locally, which goes against Principle A which specifies local binding. Further, Principle A would predict that in fact it is [DP John] which could bind [DP each other]i, however, similarly to example 2b, anaphors not only have to agree with gender with the antecedent that binds them, but also number. Given that [DP John] is a singular entity, and [DP each other] refers to multiple, this co-indexation cannot occur, rendering this sentence ungrammatical.\n\nTo summarize, it must be noted that anaphors must agree in gender, number, and also person with their antecedent, in a local domain.\n\nPrinciple B \nPrinciple B states: pronouns must be free in their local domain, and predicts that some DP's are non-locally bound to other DP's.\n\nTake for example, these two sentences: \n\nIn 4a), when the [DP Lucy], is co-indexed with, and c-commands, [DP her], this violates principle B. This is because [DP her] has a c-commanding antecedent in its local domain (i.e. [DP Lucy]) this shows that the pronoun is bound in its domain. As such, pronoun [DP Lucy], which also abides to principle B, also cannot be bound locally, and contributes to the sentences problems with abiding to Principle B.\n\nIn (4b) Principle B is obeyed, this is because while there is co-indexation and a c-commanding relation between [DP Lucy] and [DP her], both DPs are free in their local domains. Remember that local domain is determined by the smallest XP containing a subject. In the case of [DP Lucy], the local domain pertains to the head which dominates it, of which [DP Lucy] is the subject, while for [DP her], it would be the smallest XP containing a subject, which is [DP I].\n\nPrinciple B does not state anything regarding whether a pronoun requires an antecedent. It is permissible for a pronoun to not have an antecedent in a sentence. Principle B simply states that if a pronoun does have a c-commanding antecedent, then it must be outside of the smallest XP with a subject that has the pronoun, i.e. outside the domain of the pronoun. Further, both Principle A and B predict that pronouns and anaphos must occur in complementary distribution.\n\nPrinciple C \nThe following examples show the application of Binding Theory, Principle C which states: R-expressions cannot be bound, and certain DP's, such as R-expressions are never related to other DP's.\n\nIn English, R-expressions refer to Quantified Expressions, (e.g. every, all, some...etc.) and Independently Referential Expressions, (e.g. this, the, my, a, pronouns) \n\nIt is important to note that 5a, can be distinguished from 5b and 5c the differences in structural relations between the pronoun and the name. In 5a, \"she\" c-commands \"Lucy\", but this does not occur in 5b and 5c. These observations can be described by the preliminary observation that non-pronominals cannot be bound, i.e., non-pronominals cannot be c-commanded by a co-indexed pronoun. Compared to Principle A and Principle B, this requires goes all the way up to the root node, since it is not limited to any domain.\n\nIn addition to these principles, it is required that pronouns and reflexives agree with their antecedent in gender. For example, regardless of the consideration of locality, a sentence such as \"[DPJohn]i likes [DPherself]i\", it would be ungrammatical because the two co-indexed entities do not agree in gender. Pronouns and reflexives also have to agree with their antecedent in number and person.\n\nSmall clauses and Binding Theory \nSmall clauses show that different categories can have subjects, which is supported by Binding Theory. The internal structure of a small clause is determined, typically, by a predicate or a functional element, and are considered as being projections of a functional category.\n\nGiven this, Binding Theory can predict the internal structure of a small clause, depending on which Principle is present within the structure.\n\nTake, for example, the following data: \n\nThis data suggests that [AP proud] has a subject, [DP John], and that the anaphor that it has as a complement, [DP herself]/[DP her], has a domain local domain that extends to the node which dominates [DP Mary], as it c-commands and binds the anaphor.\n\nAs such, the underlying structure that is suggested is the following: \n\nBinding Theory correctly predicts that 5.1 a) will be an ungrammatical construction given Principle A which requires the anaphor to be bound locally. As well as correctly predicting 5.1 b) as grammatical, given Principle B, which states that pronouns cannot be locally bound. Both instances are represented, respectively, within the generated structures.\n\nSyntactic dependencies \nSyntactic dependencies of all types are confined to a limited portion of structure. Referential and filler gap-dependencies remain a divide in locality principles. Few theories which have succeeded in unifying these two types of dependencies undel locality principles. While there is no agreed-upon theory, general observations are seen. Absolute and relative barriers are a great divide in locality theory and have yet to be formally unified under a single theory.\n\nAbsolute barriers do not allow movement beyond it. (WH-island, Subjacency conditions and Condition on Extraction Domain)\n\nRelative barrier is the idea that syntactic dependencies between a filler and a gap are blocked by the intervention of a closer element of the same type\n\nMovement \nMovement is the phenomenon that accounts for the possibility of a single syntactic constituent or element occupying multiple, yet distinct locations, depending on the type of sentence the element or constituent is in. Movement is motivated by selection of certain word types, which require their Projection Principles be met Locally. In short, Locality predicts movement of syntactic constituents.\n\nRaising to subject: surface and underlying tree structure \nWhen comparing surface structure to what selection predicts, there appears to be an anomaly in the word order of the sentence and the production of the tree. Within the underlying structure, at times referred to as deep structure, there exist Deep Grammatical Relations, which relate to the manifestation of subject, object and indirect object. Deep grammatical relations are mapped onto the underlying structure, (deep structure). These are expressed configurationally in relevance to particular languages, and are seen represented in the surface representation of the syntactic tree. This surface representation is motivated by selection, locality, and item specific features which allow for movement of syntactic items.\n\nTake for example the following sentence:\n\n [DP He] [VP seems] to[VP run] slowly\n\nGiven the word order of the sentence, we would expect the tree to have violated Locality of Selection and Projection Principle guidelines. Projection Principle specifies what the head selects for, and Locality of selection ensures that these are established in the local domain of the head which selects it.\n\nAs such, we would expect the following ungrammatical tree: \n\nThis tree represents local dependencies of selection. [VP run] selects for a DP subject and can have an AdvP complement, this is satisfied. However, [VP seems] also requires a DP subject, which is unsatisfied. Lastly, T has an EPP feature, as discussed above, which selects for a DP subject. It's these selectional properties which motivate movement of certain syntactic items. In this particular tree, it is the DP which is motivated to move, in order to satisfy the selectional properties of [VP seems] and T's EPP feature.\n\nThe following surface tree is expected, which follows the word order of the sentence provided: \n\nIn the surface representation, we see that DP movement is motivated by Locality of selection, movement is marked by brackets <>, (or at times arrows following the movement). The movement leaves behind a trace of the DP which still satisfies selection, however, the selection is now a non-local dependency.\n\nRaising to object\n\nWh-movement \nIn wh-movement in English, an interrogative sentence is formed by moving the wh-word (determiner phrase, preposition phrase, or adverb phrase) to the specifier position of the complementizer phrase. This results in the movement of the wh-phrase into the initial position of the clause. This is seen in English word order of questions, which show Wh components as sentence initial, though in the underlying structure, this is not so.\n\nThe wh-phrase must also contain a question word, due to the fact that it needs to qualify as meeting the +q feature requirements. The +q feature of the complementizer (+q= question feature) results in an EPP:XP+q feature: This forces an XP to the specifier position of CP. The +q feature also attracts the bound morpheme in the tense position to move to the head complementizer position; leading to do-support.\n\nWh-movement violations \nThere are seven types of violations that can occur for wh-movement. These constraints predict the environments in which movement generates an ungrammatical sentence: Movement does not occur locally.\n\nWh-island constraint \n\nThis definition tells us that if the specifier position of CP is occupied or if a C is occupied by a +q word, movement of a wh-phrase out of the CP cannot occur. In other words, a CP that has a wh-phrase in its [spec, CP] that is filled with another wh-phrase that is not the one that was extracted, but from higher in the tree. The movement of the wh-phrase is being obstructed by another wh-phrase.\n\nExample (6b) illustrates the wh-island constraint. The embedded clause contains a complementizer with the feature +q. This causes the DP \"who\" to move to the specifier position of that complementizer phrase. Movement of the complement DP \"what\" cannot occur since the specifier position of CP is filled. Therefore, movement of the wh-word \"what\" generates an ungrammatical sentence, while movement of the wh-word \"who\" is allowed (specifier position of the embedded CP is not occupied).\n\nAdjunct island condition \n\nExample (7b) demonstrates the adjunct island condition. We can see that the wh-word, \"what\", occurs within the complementizer phrase that appears in the adjunct. Therefore, movement of the DP out of the adjunct will generate an ungrammatical sentence. Example (7a) is grammatical because the trace of the PP (prepositional phrase) \"where\" is not within the adjunct, therefore, movement is allowed. This demonstrates the prohibition of extraction from inside an adjunct and the condition that states that no element in a CP inside an adjunct may move out of this adjunct.\n\nSentential subject constraint \n\nA sentential subject is a subject that is a clause, not the subject of a sentence. Therefore, a clause that is a subject is called a sentential subject. The Sentential Subject Constraint is violated when an element moves out of a CP that is in the subject position.\n\nExample (8b) displays the sentential subject condition. The subject of the verb in this sentence is a complementizer clause. The DP \"what\" that appears within the CP subject moves to the specifier position of the main clause. The sentential subject constraint predicts that this wh-movement will result in an ungrammatical sentence since the trace was within the CP subject. Example (8a) is grammatical because the DP \"who\" does not have a trace within the CP subject, therefore, allowing movement to occur.\n\nCoordinate structure constraint \n\nExample (9a) is grammatical since the DP complement is moving as a whole to the specifier position of the matrix clause; nothing is extracted from the larger DP. Example (9b) is an example of the coordinate structure constraint. The DP \"what\" originally occurs within the DP conjunct, therefore, this constraint predicts that an ungrammatical sentence will result due to the extraction of an element within the conjunct.\n\nComplex NP constraint \n\nExample (8a) is a grammatical because the DP complement of the verb moves as a whole to the specifier position of the main clause. Example (8b) displays the complex noun phrase constraint. The NP complement D, \"whose\", is extracted and moved to the specifier position of the main clause. The complex noun phrase constraint predicts that this wh-movement will result in an ungrammatical sentence since extraction of an element within the complex NP is not allowed.\n\nSubject condition \n\nExample (10a) does not display any wh-movement. Therefore, the sentence is grammatical since nothing is extracted from the subject DP. Example (10b) contains wh-movement of a DP that is within the subject DP. The subject condition tells us that this type of movement is not allowed and the sentence will be ungrammatical.\n\nLeft branch constraint \n\nIn example (11a), there is no wh-movement, therefore the left branch constraint does not apply and this sentence is grammatical. In example (11b), the DP \"whose\" is extracted from the larger DP \"whose cake.\" This extraction under the left branch constraint is not allowed, therefore, the sentence is predicted to be ungrammatical. This sentence can be made grammatical by moving the larger DP as a unit to the specifier position of CP.\n\nIn example (12c), the whole subject DP structure undergoes wh-movement, which results in a grammatical sentence. This suggests that pied-piping can be used to reverse the effects of the violations or extraction constraints.\n\n \n\nExample (13) is an example of a wh-island violation. There are two TP bounding nodes that appear between the DP \"what\" and its trace. The subjacency condition postulates that wh-movement cannot undergo when the elements are spread too far apart. When two positions are separated by only one bounding node, or no bounding node at all, they are considered subjacent. Therefore, according to the subjacency condition, movement will result in an ungrammatical sentence.\n\nSee also\nProjection Principle\nWh-movement\nSelection\nBinding Theory\nSubjacency\nX-bar Theory\nPRO\nControl Theory\n\nReferences\n\nGenerative syntax\nSyntactic relationships\nSyntax"
] |
[
"Nadine Dorries",
"Selection and all-women shortlists",
"What was the first shortlist she appeared on?",
"Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:",
"Why did they press for a female?",
"Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired.",
"Was Dorries selected from that list?",
"In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create \"two classes of MPs\".",
"Did she have other comments about the use of all women shortlists?",
"\"Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided.\"",
"What does the word \"selection\" in the section title refer to?",
"Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency."
] |
C_9b413481410647d2957632f0fc84dbd2_1
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What other selections were made?
| 7 |
Besides rural constituency, what other selections were made?
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Nadine Dorries
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In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection: "Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place." Dorries's account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate: "Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point." In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided." CANNOTANSWER
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Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women.
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Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005.
Born in Liverpool to a working-class family, Dorries was raised in the city's Anfield district and the nearby towns of Halewood and Runcorn. She began work as a trainee nurse in Warrington and subsequently became a medical representative. During her early career, she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. After returning to England, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. She sold the company in 1998. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the Conservative safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire.
As a backbencher, Dorries introduced several unsuccessful private member's bills, including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortions in the UK and changes to the rules regarding counselling for the women involved, and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. An opponent of John Bercow, she attempted to have him removed as Speaker of the House of Commons. She also clashed with David Cameron and George Osborne, describing them as "two arrogant posh boys". In 2012, she lost the Conservative whip after she took part in the reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! without informing the Chief Whip. It was returned in 2013 and she was re-admitted to the parliamentary party.
In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed Dorries as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care with responsibility for mental health, suicide prevention, and patient safety. In May 2020, she was advanced to Minister of State. During Johnson's cabinet reshuffle in September 2021, he promoted her to Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Early life
Dorries was born Nadine Vanessa Bargery in Liverpool on 21 May 1957. Her father, a Catholic of Irish descent, was a bus driver who became a lift operator and suffered from Raynaud's disease. Her mother was an Anglican, and Dorries was raised as such. She was brought up in the Anfield district of Liverpool, where she attended Rose Heath Primary School. She then attended Halewood Grange Comprehensive School in Halewood before moving with her family to Runcorn. She grew up on a council estate and entered nursing in 1975 as a trainee at Warrington General Hospital. According to an interview with The Times in 2014, Dorries' parents divorced during her adolescence. While training to be a nurse at 21, she shared a flat with her father. He died at the age of 42.
Career
From 1978 to 1981, Dorries was a nurse in Warrington and Liverpool according to a 2009 report. Her CV when she was a parliamentary candidate in 2001 stated Liverpool and London as places where she worked as a nurse. She left the Liverpool area after she married mining engineer Paul Dorries.
In 1982, Dorries became a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd for a year, before spending a year in Zambia (1983–84) as the head of a community school, where her husband ran a copper mine. She founded Company Kids Ltd in 1987 which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998 to BUPA; Dorries was subsequently a director of the health provider during the following year.
As Nadine Bargery, she was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Hazel Grove, near Manchester in spring 2000. Her candidacy split the constituency party, and she was briefly deselected in August before being imposed by Conservative Central Office. Standing for the seat at the 2001 general election, she was unsuccessful in her attempt to succeed the Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stunell, who retained the seat with a majority of 8,435 votes. Dorries worked for three years as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin, when Shadow Chancellor, to sort out his relations with the media amongst other things.
Selection and all-women shortlists
In 2009, she gave this account of her 2005 selection:
Three weeks before the 2005 general election I, a council estate Scouser, was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent a southern rural constituency. Because the vacancy occurred so quickly and so close to D-day, the party provided my association with a shortlist of seventeen candidates, of which about five were women. Following a long day of interviews in hot sunny rooms, the list was whittled down to a shortlist of three ... I was informed that I had been selected outright on the first ballot ... That pride, that sense of achievement, the knowledge that I was selected on the basis of my performance and merit above all other candidates on that day is what enables me to hold my head up high in this place.
Dorries' account of her own selection appears to contradict a news report which The Times ran at the time, reporting that Conservative Campaign Headquarters placed a majority of women on the shortlist and pressed for the selection of a female candidate:
Mrs Dorries, who has three teenage children, easily beat her 11 rivals and won the plum safe seat on the first ballot at the selection this weekend. Party officials were thrilled that the seat has gone to a woman. Previously, only two women had been selected in the 17 safe seats where sitting MPs have retired. Senior party figures had made clear to local dignitaries that they would like the seat to go to a woman and presented the constituency with a shortlist of seven women and five men to underline the point.
In a debate on Woman's Hour, broadcast on 22 August 2001, Dorries (as Nadine Bargery) had advocated all-women shortlists if the behaviour of Conservative selection committees did not change. In 2009 though, Dorries was highly critical of David Cameron's proposal to consider using all-women shortlists, arguing against a move which would create "two classes of MPs". She wrote that "Sometimes I feel sorry for some of the Labour women who were selected via all-women shortlists. Everyone knows who they are. They are constantly derided."
Early parliamentary career
Entering parliament
Dorries was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid Bedfordshire on the retirement through ill health after a series of scandals of Jonathan Sayeed, with a majority of 11,355, and made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010, with an increased majority and a swing of 2.3% from the Lib Dems.
Dorries, described as "a right-wing, working-class Conservative", is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. A Christian, she has said in an interview for a Salvation Army newspaper: "I am not an MP for any reason other than because God wants me to be. There is nothing I did that got me here; it is what God did. There is nothing amazing or special about me, I am just a conduit for God to use." In 2008, she won The Spectator magazine's Readers' Representative Award.
Dorries initially supported David Davis to become Conservative leader in 2005 later withdrawing her endorsement. David Cameron, the successful candidate, though "represent[s] everything that through my life . . . [I have] been suspicious of." In May 2007, she criticised Cameron for ignoring the recommendations of the Conservative public policy working group in favour of grammar schools. However, she did defend the selection of Elizabeth Truss in 2009, whose Conservative candidature was called into question after an extra-marital affair was revealed.
Dorries served as a member of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee, although by November 2008 she had attended only 2% of sessions. The committee then reformed as the Science and Technology Select Committee; she did not attend a single session. In 2010, she was elected to the Health Select Committee.
Abortion time limits and counselling
Dorries says she witnessed "botched" abortions on two occasions, an experience that influenced her campaign to lower the point during a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed.
On 31 October 2006, Dorries introduced a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons, which would have reduced the time limit for abortion in Great Britain from 24 to 21 weeks; introduced a ten-day 'cooling-off' period for women wishing to have an abortion, during which time the woman would be required to undergo counselling; and accelerate access to abortion at the end of the cooling-off period. Dorries said she had received death threats from activists and was given police protection. Parliament voted by 187 to 108 to reject the bill.
In May 2008, Dorries tabled an amendment to the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill seeking to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks of pregnancy. Reportedly written by Andrea Williams then of The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, Dorries has denied that her campaigning on the abortion issue receives funding from Christian fundamentalist groups, although Dorries website for the "20 Reasons for 20 Weeks" campaign in 2008 was registered by Christian Concern For Our Nation (CCFON), another organisation with which Williams is involved; one of the pressure group's interns set up the website without charge to Dorries. According to Guardian journalist Kira Cochrane it was the greatest challenge to women's abortion rights in nearly 20 years.
Dorries' amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 190, with a separate 22-week limit opposed by 304 votes to 233. A majority of MPs continued to support the 24-week limit. She said of her tactics on this issue in 2007: "If I were to argue that all abortions should be banned, the ethical discussions would go round in circles ... My view is that the only way
forward is to argue for a reduction in the time limit ... it’s every baby’s right to have a life."
Dorries proposed amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill 2011 which would have blocked abortion services such as BPAS and Marie Stopes International from providing counselling services. She argued that these organisations had a vested financial interest in encouraging abortions, but according to Zoe Williams "independent" counselling services could be "faith-based groups" intent on discouraging women from having an abortion. David Cameron's government at first supported the proposal, but later changed its mind, reportedly because then-Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was opposed to the change.
Dorries' criticism of Cameron's policy shift was supported by some commentators such as Cristina Odone who shares Dorries concerns. Clegg's apparent opposition was, for Dorries, a means of "blackmailing our Prime Minister", and a question regarding Lib Dems influence was the source of Cameron's description of Dorries as "extremely frustrated" at Prime minister's questions on 7 September. Cameron was criticised by feminists among others for the comment, and subsequently apologised.
The issue of abortion counselling was debated in the Commons immediately following this incident. The motion was originally seconded by Labour MP Frank Field, but he withdrew his support after Health Minister Anne Milton intervened to suggest the Government would support the spirit of Dorries' amendment. The amendment was lost by 368 votes to 118, a majority of 250. Despite this, Dorries claimed a victory because of Milton's comments.
Channel 4 documentary
In May 2008, Dorries featured in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary "In God's Name". The programme examined the growing influence of Christian evangelical movements in the UK and highlighted the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship's involvement in lobbying the British Government on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the enforcing of laws relating to blasphemy. The programme included footage of an LCF representative meeting with Dorries to influence policy on matters where they had a common agenda.
Damian McBride email affair
In April 2009, Dorries stated that she had commenced legal action following the leaked publication of emails sent by Damian McBride, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's head of strategy and planning, which suggested spreading a rumour that Dorries had a one-night stand with a fellow MP, in an email to Derek Draper, a Labour-supporting blogger. McBride resigned and Dorries denounced the accusation as libellous: "[t]he allegations regarding myself are 100 per cent untrue", and demanded an apology intent on exposing the Number 10 "cesspit".
Brown subsequently said he was "sorry" and that he took "full responsibility for what happened". Dorries threatened libel proceedings against McBride, Draper and Downing Street but did not carry out that threat. McBride paid Dorries an undisclosed sum, estimated at £1,000 plus £2,500 towards her costs.
Expenses claims
In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph, as part of its exposure of MPs' expenses claims, questioned whether the property in Dorries' constituency, on which she claimed £24,222 additional costs allowance (for "secondary" housing costs), had been in fact her main or only home from 2007 onwards. The newspaper also queried hotel bills including one for 'Mr N Dorries': these had been disallowed by the Fees Office and Dorries said they were submitted by mistake. On 22 May 2009, she spoke on BBC Radio 4 and drew parallels between the McCarthy 'Witch-Hunts' and the press's 'drip-drip' revelation of MP's expenses, eliciting David Cameron's public criticism. She said everyone was fearing a 'suicide', and colleagues were constantly checking up on each other. Later in the day her blog was taken down. It transpired that Withers, lawyers acting for the Barclay Brothers, the owners of the Daily Telegraph, had required the removal of the blog, on threat of libel action against the service provider.
In January 2010, it was reported that Dorries was still being investigated by John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, regarding her claim for second home expenses. There was some debate as to the location of her main home. It was also reported that Dorries had claimed £20,000 in office expenses for work undertaken by a media relations and public affairs company.
On 9 May 2010, two days after being returned at the General Election for Mid Bedfordshire, The Sunday Times reported that Dorries was facing the first complaint about an MP's expenses claim of the new parliament. The newspaper reported that she had claimed around £10,000 for an annual report in 2007 on her performance as an MP, but that her former Commons researcher had never seen the report or worked on it. Dorries insisted that she had indeed published the report, placing a photograph of it on her blog. She subsequently told the Biggleswade Advertiser that the report was never printed and a credit note issued with refund on 13 September 2008.
On 13 January 2011, it was reported by the Daily Mirror that police were investigating Dorries concerning her expenses. Three days later, The Sunday Times reported that police had since handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. In February 2013, it was reported that Dorries was being investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority over her expenses, although no specific details were given at this time.
On 27 June 2013, Dorries announced she would no longer claim her personal expenses as an MP, but would draw on her salary for such costs. She argued that she would be in a better position to campaign for the abolition of the present expenses arrangements by doing so. Dorries herself stood for election as a deputy speaker after one of the three posts became vacant. In the Commons vote during October 2013, she gained the support of 13 MPs, and was the first of the six candidates to be eliminated in the voting process.
High heels at work
In late 2009, Dorries campaigned against what she called "a proposal to ban the wearing of high heels in the office" which was to be debated at the 2009 Trades Union Congress (TUC). The motion, submitted to the TUC by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, pointed out that "around two million days a year are lost through sickness as a result of lower limb disorders" and that "many employers in the retail sector force women workers to wear high heels as part of their dress code". It did not call for a ban on high heels at work, but rather called on employers to consider the health impact of their dress codes and encourage the wearing of healthy, comfortable shoes.
Criticism of Speaker Bercow
Prior to John Bercow's election as Speaker of the House of Commons in June 2009, Dorries accused him of opportunism and disloyalty to the Conservative Party. She described his election as "a two-fingered salute to the British people from Labour MPs, and to the Conservative Party". After Bercow's wife, Sally, was approved as a Labour parliamentary candidate and gave an interview about her personal life, Dorries argued that the Bercows were damaging the historic respect accorded to the office of Speaker.
Dorries was reportedly part of a plot to oust John Bercow from the Speaker's chair in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and, after the election, sent an email to all new MPs advocating his removal.
Benefit claimants
In February 2010 Dorries took part in the Channel 4 documentary series Tower Block of Commons, in which MPs stay with welfare claimants.
In October 2010, Dorries suggested that benefit claimants who made more than 35,000 postings on Twitter should be reported to the Department for Work and Pensions. On being told by the Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper that one of her constituents was out of work because of ill health and had posted more than 37,000 tweets, Dorries told the newspaper that her constituent's tweeting gave housebound disabled people a bad name.
Blog
A complaint from the Liberal Conspiracy website, regarding Dorries' use of the House of Commons' Portcullis emblem on her blog, had been upheld in March 2008, on the basis that Dorries "gave the impression it had some kind of parliamentary endorsement or authority".
On 21 October 2010, the MP's standards watchdog criticised Dorries for maintaining a blog which would "mislead constituents" as to how much actual time she was spending in her constituency. Dorries announced: "my blog is 70% fiction and 30% fact! It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another." Referring to her main home being in Gloucestershire, she said: "I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect."
She gave an explanation of the statement to her local newspaper, in which she said that her whereabouts on her blog had been disguised, on police advice, because of unwanted attention. She also said that she made the statement in order to protect her staff and family.
On 27 October 2010, Dorries partially retracted her 70% fiction claim, posting a blog entry which stated that "It also only takes any individual with a smattering of intelligence to see that everything on the blog is accurate, because it is largely a record of real time events. It was only ever the perception of where I was on any particular day which was disguised."
The conservative journalist Peter Oborne suggested, in his Daily Telegraph blog a fortnight later, that Cameron should have "ordered Mrs Dorries to apologise personally to her constituents, and stripped her of the party whip there and then".
In 2012, she was voted best MP on Twitter by the politics.co.uk website.
Abstinence advocacy for girls in sex education
On 4 May 2011, Dorries proposed a Bill to require that sex education in schools should include content promoting abstinence to girls aged 13–16, which was presented as teaching them "how to say no". While sex education already mentions the option of abstinence, the bill would have required active promotion of abstinence to girls, with no such requirement in the education provided to boys. Owing to Dorries' claims about practices used in teaching about sex, Sarah Ditum in The Guardian accused Dorries of making Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) "sound like a terrifying exercise in depravity".
The Bill drew criticism from healthcare and sex education professionals, questioning claims made during the Bill's reading. Labour MP Chris Bryant described the Bill as being "the daftest piece of legislation I have seen".
The Sexual Abstinence Bill was set for second reading on 20 January 2012 (Bill 185), after she was granted leave to introduce the Bill on a vote of 67 to 61 on 4 May 2011. The Bill, placed eighth on the order paper, was withdrawn shortly before its second reading.
Visit to Equatorial Guinea with other MPs
In August 2011, Dorries led the first delegation of Members of Parliament to Equatorial Guinea. It is a small African country, but the third-biggest oil producer on the continent, ruled since 1979 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. It has one of the worst human rights records on the continent. She met the Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Ignacio Milam Tang. She has been quoted as saying to him: "We are here to dispel some of the myths about Equatorial Guinea and also with humility to offer you help to avoid the mistakes we have made." According to the official website of Equatorial Guinea, Dorries was one of nine MPs on the trip.
Criticism of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne
On 6 March 2012, Dorries criticised David Cameron and Nick Clegg of the coalition government over their taxation policies. Referring to the proposed cuts in child benefit, she told the Financial Times "The problem is that policy is being run by two public schoolboys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunchboxes. What's worse, they don't care, either". She again criticised Cameron, and also George Osborne, in similar terms on 23 April, calling them "two arrogant posh boys who don't know the price of milk – who show no remorse, no contrition and no passion to want to understand the lives of others".
George Osborne said on The Andrew Marr Show on 6 May 2012: "Nadine Dorries, for the last seven years, I don't think has agreed with anything either myself, David Cameron, or indeed most Conservatives in the leadership of the party have done." In the summer of 2012, Dorries criticised Osborne again for sending a badly briefed junior Treasury Minister, Chloe Smith, to deputise for him on Newsnight in order to defend a government u-turn on fuel duty.
Same-sex marriage
Dorries opposed the government's ultimately successful legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. In May 2012, on the Conservative Home website she wrote: "Gay marriage is a policy which has been pursued by the metro elite gay activists and needs to be put into the same bin [as reform of the House of Lords]". In an interview with Mehdi Hasan in October 2012, Dorries said she favoured gay marriage, but only after Britain has left the European Convention on Human Rights. In an exchange with Iain Dale around the same time, she speculated that the issue could cost her (then) party four million votes at the next general election.
In February 2013, at the time of the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons, she argued that the Bill avoided the issue of consummation and thus contradicted the Marriages Act 1973, and therefore did not make gay marriage equal to heterosexual marriage. She also argued that there was no provision for adultery, or faithlessness, as it might apply to gay couples because the term applies to heterosexual couples only.
Reality TV and temporary suspension
Early in November 2012, it was announced that Dorries had agreed to appear in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Other Conservatives objected to her decision and her constituents were "overwhelmingly negative" on local radio. Neither the Conservative Chief Whip, Sir George Young, nor the Chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association were informed of her absence from Parliament. The Conservative Party suspended Dorries from the Party Whip on 6 November, after her confirmation that she was planning to be absent from Parliament. John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, received a complaint about her behaviour.
The series began on 11 November 2012, but on 21 November, Dorries became the first contestant to be voted off the show. Dorries met George Young on 27 November, who asked her to rebuild her relationship with the party. She then sat as an independent MP, but continued to deny the whip had been withdrawn, stating it had merely been suspended.
On 8 May 2013, Dorries regained the Conservative Whip without any conditions having been applied. George Osborne reportedly objected to her regaining the parliamentary whip, while commentators speculated that, should she not be readmitted, Dorries might join UKIP, which had made gains from the Conservatives in the previous week's local elections. Peter Oborne observed at this point that Dorries had still not declared the amount she was paid for her appearance on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members interests, last published on 22 April, despite her promise to do so.
Shortly after regaining the Whip, Dorries floated the idea of joint Conservative-UKIP candidates at the next general election in 2015, with herself as such a candidate. "This is not party policy and it's not going to happen", a Conservative Party spokesman told the Press Association.
Following the publication of a report by the Standards Committee on 11 November 2013, Dorries apologised in the House of Commons to her fellow MPs for two errors of judgement. Her confidentiality agreement with ITV over her fee for appearing on I'm A Celebrity... had led to her refusing to disclose the information to Kathryn Hudson, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In so doing, she had broken the MP's code of conduct. The all-party standards committee said that she should never have agreed to such a clause in her contract. In addition, Dorries had falsely claimed that payment for eight pieces of work in the media did not need to be declared as they were made to Averbrook, her company, rather than to herself directly. Andy McSmith, writing in The Independent at the beginning of December 2013, said that Dorries had finally disclosed her income (amounting to £20,228 in total) from appearing on I'm a Celebrity... in the register of members' interests.
Employment of family members
In 2013, Dorries' daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries' sister was taken on as "senior secretary" with a salary of £30,000–35,000. In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”
Criticism of fellow Conservative MP
In October 2013, Dorries described a fellow Conservative MP, Kris Hopkins, as "one of parliament's slimiest, nastiest MPs" on her Twitter account, and criticised Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to promote Hopkins to a junior ministerial post within the Department for Communities and Local Government as "a really awful decision".
Election court petition
On 29 May 2015, the independent candidate in Mid Bedfordshire, Tim Ireland, lodged an appeal against the result accusing Dorries of breaches of Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his character. The development first emerged in early-June after the three-week petition for such an action had expired. The petition was rejected by the High Court of Justice because it was served at Dorries' constituency office and not her home address.
Burka ban
In August 2018, Boris Johnson was criticised for a column that he had written in the Daily Telegraph. As part of an article discussing the introduction of a burka ban in Denmark, Johnson said that Muslim women who wore burkas "look like letter boxes" and the garment gave them the appearance of "bank robbers", although the point of the article was to condemn governments who tell "a free-born adult woman what she may or may not wear, in a public place, when she is simply minding her own business". Dorries, however, said that Johnson "did not go far enough", saying the burka should have no place in Britain and it was "shameful that countries like France and Denmark are way ahead of us on this". On 7 August 2018, Dorries tweeted "No woman in a liberal, progressive society should be forced to cover up her beauty or her bruises."
Brexit
In the June 2016 EU referendum, Dorries supported the Leave campaign and was critical of prime minister David Cameron, who backed Remain. Dorries called for Cameron to resign during the campaign in May 2016, and submitted a letter of no confidence to Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Buzzfeed reported that in October 2017 Dorries had become confused about her party's position on Brexit after talking with a politics teacher about a key element of her party's position, Britain's proposed exit from the European Union Customs Union. The EU Customs Union is an agreement between EU members not to impose tariffs (i.e. import taxes) on goods passing across their mutual borders. From a semi-private discussion that Buzzfeed made public, it was suggested that Dorries believed the UK could leave the EU but stay within the Customs Union whilst at the same time negotiating free trade deals with other countries. Later in December 2017 she tweeted: "If we stay in the Single Market and the Customs Union, we haven't left."
In November 2018, Dorries, who was strongly in favour of Brexit, said of the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated between the UK Government and the EU27: "This is a very sad place to be, but unfortunately, the future of the country and of our relationship with Europe is at stake. This deal gives us no voice, no votes, no MEPs, no commissioner".
Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Dorries was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety at the Department of Health and Social Care.
On 10 March 2020, Dorries became the first MP to be diagnosed with COVID-19. It is not known exactly when she contracted the disease, but it was reported that she had attended Parliament and visited 10 Downing Street before being required to self-isolate.
In May 2020, Dorries was promoted to the ministerial rank of Minister of State for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety.
On 14 May 2020, Dorries was criticised after she retweeted a doctored video from a far-right Twitter account which falsely claimed that Labour leader Keir Starmer obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs while he served as Director of Public Prosecutions.
In November 2020, she attracted media criticism after rejecting an offer of cross-party talks to discuss a mental health support package for frontline NHS and care staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Dorries defended the Government's 1% NHS pay-offer on the grounds that it would protect the financial support of those on furlough, stating that the "unprecedented" pressure on the UK's finances was behind the pay-offer.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
On 15 September 2021, Dorries was promoted as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport following Oliver Dowden's appointment as Conservative Party Co-chairman. She is a critic of what she believes to be elitism in the BBC and wants to push for "BBC reform".
Dorries was criticised in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee by John Nicolson due to her previous tweets towards LBC journalist James O'Brien.
In February 2022, amidst a controversy over a joke about Romani genocide, made by Jimmy Carr on a Netflix special, Dorries said that the government would bring in legislation to "hold to account" streaming companies for offensive content. She said there was no disconnect between this view and her previous opinions that "left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy".
Author
It became public knowledge in September 2013 that Dorries had signed a three-book deal for a six-figure advance; her first book was published the following April.
Her first novel, The Four Streets, which draws on her Liverpool Catholic background, became a No.1 best-selling e-book with 100,000 copies sold in the format by July 2014, although print sales in hardback and paperback were significantly lower with, respectively, 2,735 and 637 sales by then. Dorries' work of fiction gained mostly negative reviews.
Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman complained that some of the sentences "read like clippings from Wikipedia" while Christopher Howse, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described The Four Streets as "the worst novel I've read in 10 years". "You should read the next one. It’s much better", Dorries told Ann Treneman of The Times.
Personal life
Dorries married mining engineer Paul Dorries in 1984. They had three daughters before separating in 2007 and subsequently divorcing; he suffered from multiple sclerosis and she said they had reached "entirely different stages in [their] lives".
Dorries is a keen supporter of Liverpool FC, but has said that her great-grandfather George Bargery was one of the founders of rival team Everton FC and was the team's first ever goalkeeper.
Honours
She was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 20 September 2021 at Balmoral Castle. This gave her the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.
Notes
References
External links
Nadine Dorries: brave Tory rebel or a self-serving stunt woman? | profile Guardian profile of Dorries
The Blog of Nadine Dorries official site
"The Columnists: Nadine Dorries", ConservativeHome
Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives
Meet the MP: Nadine Dorries, BBC News, 28 November 2005
1957 births
Living people
English people of Irish descent
Politicians from Liverpool
21st-century English women
21st-century British women politicians
British anti-abortion activists
British Protestants
British Secretaries of State
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English nurses
British women bloggers
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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[
"The 1947 AAFC Draft was the first collegiate draft of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). It used an inverse order to the teams' final standings in the 1946 season. The Buffalo Bills, which had finished with the same record as the Brooklyn Dodgers, drafted second in each round, with Brooklyn drafting third. \n\nBeginning in round 16 a type of supplemental draft was held. From rounds 16 through 25, the Cleveland Browns and New York Yankees which were the league's top two teams, did not make any selections. From rounds 21 to 25, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Dons did not receive any selections.\n\nAlthough the Miami Seahawks played in the league's inaugural season, the franchise was confiscated by the AAFC prior to the draft for failure to fulfill contractual obligations. Their selections were exercised by their head coach Hampton Poole, and were listed under the name \"Florida Seahawks\". On December 28, its assets (including its draft choices rights) were sold to a group of entrepreneurs who founded the original Baltimore Colts.\n\nSpecial Draft\nPrior to the regular draft, 'special selections' were made. It is not known why these were not part of the regular draft or in what order they were executed. All teams had two, except the Buffalo Bills, which had four, because the Los Angeles Dons and San Francisco 49ers, each traded one of its choices to Buffalo.\n\nPlayer selections\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n 1947 AAFC Draft\n 1947 AAFC Draft Pick Transactions\n\nAll-America Football Conference\nAll-America Football Conference",
"The 1966 American Football League draft was held on Saturday, November 27, 1965. The AFL added the Miami Dolphins as an expansion team in 1966 to bring its total to nine franchises for its seventh season. The only Hall of Famer to come out of this draft was Jan Stenerud, who was picked by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round of the Red Shirt portion of the draft.\n\nThis was the last competitive draft of the American Football League before the AFL–NFL merger agreement, which was announced in June 1966. The next draft of college players in 1967 was a common draft, held in mid-March.\n\nThe 1966 NFL Draft was held the same day, November 27, 1965.\n\nPlayer selections (AFL)\n\nRound one\n\n*As an expansion team, Miami picked first in every round and was awarded an extra pick at the beginning of the draft.\n*New York deferred its first round selection, taking the 13th pick instead of the 9th.\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds and traded its sixth round pick. Its first round pick was made after the 7th round, 63rd overall. They made their second, third, and fifth round picks in the middle of the 7th round, so the first round pick was actually the fourth pick Oakland made.\n\nRound two\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds and traded its sixth round pick. Its second round pick was made during the 7th round, 57th overall. This was the first pick Oakland made in the draft.\n\nRound three\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds and traded its sixth round pick. Its third round pick was made during the 7th round, 58th overall. This was the second pick Oakland made in the draft.\n\nRound four\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds and traded its sixth round pick. Its fourth round pick was made during the 8th round, 71st overall. This was the fifth pick Oakland made in the draft.\n\nRound five\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds and traded its sixth round pick. Its fifth round pick was made during the 7th round, 59th overall. This was the third pick Oakland made in the draft.\n\nRound six\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds and traded its sixth round pick.\n\nRound seven\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds. Picks 57, 58, & 59 were deferred Oakland picks and are shown in rounds two, three, and five respectively.\n\nRound eight\n\n*Oakland deferred its selections until after the first six rounds. Pick 70 would have been Oakland's pick in the 8th round but was skipped. Pick 71 was a deferred Oakland pick and is shown in round four.\n\nRound nine\n\nRound ten\n\nRound eleven\n\nRound twelve\n\nRound thirteen\n\nRound fourteen\n\nRound fifteen\n\nRound sixteen\n\nRound seventeen\n\nRound eighteen\n\nRound nineteen\n\nRound twenty\n\nRedshirt draft\n\nRed Shirt Round one\n\nRed Shirt Round two\n\nRed Shirt Round three\n\nRed Shirt Round four\n\nRed Shirt Round five\n\nRed Shirt Round six\n\nRed Shirt Round seven\n\nRed Shirt Round eight\n\nRed Shirt Round nine\n\nRed Shirt Round ten\n\nRed Shirt Round eleven\n\nNotable undrafted players\n\nSee also\n 1966 NFL Draft\n\nReferences\nSt. Petersburg Times – Top Pro Draft Selections – November 29, 1965 – page 3C\nMilwaukee Sentinel – NFL, AFL Draft of College Football Players – November 29, 1965 – page 8, part 2\nPittsburgh Post Gazette – AFL Draft Selections – November 29, 1965 – page 38\n\nExternal links\nPro Football Reference – 1966 AFL Draft\nPro Football Hall of Fame – 1966 Draft\nRemember the AFL – 1966 Draft\n\n1966\nDraft"
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[
"Hugh Trevor-Roper",
"General crisis of the 17th century"
] |
C_5497310d59f3429a948d2617f5f10abd_0
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What were Trevor-Ropers thoughts on the general crisis of the 17th century?
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What were Trevor-Ropers thoughts on the general crisis of the 17th century?
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Hugh Trevor-Roper
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A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis," various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the "general crisis" in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between "Court" and "Country"; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis." The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis," but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis," for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schoffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory. At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis;" instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism. CANNOTANSWER
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He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society
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Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most widely read and financially rewarding book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From his interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
Early life and education
Trevor-Roper was born at Glanton, Northumberland, England, the son of Kathleen Elizabeth Davidson (died 1964) and Bertie William Edward Trevor-Roper (1885–1978), a doctor, descended from Henry Roper, 8th Baron Teynham, who married, Anne, (her second husband) 16th Baroness Dacre. Trevor-Roper "enjoyed (but not too seriously)... that he was a collateral descendant of William Roper, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Thomas More... as a boy he was aware that only a dozen lives (several of them those of elderly bachelors) separated him from inheriting the Teynham peerage."
Trevor-Roper's brother, Patrick, became a leading eye surgeon and gay rights activist. Trevor-Roper was educated at Belhaven Hill School, Charterhouse, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read first Classics (Literae Humaniores) and then Modern History, later moving to Merton College, Oxford, to become a Research Fellow. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the exclusive Stubbs Society and was initiated as a Freemason in the Apollo University Lodge.
Trevor-Roper took a first in Classical Moderations in 1934 and won the Craven, the Ireland, and the Hertford scholarships in Classics. Initially, he intended to make his career in the Classics but became bored with what he regarded as the pedantic technical aspects of the classics course at Oxford and switched to History, where he obtained first-class honours in 1936. Trevor-Roper's first book was a 1940 biography of Archbishop William Laud, in which he challenged many of the prevailing perceptions surrounding Laud.
Military service in World War II
During World War II, Trevor-Roper served as an officer in the Radio Security Service of the Secret Intelligence Service, and then on the interception of messages from the German intelligence service, the Abwehr. In early 1940, Trevor-Roper and E. W. B. Gill decrypted some of these intercepts, demonstrating the relevance of the material and spurring Bletchley Park efforts to decrypt the traffic. Intelligence from Abwehr traffic later played an important part in many operations including the Double-Cross System.
He formed a low opinion of most pre-war professional intelligence agents, but a higher one of some of the post-1939 recruits. In The Philby Affair (1968) Trevor-Roper argues that the Soviet spy Kim Philby was never in a position to undermine efforts by the chief of the Abwehr, German Military Intelligence, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to overthrow the Nazi regime and negotiate with the British government.
Investigating Hitler's last days
In November 1945, Trevor-Roper was ordered by Dick White, then head of counter-intelligence in the British sector of Berlin, to investigate the circumstances of Adolf Hitler's death, and to rebut the Soviet propaganda that Hitler was alive and living in the West. Using the alias of "Major Oughton", Trevor-Roper interviewed or prepared questions for several officials, high and low, who had been present in the Führerbunker with Hitler, and who had been able to escape to the West, including Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven.
For the most part Trevor-Roper relied on investigations and interviews by hundreds of British, American and Canadian intelligence officers. He did not have access to Soviet materials. Working rapidly, Trevor-Roper drafted his report, which served as the basis for his most famous book, The Last Days of Hitler, in which he described the last ten days of Hitler's life and the fates of some of the higher-ranking members of the inner circle, as well as those of key lesser figures. Trevor-Roper transformed the evidence into a literary work, with sardonic humour and drama, and was much influenced by the prose styles of two of his favourite historians, Edward Gibbon and Lord Macaulay.
The book was cleared by British officials in 1946 for publication as soon as the war crimes trials ended. It was published in English in 1947; six English editions and many foreign language editions followed. According to American journalist Ron Rosenbaum, Trevor-Roper received a letter from Lisbon written in Hebrew stating that the Stern Gang would assassinate him for The Last Days of Hitler, which, they believed, portrayed Hitler as a "demoniacal" figure but let ordinary Germans who followed Hitler off the hook, and that for this he deserved to die. Rosenbaum reports that Trevor-Roper told him this was the most extreme response he had ever received for one of his books.
Anti-communism
In June 1950, Trevor-Roper attended a conference in Berlin of anti-Communist intellectuals along with Sidney Hook, Melvin J. Lasky, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron and Franz Borkenau that resulted in the founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and its magazine Encounter. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a frequent contributor to Encounter, but had reservations about what he regarded as the over-didactic tone of some of its contributors, particularly Koestler and Borkenau.
Historical debates and controversies
Trevor-Roper was famous for his lucid and acerbic writing style. In reviews and essays he could be pitilessly sarcastic, and devastating in his mockery. In attacking Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History, for instance, Trevor-Roper accused Toynbee of regarding himself as a Messiah complete with "the youthful Temptations; the missionary Journeys; the Miracles; the Revelations; the Agony".
For Trevor-Roper, the major themes of early modern Europe were its intellectual vitality, and the quarrels between Protestant and Catholic states, the latter being outpaced by the former, economically and constitutionally. In Trevor-Roper's view, another theme of early modern Europe was expansion overseas in the form of colonies and intellectual expansion in the form of the Reformation and the Enlightenment. In Trevor-Roper's view, the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries can ultimately be traced back to the conflict between the religious values of the Reformation and the rationalistic approach of what became the Enlightenment.
Trevor-Roper argued that history should be understood as an art, not a science and that the attribute of a successful historian was imagination. He viewed history as full of contingency, with the past neither a story of continuous advance nor of continuous decline but the consequence of choices made by individuals at the time. In his studies of early modern Europe, Trevor-Roper did not focus exclusively upon political history but sought to examine the interaction between the political, intellectual, social and religious trends. His preferred medium of expression was the essay rather than the book. In his essays in social history, written during the 1950s and 1960s, Trevor-Roper was influenced by the work of the French Annales School, especially Fernand Braudel and did much to introduce the work of the Annales school to the English-speaking world. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper wrote that Braudel and the rest of the school were doing much innovative historical work but were "totally excluded from Oxford which remains, in historical matters, a retrograde provincial backwater".
English Civil War
In Trevor-Roper's opinion, the dispute between the Puritans and the Arminians was a major, although not the sole, cause of the English Civil War. For him, the dispute was over such issues as free will and predestination and the role of preaching versus the sacraments; only later did the dispute become a matter of the structure of the Church of England. The Puritans desired a more decentralised and egalitarian church, with an emphasis on the laity, while the Arminians wished for an ordered church with a hierarchy, an emphasis on divine right and salvation through free will.
As a historian of early modern Britain, Trevor-Roper was known for his disputes with fellow historians such as Lawrence Stone and Christopher Hill, whose materialist (and in some measure "inevitablist") explanations of the English Civil War he attacked. Trevor-Roper was a leading player in the historiographical storm over the gentry (also known as the Gentry controversy), a dispute with the historians R. H. Tawney and Stone, about whether the English gentry were, economically, on the way down or up, in the century before the English Civil War and whether this helped cause that war.
Stone, Tawney and Hill argued that the gentry were rising economically and that this caused the Civil War. Trevor-Roper argued that while office-holders and lawyers were prospering, the lesser gentry were in decline. A third group of history men around J. H. Hexter and Geoffrey Elton, argued that the causes of the Civil War had nothing to do with the gentry. In 1948, a paper put forward by Stone in support of Tawney's thesis was vigorously attacked by Trevor-Roper, who showed that Stone had exaggerated the debt problems of the Tudor nobility. He also rejected Tawney's theories about the rising gentry and declining nobility, arguing that he was guilty of selective use of evidence and that he misunderstood the statistics.
World War II and Hitler
Trevor-Roper attacked the philosophies of history advanced by Arnold J. Toynbee and E. H. Carr, as well as his colleague A. J. P. Taylor's account of the origins of World War II. Another dispute was with Taylor and Alan Bullock over the question of whether Adolf Hitler had fixed aims. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper was ferocious in his criticism of Bullock for his portrayal of Hitler as a "mountebank" instead of the ideologue Trevor-Roper believed him to be. When Taylor offered a picture of Hitler similar to Bullock's, in his 1961 book The Origins of the Second World War, the debate continued. Another feud was with the novelist and Catholic convert Evelyn Waugh, who was angered by Trevor-Roper's repeated harsh attacks on the Catholic Church.
In the globalist–continentalist debate between those who argued that Hitler aimed to conquer the world and those who argued that he sought only the conquest of Europe, Trevor-Roper was one of the leading continentalists. He argued that the globalist case sought to turn a scattering of Hitler's remarks made over decades into a plan. In his analysis, the only consistent objective Hitler sought was the domination of Europe, as laid out in Mein Kampf. The American historian Lucy Dawidowicz in The Holocaust and Historians (1981) delivered what the British historian David Cesarani called an "ad hominem attack", writing that Trevor-Roper in his writings on Nazi Germany was indifferent to Nazi antisemitism, because she believed that he was a snobbish antisemite, who was apathetic about the murder of six million Jews. Cesarani wrote that Dawidowicz was wrong to accuse Trevor-Roper of antisemitism but argued that there was an element of truth to her critique in that the Shoah was a blind-spot for Trevor-Roper.
Trevor-Roper was a very firm "intentionist" who treated Hitler as a serious, if slightly deranged thinker who, from 1924 until his death in 1945, was obsessed with "the conquest of Russia, the extermination of the Slavs, and the colonization of the English". In his 1962 essay "The Mind of Adolf Hitler", Trevor-Roper again criticized Bullock, writing "Even Mr. Bullock seems content to regard him as a diabolical adventurer animated solely by an unlimited lust for personal power... Hitler was a systematic thinker and his mind is, to the historian, as important as the mind of Bismarck or Lenin". Trevor-Roper maintained that Hitler, on the basis of a wide range of antisemitic literature, from the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, had constructed a racist ideology that called for making Germany the world's greatest power and the extermination of perceived enemies like the Jews and Slavs.
Trevor-Roper wrote that the mind of Hitler was "a terrible phenomenon, imposing indeed in its granite harshness and yet infinitely squalid in its miscellaneous cumber, like some huge barbarian monolith; the expression of giant strength and savage genius; surrounded by a festering heap of refuse, old tins and vermin, ashes and eggshells and ordure, the intellectual detritus of centuries". Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper regarded Hitler, in marked contrast to Bullock, as a man who was serious about what he said but at the same time, Trevor-Roper's picture of Hitler as a somewhat insane leader, fanatically pursuing lunatic policies, meant paradoxically that it was hard to take Hitler seriously, at least on the basis of Trevor-Roper's writings. Cesarani stated that Trevor-Roper was sincere in his hatred and contempt for the Nazis and everything they stood for but he had considerable difficulty when it came to writing about the complicity and involvement of traditional German elites in National Socialism, because the traditional elites in Germany were so similar in many ways to the British Establishment, which Trevor-Roper identified with so strongly.
In this respect, Cesarani argued that it was very revealing that Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler was especially damning in his picture of the German Finance Minister, Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, whom Trevor-Roper noted "had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, but he had acquired none of its values". Cesarani wrote "Thus, to Trevor-Roper the values of Oxford University stood at the opposite pole to those of Hitler's Reich, and one reason for the ghastly character of Nazism was that it did not share them". Cesarani noted that while Trevor-Roper supported the Conservatives and ended his days as a Tory life-peer, he was broadly speaking a liberal and believed that Britain was a great nation because of its liberalism. Because of this background, Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper naturally saw the liberal democracy Britain as anathema to Nazi Germany. Cesarani concluded "...to maintain the illusion of virtuous British liberalism, Hitler had to be depicted as either a statesman like any other or a monster without equal, and those who did business with him as, respectively, pragmatists or dupes. Every current of Nazi society that made it distinctive could be charted, while the anti-Jewish racism that it shared with Britain was discreetly avoided".
General crisis of the 17th century
A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis,” various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the “general crisis” in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between “Court” and “Country”; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis."
The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis,” but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis,” for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schöffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory.
At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper, the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya, attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis"; instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism.
First World War
In 1973, Trevor-Roper in the foreword to a book by John Röhl endorsed the view that Germany was largely responsible for the First World War. Trevor-Roper wrote that in his opinion far too many British historians had allowed themselves to be persuaded of the theory that the outbreak of war in 1914 had been the fault of all the great powers. He claimed that this theory had been promoted by the German government's policy of selective publication of documents, aided and abetted by most German historians in a policy of "self-censorship." He praised Röhl for finding and publishing two previously secret documents that showed German responsibility for the war.
Backhouse frauds
In 1973, Trevor-Roper was invited to visit Switzerland to examine a manuscript entitled Decadence Mandchoue written by the sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse (1873–1944) in a mixture of English, French, Latin and Chinese that had been in the custody of Reinhard Hoeppli, a Swiss diplomat who was the Swiss consul in Beijing during World War II. Hoeppli, given Decadence Mandchoue in 1943 by his friend Backhouse, had been unable to publish it owing to its sexually explicit content. But by 1973 looser censorship and the rise of the gay rights movement meant a publisher was willing to release Decadence Mandchoue to the market. However, before doing so they wanted Trevor-Roper, who as a former MI6 officer was an expert on clandestine affairs, to examine some of the more outlandish claims contained in the text.
For an example, Backhouse claimed in Decadence Mandchoue that the wives and daughters of British diplomats in Beijing had trained their dogs and tamed foxes to perform cunnilingus on them, which the fascistic Backhouse used as evidence of British "decadence", which in turn explained why he was supporting Germany and Japan in the Second World War. Trevor-Roper regarded Decadence Mandchoue with considerable distaste calling the manuscript "pornographic" and "obscene" as Backhouse related in graphic detail sexual encounters he claimed to have had with the French poet Paul Verlaine, the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, the British Prime Minister Lord Rosebery and the Empress Dowager Cixi of China whom the openly gay Backhouse had maintained had forced herself on him.
Backhouse also claimed to have been the friend of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. For the next two years, Trevor-Roper went on an odyssey that took him all over Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and China as he sought to unravel the mystery of just who the elusive Backhouse was. Backhouse had between 1898 and his death in 1944 worked as a sinologist, the business agent for several British and American companies in China, a British spy, gun-runner and translator before finally ending his days in World War II China as a fascist and a Japanese collaborator who wished fervently for an Axis victory which would destroy Great Britain. Trevor-Roper noted that despite Backhouse's homosexuality and Nazi Germany's policy of persecuting homosexuals, Backhouse's intense hatred of his own country together with his sadistic-masochistic sexual needs meant that Backhouse longed to be "...ravished and possessed by the brutal, but still perverted masculinity of the fascist Führerprinzip".
The end result was one of Trevor-Roper's most successful later books, his 1976 biography of Backhouse, originally entitled A Hidden Life but soon republished in Britain and the US as The Hermit of Peking. Backhouse had long been regarded as a world's leading expert on China. In his biography, Trevor-Roper exposed the vast majority of Sir Edmund's life-story and virtually all of his scholarship as a fraud. In Decadence Mandchoue, Backhouse spoke of his efforts to raise money to pay the defence lawyers for Wilde while he was an undergraduate at Oxford. Trevor-Roper established that while Backhouse did indeed raise money for the Wilde defence fund, he spent it all on buying expensive jewellery, especially pearl necklaces, which were a special passion of Backhouse's. It was this embezzlement of the money Backhouse had raised for the Wilde defence fund that led to him fleeing Britain in 1895. The discrediting of Backhouse as a source led to much of China's history being re-written in the West. Backhouse had portrayed Prince Ronglu as a friend of the West and an enemy of the Boxers when the opposite was true.
Trevor-Roper noted that in the "diary" of Ching Shan, which Backhouse claimed to have looted from Ching's house just before it was burned down by Indian troops in the Boxer Rebellion, it has Prince Ronglu saying about the government's support of the Boxers: "C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute" ("It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder."). Trevor-Roper argued that it was extremely unlikely that Prince Ronglu – who only knew Manchu and Mandarin – would be quoting a well-known French expression, but noted that Backhouse was fluent in French. Backhouse was fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, lived most of his life in Beijing and after moving to China had declined to wear western clothes, preferring instead the gown of a Chinese mandarin, which led most Westerners to assume that Backhouse "knew" China. Trevor-Roper noted that despite his superficial appearance of affection for the Chinese, much of what Backhouse wrote about on China worked subtly to confirm Western "Yellow Peril" stereotypes, as Backhouse variously depicted the Chinese as pathologically dishonest, sexually perverted, morally corrupt and generally devious and treacherous – in short, Chinese civilization for Backhouse was a deeply sick civilization.
Oxford activities
In 1960, Trevor-Roper waged a successful campaign against the candidacy of Sir Oliver Franks who was backed by the heads of houses marshalled by Maurice Bowra, for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford, helping the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to be elected instead. In 1964, Trevor-Roper edited a Festschrift in honour of his friend Sir Keith Feiling's 80th birthday. In 1970, he was the author of The Letters of Mercurius, a satirical work on the student revolts and university politics of the late 1960s, originally published as letters in The Spectator.
Debates on African history
Another aspect of Trevor-Roper's outlook on history and on scholarly research that has inspired controversy, is his statement about the historical experiences of pre-literate societies. Following Voltaire's remarks on the fall of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian tribes, he asserted that Africa had no history prior to European exploration and colonisation. Africa is "no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit". Trevor-Roper said "there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness", its past "the unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe." These comments, recapitulated in a later article which called Africa "unhistoric", spurred intense debate between historians, anthropologists, sociologists, in the emerging fields of postcolonial and cultural studies about the definition of "history". Historians have argued, in response, that historical myths of the kind perpetrated by Trevor-Roper need to be actively countered: "Only a process of counter-selection can correct this, and African historians have to concentrate on those aspects which were ignored by the disparaging mythologies".
Many historians now argue, against Trevor-Roper, that historical evidence should also include oral traditions as well as written history, a former criterion for a society having left "prehistory". Critics of Trevor-Roper's claim have questioned the validity of systematic interpretations of the African past, whether by materialist, Annalist or the traditional historical methods used by Trevor-Roper. Some say approaches which compare Africa with Europe or directly integrate it into European history cannot be accurate descriptions of African societies. Virtually all scholars now agree that Africa has a "history". Despite controversies over historical accuracy in oral records, as in Alex Haley's Roots book and popular TV mini-series, African griots, or oral memoirists, provided a historical oral record.
"Hitler Diaries" hoax
The nadir of his career came in 1983, when as a director of The Times, Baron Dacre of Glanton (as he was by this point) made statements that authenticated the so-called Hitler Diaries. Others were unsure: David Irving, for example, initially decried them as forgeries but subsequently changed his mind and declared that they could be genuine, before finally stating that they were a forgery. Historians Gerhard Weinberg and Eberhard Jäckel had also expressed doubt regarding the authenticity of the diaries.
Within two weeks, forensic scientist Julius Grant demonstrated that the diaries were forgeries. The ensuing fiasco gave Trevor-Roper's enemies the opportunity to criticise him openly, while Trevor-Roper's initial endorsement of the diaries raised questions about his integrity: The Sunday Times, a newspaper to which he regularly contributed book reviews and of which he was an independent director, had already paid a considerable sum for the right to serialise the diaries if and only if they were genuine.
Trevor-Roper explained that he had been given assurances (that turned out to be false) about how the diaries had come into the possession of their "discoverer", and about the age of the paper and ink used in them and of their authenticity. Nonetheless, this incident prompted the satirical magazine Private Eye to nickname him Hugh Very-Ropey (Lord Lucre of Claptout), or more concisely, Lord Facre.
Despite the shadow this cast over his later career, he continued to write and publish and his work remained well received. Trevor-Roper was portrayed in the 1991 TV miniseries Selling Hitler by Alan Bennett.
Election as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge
In 1980 at the age of 67, he became Master of Peterhouse, the oldest and smallest college in the University of Cambridge. His election, which surprised his friends, was engineered by a group of fellows led by Maurice Cowling, then the leading Peterhouse historian. The fellows chose him because Cowling's reactionary clique thought he would be an arch-conservative who would oppose the admission of women. In the event, Trevor-Roper feuded constantly with Cowling and his allies, while launching a series of administrative reforms. Women were admitted in 1983 at his urging. The British journalist Neal Ascherson summarised the quarrel between Cowling and Trevor-Roper as:Lord Dacre, far from being a romantic Tory ultra, turned out to be an anti-clerical Whig with a preference for free speech over superstition. He did not find it normal that fellows should wear mourning on the anniversary of General Franco’s death, attend parties in SS uniform or insult black and Jewish guests at high table. For the next seven years, Trevor-Roper battled to suppress the insurgency of the Cowling clique ("a strong mind trapped in its own glutinous frustrations"), and to bring the college back to a condition in which students might actually want to go there. Neither side won this struggle, which soon became a campaign to drive Trevor-Roper out of the college by grotesque rudeness and insubordination. In a review of Adam Sisman's 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper, the Economist wrote that the picture of Peterhouse in the 1980s was "startling", stating the college had become under Cowling's influence a sort of right-wing "lunatic asylum", who were determined to sabotage Trevor-Roper's reforms. In 1987 he retired complaining of "seven wasted years."
Festschrift
In 1981 a Festschrift was published in honour of Trevor-Roper, History and the Imagination. Some of the contributors were Sir Geoffrey Elton, John Clive, Arnaldo Momigliano, Frances Yates, Jeremy Catto, Robert S. Lopez, Michael Howard, David S. Katz, Dimitri Obolensky, J. H. Elliott, Richard Cobb, Walter Pagel, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Valerie Pearl and Fernand Braudel. The topics contributed by this group of American, British, French, Russian, Italian, Israeli, Canadian and German historians extended from whether the Odyssey was a part of an oral tradition that was later written down, to the question of the responsibility for the Jameson Raid.
Personal life
On 4 October 1954, Trevor-Roper married Lady Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Howard-Johnston (9 March 1907 – 15 August 1997), eldest daughter of Field Marshal Earl Haig by his wife, the former Hon. Dorothy Maud Vivian. Lady Alexandra was a goddaughter of Queen Alexandra and had previously been married to Rear-Admiral Clarence Dinsmore Howard-Johnston, by whom she had had three children. There were no children by his marriage with her.
Hugh Trevor-Roper was made a life peer in 1979 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was raised to the Peerage on 27 September 1979, and was introduced to the House of Lords as Baron Dacre of Glanton, of Glanton in the County of Northumberland. He did not base his title on his surname, because "double-barrelled titles are an invention, and a monopoly, of Wilsonian peers", and "under the rules of the College of Arms either ['Lord Trevor' or 'Lord Roper'] would require him to change his surname to either 'Trevor' or 'Roper.'" On mentioning the family's connection to the Dacre title to his wife, who liked the sound of it, Trevor-Roper was persuaded to opt for the title of "Baron Dacre", despite staunch opposition from the suo jure 27th Baroness Dacre (née Brand). She had her cousin, Anthony Brand, 6th Viscount Hampden, "as titular head of the Brand family", inform Trevor-Roper that the Dacre title belonged to the Brand family "and no-one else should breach their monopoly", on the grounds of the title's antiquity of over six centuries. This high-handed treatment strengthened Trevor-Roper's resolve in the face of his initial ambivalence; he observed "why should the Brands be so 'proud', or so jealous, of a mere title... a gewgaw, which has been bandied intermittently from family to family for six centuries, without tradition or continuity or distinction (except for murder, litigation and extravagance) or, for the last 250 years, land? They only acquired this pretty toy, in 1829, because a Mr Brand, of whom nothing whatever is known, had married into the Trevor-Ropers (who had themselves acquired it by marrying into the Lennards). Now they behave as if they had owned it for six centuries and had a monopoly of it for ever. A fig for their stuffiness!" Notwithstanding objections, Trevor-Roper duly took the title of Baron Dacre of Glanton.
In his last years he had suffered from failing eyesight, which made it difficult for him to read and write. He underwent cataract surgery and obtained a magnifying machine, which allowed him to continue writing. In 2002, at the age of 88, Trevor-Roper submitted a sizable article on Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School, to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in part with notes he had written decades earlier, which editor Brian Harrison praised as "the work of a master". Trevor-Roper suffered several other minor ailments related to his advanced age, but according to his stepson, "bore all his difficulties stoically and without complaint". That year, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on 26 January 2003 in a hospice in Oxford, aged 89.
Posthumous books
Five books by Trevor-Roper were published posthumously. The first was Letters from Oxford, a collection of letters written by Trevor-Roper between 1947–59 to his close friend the American art collector Bernard Berenson. The second book was 2006's Europe’s Physician, an unfinished biography of Sir Theodore de Mayerne, the Franco-Swiss court physician to Henri IV, James I and Charles I. The latter work was largely completed by 1979, but for some unknown reasons was not finished.
The third book was The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, a critique written in the mid-1970s of what Trevor-Roper regarded as the myths of Scottish nationalism. It was published in 2008. The fourth book collecting together some of his essays on History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays was published in 2010. The fifth book was The Wartime Journals, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, published in 2011. The Wartime Journals are from Trevor-Roper's journals that he kept during his years in the Secret Intelligence Service.
Works
Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645, 1940.
The Last Days of Hitler, 1947 (revised editions followed, until the last in 1995)
"The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized," Economic History Review (1951) 3 No 3 pp. 279–298 in JSTOR
Secret Conversations, 1941–1944 (published later as Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944), 1953.
Historical Essays, 1957 (published in the United States in 1958 as Men and Events).
"The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century", Past and Present, Volume 16, 1959 pp. 31–64.
"Hitlers Kriegsziele", in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitsgeschichte, Volume 8, 1960 pp. 121–133, translated into English as "Hitler's War Aims" pages 235–250 from Aspects of the Third Reich edited by H.W. Koch, London: Macmillan Ltd, 1985.
"A. J. P. Taylor, Hitler and the War", Encounter, Volume 17, July 1961 pp. 86–96.
"E. H. Carr's Success Story", Encounter, Volume 84, Issue No 104, 1962 pp. 69–77.
Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler's War Directives, 1939–1945, 1964, 1965.
Essays in British history presented to Sir Keith Feiling edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper; with a foreword by Lord David Cecil (1964)
The Rise of Christian Europe (History of European Civilization series), 1965.
Hitler's Place in History, 1965.
The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century: Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change, and Other Essays, 1967.
The Age of Expansion, Europe and the World, 1559–1600, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1968.
The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason and Secret Services, 1968.
The Romantic Movement and the Study of History: the John Coffin memorial lecture delivered before the University of London on 17 February 1969, 1969.
The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1969
The Plunder of the Arts in the Seventeenth Century, 1970.
The Letters of Mercurius, 1970. (London: John Murray)
Queen Elizabeth's First Historian: William Camden and the Beginning of English "Civil History", 1971.
"Fernand Braudel, the Annales, and the Mediterranean," The Journal of Modern History Vol. 44, No. 4, December 1972
"Foreword" pages 9–16 from 1914: Delusion or Design The Testimony of Two German Diplomats edited by John Röhl, 1973.
A Hidden Life: The Enigma of Sir Edmund Backhouse (published in the US, and in later Eland editions in the UK, as The Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse), 1976.
Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517–1633, 1976.
History and Imagination: A Valedictory Lecture Delivered before the University of Oxford on 20 May 1980, 1980.
Renaissance Essays, 1985.
Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: Seventeenth Century Essays, 1987.
The Golden Age of Europe: From Elizabeth I to the Sun King, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1987.
From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, 1992.
Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 introduction (London: Everyman's Library, 1993).
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson. Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines. L.: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, .
Europe’s Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore De Mayerne, 2007, .
The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, 2008,
History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays, 2010,
Primary sources
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson edited by Richard Davenport-Hines (2007)
My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to Hugh Trevor-Roper and Others edited by Tim Heald (2011) [NB does not contain any letters written by Trevor-Roper]
One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, and Adam Sisman (2013) except and text search Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
The Wartime Journals: Hugh Trevor-Roper, Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, 2011 . Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
Dacre made an extended appearance on the television programme After Dark in 1989 (discussed here)
See also
List of books by or about Adolf Hitler
Historiography of the United Kingdom
Notes
References
; published in North America as
Discussion of H. R. Trevor-Roper: "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" pages 8–42 from Past and Present, No. 18, November 1960 with contributions from Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, H. R. Trevor-Roper, E. H. Kossmann, E. J. Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter.
Further reading
External links
About Trevor-Roper
Michael Knox Beran: H. R. Trevor-Roper, R.I.P, nationalreview.com, 31 January 2003.
Barnard, T. (Faculty of History, University of Oxford) Obituary, History Faculty Alumni Newsletter, No. 1, April 2003.
(there are several discrepancies between these sources)
By Trevor-Roper
1914 births
2003 deaths
20th-century English historians
Academic scandals
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Deaths from cancer in England
Dacre of Glanton
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford
Fellows of Merton College, Oxford
Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Historians of Nazism
Masters of Peterhouse, Cambridge
People educated at Charterhouse School
People from Northumberland
Regius Professors of History (University of Oxford)
People educated at Belhaven Hill School
Fellows of the British Academy
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"Alexandra Dmitrievna Lublinskaya (, May 27, 1902 – January 22, 1980) was a Russian scholar specialising in the history of seventeenth-century France, among other things.\n\nHer French Absolutism, originally published in Russian in 1965, and translated into English by Brian Pearce, with a foreword by J. H. Elliott, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1968. It is a criticism of the general crisis of the 17th century thesis proposed by Hugh Trevor-Roper. The \"general crisis\" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who believed in the \"general crisis,\" but saw the problems of 17th-century Europe as more social and economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction comprised those who simply denied there was any \"general crisis,\" including Lublinskaya, Dutch historian Ivo Schöffer and the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard.\n\nHer professional publications number over 200, on a great variety of topics, but can be broken into three categories: works on paleography, critical publication of historical documents, and monographs and articles on the social and political history of medieval and early modern France (\"middle ages\" in Soviet chronology extended to about 1650).\n\nHer magnum opus was a series of books on the history of the administration of Richelieu. The first book was Frantsiia v nachale XVII veka (1610-1622 gg.) \"France at the beginning of the 17th century, 1610-1620\" published in 1959. This was followed by French Absolutism: the Crucial Phase, 1620-1629 in 1965. A third book was published just before her death covering the years 1630–42. Another major work was Frantsuzskie krest'iane v XVI-XVIII vv. (\"French peasants in the 16th-18th centuries\"), published in 1978.\n\nEnglish editions\nFrench Absolutism: The Crucial Phase, 1620-1629. Cambridge University Press (2008)\n\nReferences\n\n20th-century historians\n1902 births\n1980 deaths\nRussian historians\nSoviet historians\nSoviet Marxist historians\nSoviet women writers",
"The General Crisis is a term used by some historians to describe an alleged period of widespread global conflict and instability that occurred from the early 17th century to the early 18th century in Europe, and in more recent historiography in the world at large.\n\nDefinitions and debates \nSince the mid-20th century, some scholars have proposed widely different definitions, causes, events, periodisations and geographical applications of a 'General Crisis', disagreeing with each other in debates. Other scholars have rejected the various concepts of a General Crisis altogether, claiming there was no such generalised phenomenon connecting various events due to a lack of linkeages between the events and widely shared commonalities in their character, and that generalised historical concepts such as the 'General Crisis' may be unhelpful in education.\n Economic crisis in Europe: The origin of the concept stems from British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm in his pair of 1954 articles, \"The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century\", published in Past & Present. Hobsbawm regarded the 17th century as 'a necessary phase of economic crisis required by the progress of modernity.'\n\n General Crisis in Western Europe: British conservative historian Hugh Trevor-Roper modified Hobsbawm's concept and coined the term 'General Crisis' in a 1959 article entitled \"The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century\" published in the same journal. Hobsbawm discussed an economic crisis in Europe; Trevor-Roper saw a wider crisis, \"a crisis in the relations between society and the State\". Trevor-Roper argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread breakdown in politics, economics and society caused by a complex series of demographic, religious, economic and political problems. In the \"general crisis\", various events such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia were all manifestations of the same problem. The most important cause of the \"general crisis\", in Trevor-Roper’s opinion, was the conflict between \"Court\" and \"Country\"; that is between the increasingly powerful centralising, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states represented by the court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry representing the country. He saw the intellectual and religious changes introduced by the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation as important secondary causes of the \"general crisis\". Trevor-Roper argued that the 'violent socio-economic struggles and profound shifts in religious and intellectual values' of the 17th century were caused by the formation of modern nation-states.\n\n General Crisis involving global climate change: Subsequent historians interested in the General Crisis include Geoffrey Parker, who has authored multiple books on the subject. Initially, Parker (1997) broadly followed the concept of Trevor-Roper, but in 2013 he expanded the concept to argue there was a global General Crisis, exacerbated by the global climate change known as the \"Little Ice Age\".\n\nThere were various controversies regarding the \"general crisis\" thesis between historians. Some simply denied the existence of any such crisis. For instance, Hobsbawm saw the problems of 17th-century Europe as being social and economic in origin, an emphasis that Trevor-Roper would not concede. Instead, he theorised that the 'General Crisis' was a crisis of state and society, precipitated by the expansion of bureaucratic offices in the Sixteenth century. Unlike the other two, Parker put an emphasis on climate change.\n\nAlleged patterns \nSome historians such as Hobsbawn, Trevor-Roper, and Parker, have argued the 17th century was an era of crisis, although they differed about the nature of this crisis. Today there are scholars who promote the crisis model, arguing it provides an invaluable insight into the warfare, politics, economics, and even art of the seventeenth century. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) focused attention on the massive horrors that wars could bring to entire populations. The 1640s in particular saw more state breakdowns around the world than any previous or subsequent period. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the largest state in Europe, temporarily disappeared. In addition, there were secessions and upheavals in several parts of the Spanish Empire. In Britain there were rebellions in every part of the Stuart monarchy (Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of Ireland, and British America). Political insurgency and a spate of popular revolts seldom shook the foundations of most states in Europe and Asia. More wars took place around the world in the mid-17th century than in almost any other period of recorded history. The crises spread far beyond Europe; for example Ming China, the most populous state in the world, collapsed. \n\nChina's Ming dynasty and Japan's Tokugawa shogunate had radically different economic, social, and political systems. However, they experienced a series of crises during the mid-17th century that were at once interrelated and strikingly similar to those occurring in other parts of the world at the same time. Frederic Wakeman argues that the crisis which destroyed the Ming dynasty was partly a result of the climatic change as well as China's already significant involvement in the developing world economy. Bureaucratic dishonesty worsened the problem. Moreover, the Qing dynasty's success in dealing with the crisis made it more difficult for it to consider alternative responses when confronted with severe challenges from the West in the 19th century.\n\nClimate change \nThe General Crisis overlaps fairly neatly with the Little Ice Age whose peak some authorities locate in the 17th century. Of particular interest is the overlap with the Maunder Minimum, El Niño events and an abnormal spate of volcanic activity. Climatologists such as David Rind and Jonathan Overpeck have hypothesised that the three events are interlinked. Across the Northern Hemisphere, the mid-17th century experienced almost unprecedented death rates. Geoffrey Parker has suggested that environmental factors may have been in part to blame, especially the global cooling trend of this period. David D. Zhang et al provide a detailed analysis here.\n\nDemographic decline \nDuring this period there was a significant decline in populations particularly in Europe and China. The cause for this demographic decline is complicated and significantly unproven; but Parker claimed that war, climate change and migration are the main factors that contributed to this population crisis. War ravaged Europe for almost the entirety of the century with no major state avoiding war in the 1640s. Some states saw very few years of peace; for example Poland only saw 27 years of peace, the Dutch Republic 14, France 11, and Spain only 3. An example of the impact of war on demography in Europe is Germany, whose population was reduced by approximately 15% to 30% in the Thirty Years' War. Another factor for the demographic decline in Europe was the spate of climatic events that dramatically affected the food supply and caused major crop failure in the marginal farmland of Europe. During this period there was a drop of 1–2 °C, which coincides with the Maunder Minimum and frequent, large spates of volcanism which acted to drop temperatures enough to cause crop failures in Europe. Crop failures were met with a wave of urban migration that perpetuated unsustainable urban populations and caused in some areas a Malthusian crisis. Although in some areas the early stages of the subsistence crises were not necessarily Malthusian in nature, the result usually followed this model of agricultural deficit in relation to population.\n\nConflicts and wars \n\nExamples which have been given for general crisis and state breakdown during this period include:\n The Thirty Years' War within the Holy Roman Empire (1618–1648)\n The Fronde in France, which led to the exile of the regent King Louis XIV (1648–1653)\n The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, including the English Civil War, with multiple revolts against King Charles I of England and Scotland and a period of republicanism (1640–1660)\n Revolts against Spanish rule, including the renewal of hostilities in the Eighty Years' War, the Portuguese Restoration War, the Reapers' War, and the Neapolitan Revolt.\n The , an economic crisis in the Holy Roman Empire (1619–1623)\n The collapse of the Ming Dynasty and its replacement by the Qing Dynasty (1618–1683)\n The Mughal–Maratha Wars in India (1680–1707)\n\nCriticism \nNo consensus on the occurrence of a general crisis has been established amongst scholars. Some scholars contend that the arguments in favour of a 'general crisis' in the 17th century do not stand up under scrutiny. For example, Dutch historian Niels Steensgaard (1978) pointed out that the Dutch Republic was enjoying an economic expansion – known as the Dutch Golden Age – at the time of the alleged crisis. Anthony F. Upton argued in 2001 that violent popular protests were endemic in European societies, and such violent unrest was 'generally directed at specific local problems, and did not challenge the legitimacy of the established order'. Although protests in the 1630s and 1640s 'rose to unusual levels' in some regions, Upton wrote: 'Historians have attempted to see in the wave of unrest a 'general crisis', and the debate on this continues. The main factors arguing against linkage are the reality that the disorders remained specific to local circumstances, even where they coincided in time: they did not coalesce into broader movements. Above all, the demands of the rebels did not challenge the legitimacy of the rulers, but sought restoration of customary norms (...).' Upton claimed that very few actually challenged monarchy as an institution, although many nobles preferred a different dynasty with themselves in power (for example, the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1668) simply sought to replace the House of Habsburg with the House of Braganza). Almost all of the French princes leading The Fronde (1648–1653) were horrified by the execution of Charles I in 1649, which they regarded as regicide; unlike the majority of English rebels, they never became republicans. \n\nVictor Lieberman argued in 2003, later corroborated by Geoff Wade and Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, that Anthony Reid's \"Age of Commerce\" Thesis, using Maritime Southeast Asia during the \"General Crisis\" as a framework to explain Mainland Southeast Asia at this same time, failed to properly address the increased political and economic consolidation and general advancement of the Southeast Asian mainland states (Siam, Burma, Vietnam) during the 17th to 19th centuries, whose trade connections with China negated any possible effects of the European departure from the region during the 17th and 18th centuries, therefore the region experienced a relatively calm 17th century in comparison to contemporary regions.\n\nIn 2000, Denis Shemilt used the terms \"Industrial Revolution\" and especially \"General Crisis\" as examples of historiographical concepts that are easy to be taught to adolescent schoolchildren, as they can easily make generalisations about seemingly unconnected events when tasked to do so. However, it will be harder for them to challenge the validity of such a generalised concept once they have been exposed to it, because that requires gathering detailed knowledge of all local events associated with the generalisation, and then judging whether they reasonably match up with it, or 'to criticize the General Crisis concept as a category mistake, a promiscuous lumping together of phenomena more different than similar'. Therefore, historians need to be careful in constructing such generalised concepts, so that the resulting narratives are not just meaningful and understandable, but also reasonably accurate.\n\nSee also \n Little Ice Age\n Medieval Warm Period – a period of relatively warm climate in the North Atlantic region from c. 950–1250\n Crisis of the Late Middle Ages – a period of widespread social upheaval and rapid demographic shifts\n Great Famine of 1315–1317\n Black Death\n Revolutions of 1848\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography \n .\n\n Hill, Christopher. (1961), The Century of the Revolution. W.W. Norton & Company Inc.\n .\n \n .\n Parker, Geoffrey (2013), \"Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century\", Yale University Press.\n .\n .\n .\n\nGeneral Crisis\nGeneral Crisis\nGeneral Crisis\nGeneral Crisis\nEarly Modern society\n \nWorld history\nPeriodization"
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[
"Hugh Trevor-Roper",
"General crisis of the 17th century",
"What were Trevor-Ropers thoughts on the general crisis of the 17th century?",
"He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society"
] |
C_5497310d59f3429a948d2617f5f10abd_0
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What were the effects of this break-down?
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What were the effects of the general crisis of the 17th century ?
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Hugh Trevor-Roper
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A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis," various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the "general crisis" in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between "Court" and "Country"; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis." The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis," but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis," for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schoffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory. At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis;" instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism. CANNOTANSWER
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English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown
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Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most widely read and financially rewarding book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From his interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
Early life and education
Trevor-Roper was born at Glanton, Northumberland, England, the son of Kathleen Elizabeth Davidson (died 1964) and Bertie William Edward Trevor-Roper (1885–1978), a doctor, descended from Henry Roper, 8th Baron Teynham, who married, Anne, (her second husband) 16th Baroness Dacre. Trevor-Roper "enjoyed (but not too seriously)... that he was a collateral descendant of William Roper, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Thomas More... as a boy he was aware that only a dozen lives (several of them those of elderly bachelors) separated him from inheriting the Teynham peerage."
Trevor-Roper's brother, Patrick, became a leading eye surgeon and gay rights activist. Trevor-Roper was educated at Belhaven Hill School, Charterhouse, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read first Classics (Literae Humaniores) and then Modern History, later moving to Merton College, Oxford, to become a Research Fellow. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the exclusive Stubbs Society and was initiated as a Freemason in the Apollo University Lodge.
Trevor-Roper took a first in Classical Moderations in 1934 and won the Craven, the Ireland, and the Hertford scholarships in Classics. Initially, he intended to make his career in the Classics but became bored with what he regarded as the pedantic technical aspects of the classics course at Oxford and switched to History, where he obtained first-class honours in 1936. Trevor-Roper's first book was a 1940 biography of Archbishop William Laud, in which he challenged many of the prevailing perceptions surrounding Laud.
Military service in World War II
During World War II, Trevor-Roper served as an officer in the Radio Security Service of the Secret Intelligence Service, and then on the interception of messages from the German intelligence service, the Abwehr. In early 1940, Trevor-Roper and E. W. B. Gill decrypted some of these intercepts, demonstrating the relevance of the material and spurring Bletchley Park efforts to decrypt the traffic. Intelligence from Abwehr traffic later played an important part in many operations including the Double-Cross System.
He formed a low opinion of most pre-war professional intelligence agents, but a higher one of some of the post-1939 recruits. In The Philby Affair (1968) Trevor-Roper argues that the Soviet spy Kim Philby was never in a position to undermine efforts by the chief of the Abwehr, German Military Intelligence, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to overthrow the Nazi regime and negotiate with the British government.
Investigating Hitler's last days
In November 1945, Trevor-Roper was ordered by Dick White, then head of counter-intelligence in the British sector of Berlin, to investigate the circumstances of Adolf Hitler's death, and to rebut the Soviet propaganda that Hitler was alive and living in the West. Using the alias of "Major Oughton", Trevor-Roper interviewed or prepared questions for several officials, high and low, who had been present in the Führerbunker with Hitler, and who had been able to escape to the West, including Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven.
For the most part Trevor-Roper relied on investigations and interviews by hundreds of British, American and Canadian intelligence officers. He did not have access to Soviet materials. Working rapidly, Trevor-Roper drafted his report, which served as the basis for his most famous book, The Last Days of Hitler, in which he described the last ten days of Hitler's life and the fates of some of the higher-ranking members of the inner circle, as well as those of key lesser figures. Trevor-Roper transformed the evidence into a literary work, with sardonic humour and drama, and was much influenced by the prose styles of two of his favourite historians, Edward Gibbon and Lord Macaulay.
The book was cleared by British officials in 1946 for publication as soon as the war crimes trials ended. It was published in English in 1947; six English editions and many foreign language editions followed. According to American journalist Ron Rosenbaum, Trevor-Roper received a letter from Lisbon written in Hebrew stating that the Stern Gang would assassinate him for The Last Days of Hitler, which, they believed, portrayed Hitler as a "demoniacal" figure but let ordinary Germans who followed Hitler off the hook, and that for this he deserved to die. Rosenbaum reports that Trevor-Roper told him this was the most extreme response he had ever received for one of his books.
Anti-communism
In June 1950, Trevor-Roper attended a conference in Berlin of anti-Communist intellectuals along with Sidney Hook, Melvin J. Lasky, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron and Franz Borkenau that resulted in the founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and its magazine Encounter. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a frequent contributor to Encounter, but had reservations about what he regarded as the over-didactic tone of some of its contributors, particularly Koestler and Borkenau.
Historical debates and controversies
Trevor-Roper was famous for his lucid and acerbic writing style. In reviews and essays he could be pitilessly sarcastic, and devastating in his mockery. In attacking Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History, for instance, Trevor-Roper accused Toynbee of regarding himself as a Messiah complete with "the youthful Temptations; the missionary Journeys; the Miracles; the Revelations; the Agony".
For Trevor-Roper, the major themes of early modern Europe were its intellectual vitality, and the quarrels between Protestant and Catholic states, the latter being outpaced by the former, economically and constitutionally. In Trevor-Roper's view, another theme of early modern Europe was expansion overseas in the form of colonies and intellectual expansion in the form of the Reformation and the Enlightenment. In Trevor-Roper's view, the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries can ultimately be traced back to the conflict between the religious values of the Reformation and the rationalistic approach of what became the Enlightenment.
Trevor-Roper argued that history should be understood as an art, not a science and that the attribute of a successful historian was imagination. He viewed history as full of contingency, with the past neither a story of continuous advance nor of continuous decline but the consequence of choices made by individuals at the time. In his studies of early modern Europe, Trevor-Roper did not focus exclusively upon political history but sought to examine the interaction between the political, intellectual, social and religious trends. His preferred medium of expression was the essay rather than the book. In his essays in social history, written during the 1950s and 1960s, Trevor-Roper was influenced by the work of the French Annales School, especially Fernand Braudel and did much to introduce the work of the Annales school to the English-speaking world. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper wrote that Braudel and the rest of the school were doing much innovative historical work but were "totally excluded from Oxford which remains, in historical matters, a retrograde provincial backwater".
English Civil War
In Trevor-Roper's opinion, the dispute between the Puritans and the Arminians was a major, although not the sole, cause of the English Civil War. For him, the dispute was over such issues as free will and predestination and the role of preaching versus the sacraments; only later did the dispute become a matter of the structure of the Church of England. The Puritans desired a more decentralised and egalitarian church, with an emphasis on the laity, while the Arminians wished for an ordered church with a hierarchy, an emphasis on divine right and salvation through free will.
As a historian of early modern Britain, Trevor-Roper was known for his disputes with fellow historians such as Lawrence Stone and Christopher Hill, whose materialist (and in some measure "inevitablist") explanations of the English Civil War he attacked. Trevor-Roper was a leading player in the historiographical storm over the gentry (also known as the Gentry controversy), a dispute with the historians R. H. Tawney and Stone, about whether the English gentry were, economically, on the way down or up, in the century before the English Civil War and whether this helped cause that war.
Stone, Tawney and Hill argued that the gentry were rising economically and that this caused the Civil War. Trevor-Roper argued that while office-holders and lawyers were prospering, the lesser gentry were in decline. A third group of history men around J. H. Hexter and Geoffrey Elton, argued that the causes of the Civil War had nothing to do with the gentry. In 1948, a paper put forward by Stone in support of Tawney's thesis was vigorously attacked by Trevor-Roper, who showed that Stone had exaggerated the debt problems of the Tudor nobility. He also rejected Tawney's theories about the rising gentry and declining nobility, arguing that he was guilty of selective use of evidence and that he misunderstood the statistics.
World War II and Hitler
Trevor-Roper attacked the philosophies of history advanced by Arnold J. Toynbee and E. H. Carr, as well as his colleague A. J. P. Taylor's account of the origins of World War II. Another dispute was with Taylor and Alan Bullock over the question of whether Adolf Hitler had fixed aims. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper was ferocious in his criticism of Bullock for his portrayal of Hitler as a "mountebank" instead of the ideologue Trevor-Roper believed him to be. When Taylor offered a picture of Hitler similar to Bullock's, in his 1961 book The Origins of the Second World War, the debate continued. Another feud was with the novelist and Catholic convert Evelyn Waugh, who was angered by Trevor-Roper's repeated harsh attacks on the Catholic Church.
In the globalist–continentalist debate between those who argued that Hitler aimed to conquer the world and those who argued that he sought only the conquest of Europe, Trevor-Roper was one of the leading continentalists. He argued that the globalist case sought to turn a scattering of Hitler's remarks made over decades into a plan. In his analysis, the only consistent objective Hitler sought was the domination of Europe, as laid out in Mein Kampf. The American historian Lucy Dawidowicz in The Holocaust and Historians (1981) delivered what the British historian David Cesarani called an "ad hominem attack", writing that Trevor-Roper in his writings on Nazi Germany was indifferent to Nazi antisemitism, because she believed that he was a snobbish antisemite, who was apathetic about the murder of six million Jews. Cesarani wrote that Dawidowicz was wrong to accuse Trevor-Roper of antisemitism but argued that there was an element of truth to her critique in that the Shoah was a blind-spot for Trevor-Roper.
Trevor-Roper was a very firm "intentionist" who treated Hitler as a serious, if slightly deranged thinker who, from 1924 until his death in 1945, was obsessed with "the conquest of Russia, the extermination of the Slavs, and the colonization of the English". In his 1962 essay "The Mind of Adolf Hitler", Trevor-Roper again criticized Bullock, writing "Even Mr. Bullock seems content to regard him as a diabolical adventurer animated solely by an unlimited lust for personal power... Hitler was a systematic thinker and his mind is, to the historian, as important as the mind of Bismarck or Lenin". Trevor-Roper maintained that Hitler, on the basis of a wide range of antisemitic literature, from the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, had constructed a racist ideology that called for making Germany the world's greatest power and the extermination of perceived enemies like the Jews and Slavs.
Trevor-Roper wrote that the mind of Hitler was "a terrible phenomenon, imposing indeed in its granite harshness and yet infinitely squalid in its miscellaneous cumber, like some huge barbarian monolith; the expression of giant strength and savage genius; surrounded by a festering heap of refuse, old tins and vermin, ashes and eggshells and ordure, the intellectual detritus of centuries". Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper regarded Hitler, in marked contrast to Bullock, as a man who was serious about what he said but at the same time, Trevor-Roper's picture of Hitler as a somewhat insane leader, fanatically pursuing lunatic policies, meant paradoxically that it was hard to take Hitler seriously, at least on the basis of Trevor-Roper's writings. Cesarani stated that Trevor-Roper was sincere in his hatred and contempt for the Nazis and everything they stood for but he had considerable difficulty when it came to writing about the complicity and involvement of traditional German elites in National Socialism, because the traditional elites in Germany were so similar in many ways to the British Establishment, which Trevor-Roper identified with so strongly.
In this respect, Cesarani argued that it was very revealing that Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler was especially damning in his picture of the German Finance Minister, Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, whom Trevor-Roper noted "had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, but he had acquired none of its values". Cesarani wrote "Thus, to Trevor-Roper the values of Oxford University stood at the opposite pole to those of Hitler's Reich, and one reason for the ghastly character of Nazism was that it did not share them". Cesarani noted that while Trevor-Roper supported the Conservatives and ended his days as a Tory life-peer, he was broadly speaking a liberal and believed that Britain was a great nation because of its liberalism. Because of this background, Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper naturally saw the liberal democracy Britain as anathema to Nazi Germany. Cesarani concluded "...to maintain the illusion of virtuous British liberalism, Hitler had to be depicted as either a statesman like any other or a monster without equal, and those who did business with him as, respectively, pragmatists or dupes. Every current of Nazi society that made it distinctive could be charted, while the anti-Jewish racism that it shared with Britain was discreetly avoided".
General crisis of the 17th century
A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis,” various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the “general crisis” in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between “Court” and “Country”; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis."
The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis,” but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis,” for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schöffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory.
At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper, the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya, attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis"; instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism.
First World War
In 1973, Trevor-Roper in the foreword to a book by John Röhl endorsed the view that Germany was largely responsible for the First World War. Trevor-Roper wrote that in his opinion far too many British historians had allowed themselves to be persuaded of the theory that the outbreak of war in 1914 had been the fault of all the great powers. He claimed that this theory had been promoted by the German government's policy of selective publication of documents, aided and abetted by most German historians in a policy of "self-censorship." He praised Röhl for finding and publishing two previously secret documents that showed German responsibility for the war.
Backhouse frauds
In 1973, Trevor-Roper was invited to visit Switzerland to examine a manuscript entitled Decadence Mandchoue written by the sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse (1873–1944) in a mixture of English, French, Latin and Chinese that had been in the custody of Reinhard Hoeppli, a Swiss diplomat who was the Swiss consul in Beijing during World War II. Hoeppli, given Decadence Mandchoue in 1943 by his friend Backhouse, had been unable to publish it owing to its sexually explicit content. But by 1973 looser censorship and the rise of the gay rights movement meant a publisher was willing to release Decadence Mandchoue to the market. However, before doing so they wanted Trevor-Roper, who as a former MI6 officer was an expert on clandestine affairs, to examine some of the more outlandish claims contained in the text.
For an example, Backhouse claimed in Decadence Mandchoue that the wives and daughters of British diplomats in Beijing had trained their dogs and tamed foxes to perform cunnilingus on them, which the fascistic Backhouse used as evidence of British "decadence", which in turn explained why he was supporting Germany and Japan in the Second World War. Trevor-Roper regarded Decadence Mandchoue with considerable distaste calling the manuscript "pornographic" and "obscene" as Backhouse related in graphic detail sexual encounters he claimed to have had with the French poet Paul Verlaine, the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, the British Prime Minister Lord Rosebery and the Empress Dowager Cixi of China whom the openly gay Backhouse had maintained had forced herself on him.
Backhouse also claimed to have been the friend of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. For the next two years, Trevor-Roper went on an odyssey that took him all over Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and China as he sought to unravel the mystery of just who the elusive Backhouse was. Backhouse had between 1898 and his death in 1944 worked as a sinologist, the business agent for several British and American companies in China, a British spy, gun-runner and translator before finally ending his days in World War II China as a fascist and a Japanese collaborator who wished fervently for an Axis victory which would destroy Great Britain. Trevor-Roper noted that despite Backhouse's homosexuality and Nazi Germany's policy of persecuting homosexuals, Backhouse's intense hatred of his own country together with his sadistic-masochistic sexual needs meant that Backhouse longed to be "...ravished and possessed by the brutal, but still perverted masculinity of the fascist Führerprinzip".
The end result was one of Trevor-Roper's most successful later books, his 1976 biography of Backhouse, originally entitled A Hidden Life but soon republished in Britain and the US as The Hermit of Peking. Backhouse had long been regarded as a world's leading expert on China. In his biography, Trevor-Roper exposed the vast majority of Sir Edmund's life-story and virtually all of his scholarship as a fraud. In Decadence Mandchoue, Backhouse spoke of his efforts to raise money to pay the defence lawyers for Wilde while he was an undergraduate at Oxford. Trevor-Roper established that while Backhouse did indeed raise money for the Wilde defence fund, he spent it all on buying expensive jewellery, especially pearl necklaces, which were a special passion of Backhouse's. It was this embezzlement of the money Backhouse had raised for the Wilde defence fund that led to him fleeing Britain in 1895. The discrediting of Backhouse as a source led to much of China's history being re-written in the West. Backhouse had portrayed Prince Ronglu as a friend of the West and an enemy of the Boxers when the opposite was true.
Trevor-Roper noted that in the "diary" of Ching Shan, which Backhouse claimed to have looted from Ching's house just before it was burned down by Indian troops in the Boxer Rebellion, it has Prince Ronglu saying about the government's support of the Boxers: "C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute" ("It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder."). Trevor-Roper argued that it was extremely unlikely that Prince Ronglu – who only knew Manchu and Mandarin – would be quoting a well-known French expression, but noted that Backhouse was fluent in French. Backhouse was fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, lived most of his life in Beijing and after moving to China had declined to wear western clothes, preferring instead the gown of a Chinese mandarin, which led most Westerners to assume that Backhouse "knew" China. Trevor-Roper noted that despite his superficial appearance of affection for the Chinese, much of what Backhouse wrote about on China worked subtly to confirm Western "Yellow Peril" stereotypes, as Backhouse variously depicted the Chinese as pathologically dishonest, sexually perverted, morally corrupt and generally devious and treacherous – in short, Chinese civilization for Backhouse was a deeply sick civilization.
Oxford activities
In 1960, Trevor-Roper waged a successful campaign against the candidacy of Sir Oliver Franks who was backed by the heads of houses marshalled by Maurice Bowra, for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford, helping the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to be elected instead. In 1964, Trevor-Roper edited a Festschrift in honour of his friend Sir Keith Feiling's 80th birthday. In 1970, he was the author of The Letters of Mercurius, a satirical work on the student revolts and university politics of the late 1960s, originally published as letters in The Spectator.
Debates on African history
Another aspect of Trevor-Roper's outlook on history and on scholarly research that has inspired controversy, is his statement about the historical experiences of pre-literate societies. Following Voltaire's remarks on the fall of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian tribes, he asserted that Africa had no history prior to European exploration and colonisation. Africa is "no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit". Trevor-Roper said "there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness", its past "the unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe." These comments, recapitulated in a later article which called Africa "unhistoric", spurred intense debate between historians, anthropologists, sociologists, in the emerging fields of postcolonial and cultural studies about the definition of "history". Historians have argued, in response, that historical myths of the kind perpetrated by Trevor-Roper need to be actively countered: "Only a process of counter-selection can correct this, and African historians have to concentrate on those aspects which were ignored by the disparaging mythologies".
Many historians now argue, against Trevor-Roper, that historical evidence should also include oral traditions as well as written history, a former criterion for a society having left "prehistory". Critics of Trevor-Roper's claim have questioned the validity of systematic interpretations of the African past, whether by materialist, Annalist or the traditional historical methods used by Trevor-Roper. Some say approaches which compare Africa with Europe or directly integrate it into European history cannot be accurate descriptions of African societies. Virtually all scholars now agree that Africa has a "history". Despite controversies over historical accuracy in oral records, as in Alex Haley's Roots book and popular TV mini-series, African griots, or oral memoirists, provided a historical oral record.
"Hitler Diaries" hoax
The nadir of his career came in 1983, when as a director of The Times, Baron Dacre of Glanton (as he was by this point) made statements that authenticated the so-called Hitler Diaries. Others were unsure: David Irving, for example, initially decried them as forgeries but subsequently changed his mind and declared that they could be genuine, before finally stating that they were a forgery. Historians Gerhard Weinberg and Eberhard Jäckel had also expressed doubt regarding the authenticity of the diaries.
Within two weeks, forensic scientist Julius Grant demonstrated that the diaries were forgeries. The ensuing fiasco gave Trevor-Roper's enemies the opportunity to criticise him openly, while Trevor-Roper's initial endorsement of the diaries raised questions about his integrity: The Sunday Times, a newspaper to which he regularly contributed book reviews and of which he was an independent director, had already paid a considerable sum for the right to serialise the diaries if and only if they were genuine.
Trevor-Roper explained that he had been given assurances (that turned out to be false) about how the diaries had come into the possession of their "discoverer", and about the age of the paper and ink used in them and of their authenticity. Nonetheless, this incident prompted the satirical magazine Private Eye to nickname him Hugh Very-Ropey (Lord Lucre of Claptout), or more concisely, Lord Facre.
Despite the shadow this cast over his later career, he continued to write and publish and his work remained well received. Trevor-Roper was portrayed in the 1991 TV miniseries Selling Hitler by Alan Bennett.
Election as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge
In 1980 at the age of 67, he became Master of Peterhouse, the oldest and smallest college in the University of Cambridge. His election, which surprised his friends, was engineered by a group of fellows led by Maurice Cowling, then the leading Peterhouse historian. The fellows chose him because Cowling's reactionary clique thought he would be an arch-conservative who would oppose the admission of women. In the event, Trevor-Roper feuded constantly with Cowling and his allies, while launching a series of administrative reforms. Women were admitted in 1983 at his urging. The British journalist Neal Ascherson summarised the quarrel between Cowling and Trevor-Roper as:Lord Dacre, far from being a romantic Tory ultra, turned out to be an anti-clerical Whig with a preference for free speech over superstition. He did not find it normal that fellows should wear mourning on the anniversary of General Franco’s death, attend parties in SS uniform or insult black and Jewish guests at high table. For the next seven years, Trevor-Roper battled to suppress the insurgency of the Cowling clique ("a strong mind trapped in its own glutinous frustrations"), and to bring the college back to a condition in which students might actually want to go there. Neither side won this struggle, which soon became a campaign to drive Trevor-Roper out of the college by grotesque rudeness and insubordination. In a review of Adam Sisman's 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper, the Economist wrote that the picture of Peterhouse in the 1980s was "startling", stating the college had become under Cowling's influence a sort of right-wing "lunatic asylum", who were determined to sabotage Trevor-Roper's reforms. In 1987 he retired complaining of "seven wasted years."
Festschrift
In 1981 a Festschrift was published in honour of Trevor-Roper, History and the Imagination. Some of the contributors were Sir Geoffrey Elton, John Clive, Arnaldo Momigliano, Frances Yates, Jeremy Catto, Robert S. Lopez, Michael Howard, David S. Katz, Dimitri Obolensky, J. H. Elliott, Richard Cobb, Walter Pagel, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Valerie Pearl and Fernand Braudel. The topics contributed by this group of American, British, French, Russian, Italian, Israeli, Canadian and German historians extended from whether the Odyssey was a part of an oral tradition that was later written down, to the question of the responsibility for the Jameson Raid.
Personal life
On 4 October 1954, Trevor-Roper married Lady Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Howard-Johnston (9 March 1907 – 15 August 1997), eldest daughter of Field Marshal Earl Haig by his wife, the former Hon. Dorothy Maud Vivian. Lady Alexandra was a goddaughter of Queen Alexandra and had previously been married to Rear-Admiral Clarence Dinsmore Howard-Johnston, by whom she had had three children. There were no children by his marriage with her.
Hugh Trevor-Roper was made a life peer in 1979 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was raised to the Peerage on 27 September 1979, and was introduced to the House of Lords as Baron Dacre of Glanton, of Glanton in the County of Northumberland. He did not base his title on his surname, because "double-barrelled titles are an invention, and a monopoly, of Wilsonian peers", and "under the rules of the College of Arms either ['Lord Trevor' or 'Lord Roper'] would require him to change his surname to either 'Trevor' or 'Roper.'" On mentioning the family's connection to the Dacre title to his wife, who liked the sound of it, Trevor-Roper was persuaded to opt for the title of "Baron Dacre", despite staunch opposition from the suo jure 27th Baroness Dacre (née Brand). She had her cousin, Anthony Brand, 6th Viscount Hampden, "as titular head of the Brand family", inform Trevor-Roper that the Dacre title belonged to the Brand family "and no-one else should breach their monopoly", on the grounds of the title's antiquity of over six centuries. This high-handed treatment strengthened Trevor-Roper's resolve in the face of his initial ambivalence; he observed "why should the Brands be so 'proud', or so jealous, of a mere title... a gewgaw, which has been bandied intermittently from family to family for six centuries, without tradition or continuity or distinction (except for murder, litigation and extravagance) or, for the last 250 years, land? They only acquired this pretty toy, in 1829, because a Mr Brand, of whom nothing whatever is known, had married into the Trevor-Ropers (who had themselves acquired it by marrying into the Lennards). Now they behave as if they had owned it for six centuries and had a monopoly of it for ever. A fig for their stuffiness!" Notwithstanding objections, Trevor-Roper duly took the title of Baron Dacre of Glanton.
In his last years he had suffered from failing eyesight, which made it difficult for him to read and write. He underwent cataract surgery and obtained a magnifying machine, which allowed him to continue writing. In 2002, at the age of 88, Trevor-Roper submitted a sizable article on Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School, to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in part with notes he had written decades earlier, which editor Brian Harrison praised as "the work of a master". Trevor-Roper suffered several other minor ailments related to his advanced age, but according to his stepson, "bore all his difficulties stoically and without complaint". That year, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on 26 January 2003 in a hospice in Oxford, aged 89.
Posthumous books
Five books by Trevor-Roper were published posthumously. The first was Letters from Oxford, a collection of letters written by Trevor-Roper between 1947–59 to his close friend the American art collector Bernard Berenson. The second book was 2006's Europe’s Physician, an unfinished biography of Sir Theodore de Mayerne, the Franco-Swiss court physician to Henri IV, James I and Charles I. The latter work was largely completed by 1979, but for some unknown reasons was not finished.
The third book was The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, a critique written in the mid-1970s of what Trevor-Roper regarded as the myths of Scottish nationalism. It was published in 2008. The fourth book collecting together some of his essays on History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays was published in 2010. The fifth book was The Wartime Journals, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, published in 2011. The Wartime Journals are from Trevor-Roper's journals that he kept during his years in the Secret Intelligence Service.
Works
Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645, 1940.
The Last Days of Hitler, 1947 (revised editions followed, until the last in 1995)
"The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized," Economic History Review (1951) 3 No 3 pp. 279–298 in JSTOR
Secret Conversations, 1941–1944 (published later as Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944), 1953.
Historical Essays, 1957 (published in the United States in 1958 as Men and Events).
"The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century", Past and Present, Volume 16, 1959 pp. 31–64.
"Hitlers Kriegsziele", in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitsgeschichte, Volume 8, 1960 pp. 121–133, translated into English as "Hitler's War Aims" pages 235–250 from Aspects of the Third Reich edited by H.W. Koch, London: Macmillan Ltd, 1985.
"A. J. P. Taylor, Hitler and the War", Encounter, Volume 17, July 1961 pp. 86–96.
"E. H. Carr's Success Story", Encounter, Volume 84, Issue No 104, 1962 pp. 69–77.
Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler's War Directives, 1939–1945, 1964, 1965.
Essays in British history presented to Sir Keith Feiling edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper; with a foreword by Lord David Cecil (1964)
The Rise of Christian Europe (History of European Civilization series), 1965.
Hitler's Place in History, 1965.
The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century: Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change, and Other Essays, 1967.
The Age of Expansion, Europe and the World, 1559–1600, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1968.
The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason and Secret Services, 1968.
The Romantic Movement and the Study of History: the John Coffin memorial lecture delivered before the University of London on 17 February 1969, 1969.
The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1969
The Plunder of the Arts in the Seventeenth Century, 1970.
The Letters of Mercurius, 1970. (London: John Murray)
Queen Elizabeth's First Historian: William Camden and the Beginning of English "Civil History", 1971.
"Fernand Braudel, the Annales, and the Mediterranean," The Journal of Modern History Vol. 44, No. 4, December 1972
"Foreword" pages 9–16 from 1914: Delusion or Design The Testimony of Two German Diplomats edited by John Röhl, 1973.
A Hidden Life: The Enigma of Sir Edmund Backhouse (published in the US, and in later Eland editions in the UK, as The Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse), 1976.
Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517–1633, 1976.
History and Imagination: A Valedictory Lecture Delivered before the University of Oxford on 20 May 1980, 1980.
Renaissance Essays, 1985.
Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: Seventeenth Century Essays, 1987.
The Golden Age of Europe: From Elizabeth I to the Sun King, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1987.
From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, 1992.
Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 introduction (London: Everyman's Library, 1993).
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson. Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines. L.: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, .
Europe’s Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore De Mayerne, 2007, .
The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, 2008,
History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays, 2010,
Primary sources
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson edited by Richard Davenport-Hines (2007)
My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to Hugh Trevor-Roper and Others edited by Tim Heald (2011) [NB does not contain any letters written by Trevor-Roper]
One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, and Adam Sisman (2013) except and text search Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
The Wartime Journals: Hugh Trevor-Roper, Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, 2011 . Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
Dacre made an extended appearance on the television programme After Dark in 1989 (discussed here)
See also
List of books by or about Adolf Hitler
Historiography of the United Kingdom
Notes
References
; published in North America as
Discussion of H. R. Trevor-Roper: "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" pages 8–42 from Past and Present, No. 18, November 1960 with contributions from Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, H. R. Trevor-Roper, E. H. Kossmann, E. J. Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter.
Further reading
External links
About Trevor-Roper
Michael Knox Beran: H. R. Trevor-Roper, R.I.P, nationalreview.com, 31 January 2003.
Barnard, T. (Faculty of History, University of Oxford) Obituary, History Faculty Alumni Newsletter, No. 1, April 2003.
(there are several discrepancies between these sources)
By Trevor-Roper
1914 births
2003 deaths
20th-century English historians
Academic scandals
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Deaths from cancer in England
Dacre of Glanton
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford
Fellows of Merton College, Oxford
Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Historians of Nazism
Masters of Peterhouse, Cambridge
People educated at Charterhouse School
People from Northumberland
Regius Professors of History (University of Oxford)
People educated at Belhaven Hill School
Fellows of the British Academy
| true |
[
"Booster Breaks: Improving Employee Health One Break at a Time is a 2010 book. Booster breaks are defined as: \"organized, routine work breaks intended to improve physical and psychological health, enhance job satisfaction, and sustain or increase work productivity.\" Dr. Wendell C. Taylor is recognized as the architect of the Booster Break concept. The intent of Booster Breaks is to encourage health-enhancing breaks during the work day as a corrective to job stress and sedentary behavior. Examples of Booster Breaks are physical activity (e.g., a brief sequence of stretching and toning movements), meditation, or breath training. Even for brief sessions of 10 to 15 minutes, a routine practice of any of the preceding examples can produce physical, psychological, and/or mental benefits.\n\nOne objective of Booster Breaks is to transform work place culture so that management supports and encourages Booster Breaks during the work day and that groups of co-workers regularly participate in Booster Break sessions to promote enjoyment, social support, and team building. In many work places, the usual 10- to 15-minute work breaks in the morning and afternoon can be organized as Booster Breaks to enable a regular practice of a health-promoting behavior at the work place in work clothes during the work day. Ideally, each company would have facilitators, company employees trained to lead the activity, who guide each session.\n\nBooster Break Ripple Effects Model\n\nA Booster Break program can transform workplace policies to improve organizational morale and lower health care costs with favorable ripple effects for society. To illustrate the impact of the Booster Break program, the Booster Break Ripple Effects Model was developed and has six levels: Booster Break practices, health effects, organizational morale, productivity, health care costs, and organizational image. The first level provides examples of Booster Break behaviors (e.g., physical activity, meditation, and breath training). The second level presents the immediate proximal effects of Booster Break practices (e.g., improved health, reduced stress, increased energy, and fun). The third level, organizational morale, is a proximal effect of the second level related to practice and policy. The fourth, fifth, and sixth levels are increasingly distal but substantial effects of Booster Break practices and policies (i.e., increased productivity, decreased health care costs, and improved organizational image). The first waves of the ripple effects are the strongest, and each successive wave is less robust than the previous waves. The levels are interconnected and synergistic. The strength and robustness of each level affects the impact of each successive level. For example, frequent Booster Break practices by a greater number of employees will yield greater health care savings. Recent research provided scientific support for the first three levels of the Booster Break Ripple Effects Model. The full impact of the Model is being studied.\n\nSee also\n Break (work)\n Workplace health promotion\n Workplace wellness\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n How Regular Exercise Helps You Balance Work and Family\n Booster breaks at work enhance health and energy, and could ripple through organisations\n Booster Breaks at Work: Hit or Bust?\n “Booster Breaks”: A New Type of Work Break\n A Review of Design and Policy Interventions to Promote Nurses’ Restorative Breaks in Health Care Workplaces\n Get the most out of your work day with booster breaks\n The effects of booster breaks during a sedentary night shift on physiological, psychomotor, psycho-physiological, and cognitive performance over a 3 night shift habituation phase\n Project Health – Comprehensive Strategies to Promote Workplace Walking\n\nWorking time",
"\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" is a single by English synthpop duo Erasure, released as the lead single from their 2011 album Tomorrow's World. The song was written by Andy Bell and Vince Clarke, whilst it was produced by electropop musician Frankmusik who produced the rest of the Tomorrow's World album.\n\nBackground\nThe song was released on 23 September 2011, and received its first UK airplay on BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce show on 15 August.\n\nIt was the first eligible single (discounting remixed versions of hit singles), since the duo's formation in 1985, not to chart in the top 100 in the UK. The song peaked at #172 in the UK. In November 2011, the song peaked at #25 on the American Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs Chart.\n\nAn official YouTube short film featured the duo speaking of the album. In this film, it was stated that the original leading single from the album was to be \"You've Got to Save Me Right Now\" until \"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" replaced it at short notice. Bell stated \"Usually we don't choose the singles, you kind of have an instinctive feeling sometimes. In this instance, \"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" took over from \"Save Me\" because we thought the song had gone in the direction that sounded really good.\"\n\nThe song originally had the demo title \"Tender\", where it was loosely based on the Elvis Presley song \"Love Me Tender\". In the short film on the album, Clarke stated the track got \"mashed up into what it is now\", noting \"to me now it sounds like Tears for Fears.\"\n\nMute Records released a live video clip for the song as its official music video. This clip used footage recorded during the Total Pop Tour in the summer of 2011, most of them coming from the first of two Dublin gigs played in June 2011. It was released officially onto YouTube on 18 November 2011.\n\nThe song was performed live on the Tomorrow's World tour, where an official rehearsal video was uploaded onto YouTube in early September, featuring the duo in London rehearsing the song in full.\n\nRelease\nThe single was released on CD, where a single version of \"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" was used as the main track.\n\nThe b-side \"Tomorrow's World\" is an instrumental track, exclusive to the single, written by Richard Denton and Martin Cook. The track was originally released in 1980 as the theme from the BBC TV series of the same name.\n\nA total of 9 remixes were created for the track, not including the album, radio edit and single version of the track. Four remixes were created by the House music duo Steve Smart & Westfunk, three remixes by German DJ/producer Kris Menace, one by Little Loud and one by Frankmusik.\n\nIn Europe, the single was released with five tracks, the single version of the song, the b-side, the \"Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Mix Edit\", the \"Kris Menace Remix\" and the \"(Little Loud Remix)\". In France, a cardboard sleeve edition of the single was released.\n\nVarious promotional versions of the single were released. In the UK, a one track promo was released, containing the radio version of the song. A European promo contained the single version and the \"Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Radio Edit\". In Greece, a promotional single featured both the single and album version, all four Steve Smart & Westfunk remixes and two Kris Menace remixes. Another promotional single grouped all of the song's remixes, along with the radio edit and album version, except for the \"Steve Smart & Westfunk Club Mix\".\n\nIn America, the song was not officially released as a single but as a promotional single instead. This release featured three Steve Smart & Westfunk remixes, two Kris Menace remixes and the Little Loud remix.\n\nFor the Deluxe 2-Disc Set of Tomorrow's World, the Frankmusik Remix of the song featured as a bonus track.\n\nThe single's cover is similar to the Tomorrow's World album, where like the album, the artwork was created by Tom Hingston using sculptures made by Kate MacDowell.\n\nTrack listing\nCD Single (UK and Europe)\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" - 3:34\n\"Tomorrow's World\" - 4:18\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Mix Edit) - 4:23\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Remix) - 5:24\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Little Loud Remix) - 4:36\n\nCD Single (European Promo)\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Single Version) - 3:33\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Radio Edit) - 4:04\n\nCD Single (UK Promo)\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Radio Version) - 3:45\n\nCD Single (Greek Promo)\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Single Version) - 3:34\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Album Version) - 3:45\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Radio Edit) - 4:02\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Edit) - 4:20\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Club Mix) - 6:19\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Dub Mix) - 6:19\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Club Remix) - 5:12\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Remix) - 5:23\n\nCD Single (American Promo)\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Edit) - 4:21\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Club Mix) - 6:19\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Dub) - 6:19\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Remix) - 5:12\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Club Remix) - 5:23\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Little Loud Remix) - 4:34\n\nCD Single (Promo)\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Radio Edit) - 3:35\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Album Version) - 3:45\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Edit) - 4:20\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Mix) - 6:18\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Steve Smart & Westfunk Dub) - 6:18\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Remix) - 5:11\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Club Remix) - 5:22\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Kris Menace Instrumental) - 3:31\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Little Loud Remix) - 4:36\n\"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" (Frankmusik Remix) - 4:58\n\"Tomorrow's World\" - 4:15\n\nCritical reception\nIn a review for the Tomorrow's World album, Allmusic.com wrote \"Fans get to experience Vince Clarke's fingerprints on \"Fill Us with Fire\" and \"When I Start To (Break It All Down),\" as the recent reunion of his Yaz project is reflected in the nocturnal synth pop and soul muscle driving these highlights.\"\n\nAllmusic.com picks the track as an AMG recommended track.\n\nChart performance\n\nPersonnel \n Design – Tom Hingston Studio\n Design (Sculptures) – Kate Macdowell\n Photography – Dan Kvitka\n Assistant Engineer - Neil Quinlan\n Mixer – Robert Orton\n Mixer of \"Tomorrow's World\" - Timothy \"Q\" Wiles\n Producer – Frankmusik\n Producer, programmer, instrumentation on \"Tomrorow's World\" - Vince Clarke\n Remixers - Steve Smart & Westfunk, Kris Menace, Little Loud, Frankmusik\n Programmed, Instrumentation by, Keyboards, Piano – Frankmusik, Vince Clarke\n Keyboards on \"(Steve Smart & Westfunk Main Room Mix Edit)\" - Danny Dove, Steve Smart\n Drums, Keyboards on \"(Kris Menace Remix)\" - Christoph Hoeffel, Walter Schmidt\n Writers of \"When I Start To (Break It All Down)\" - Andy Bell, Vince Clarke\n Writers of \"Tomorrow's World\" - Richard Denton, Martin Cook\n\nReferences\n\n2011 singles\nErasure songs\nSongs written by Vince Clarke\nSongs written by Andy Bell (singer)\nMute Records singles"
] |
[
"Hugh Trevor-Roper",
"General crisis of the 17th century",
"What were Trevor-Ropers thoughts on the general crisis of the 17th century?",
"He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society",
"What were the effects of this break-down?",
"English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown"
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C_5497310d59f3429a948d2617f5f10abd_0
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Were there other major effects?
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Were there other major effects (other than English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the Thirty Years' War in Germany, the troubles in the Netherlands, and the revolts against the Spanish Crown) ?
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Hugh Trevor-Roper
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A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis," various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the "general crisis" in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between "Court" and "Country"; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis." The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis," but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis," for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schoffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory. At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis;" instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism. CANNOTANSWER
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the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country.
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Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most widely read and financially rewarding book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From his interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
Early life and education
Trevor-Roper was born at Glanton, Northumberland, England, the son of Kathleen Elizabeth Davidson (died 1964) and Bertie William Edward Trevor-Roper (1885–1978), a doctor, descended from Henry Roper, 8th Baron Teynham, who married, Anne, (her second husband) 16th Baroness Dacre. Trevor-Roper "enjoyed (but not too seriously)... that he was a collateral descendant of William Roper, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Thomas More... as a boy he was aware that only a dozen lives (several of them those of elderly bachelors) separated him from inheriting the Teynham peerage."
Trevor-Roper's brother, Patrick, became a leading eye surgeon and gay rights activist. Trevor-Roper was educated at Belhaven Hill School, Charterhouse, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read first Classics (Literae Humaniores) and then Modern History, later moving to Merton College, Oxford, to become a Research Fellow. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the exclusive Stubbs Society and was initiated as a Freemason in the Apollo University Lodge.
Trevor-Roper took a first in Classical Moderations in 1934 and won the Craven, the Ireland, and the Hertford scholarships in Classics. Initially, he intended to make his career in the Classics but became bored with what he regarded as the pedantic technical aspects of the classics course at Oxford and switched to History, where he obtained first-class honours in 1936. Trevor-Roper's first book was a 1940 biography of Archbishop William Laud, in which he challenged many of the prevailing perceptions surrounding Laud.
Military service in World War II
During World War II, Trevor-Roper served as an officer in the Radio Security Service of the Secret Intelligence Service, and then on the interception of messages from the German intelligence service, the Abwehr. In early 1940, Trevor-Roper and E. W. B. Gill decrypted some of these intercepts, demonstrating the relevance of the material and spurring Bletchley Park efforts to decrypt the traffic. Intelligence from Abwehr traffic later played an important part in many operations including the Double-Cross System.
He formed a low opinion of most pre-war professional intelligence agents, but a higher one of some of the post-1939 recruits. In The Philby Affair (1968) Trevor-Roper argues that the Soviet spy Kim Philby was never in a position to undermine efforts by the chief of the Abwehr, German Military Intelligence, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to overthrow the Nazi regime and negotiate with the British government.
Investigating Hitler's last days
In November 1945, Trevor-Roper was ordered by Dick White, then head of counter-intelligence in the British sector of Berlin, to investigate the circumstances of Adolf Hitler's death, and to rebut the Soviet propaganda that Hitler was alive and living in the West. Using the alias of "Major Oughton", Trevor-Roper interviewed or prepared questions for several officials, high and low, who had been present in the Führerbunker with Hitler, and who had been able to escape to the West, including Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven.
For the most part Trevor-Roper relied on investigations and interviews by hundreds of British, American and Canadian intelligence officers. He did not have access to Soviet materials. Working rapidly, Trevor-Roper drafted his report, which served as the basis for his most famous book, The Last Days of Hitler, in which he described the last ten days of Hitler's life and the fates of some of the higher-ranking members of the inner circle, as well as those of key lesser figures. Trevor-Roper transformed the evidence into a literary work, with sardonic humour and drama, and was much influenced by the prose styles of two of his favourite historians, Edward Gibbon and Lord Macaulay.
The book was cleared by British officials in 1946 for publication as soon as the war crimes trials ended. It was published in English in 1947; six English editions and many foreign language editions followed. According to American journalist Ron Rosenbaum, Trevor-Roper received a letter from Lisbon written in Hebrew stating that the Stern Gang would assassinate him for The Last Days of Hitler, which, they believed, portrayed Hitler as a "demoniacal" figure but let ordinary Germans who followed Hitler off the hook, and that for this he deserved to die. Rosenbaum reports that Trevor-Roper told him this was the most extreme response he had ever received for one of his books.
Anti-communism
In June 1950, Trevor-Roper attended a conference in Berlin of anti-Communist intellectuals along with Sidney Hook, Melvin J. Lasky, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron and Franz Borkenau that resulted in the founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and its magazine Encounter. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a frequent contributor to Encounter, but had reservations about what he regarded as the over-didactic tone of some of its contributors, particularly Koestler and Borkenau.
Historical debates and controversies
Trevor-Roper was famous for his lucid and acerbic writing style. In reviews and essays he could be pitilessly sarcastic, and devastating in his mockery. In attacking Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History, for instance, Trevor-Roper accused Toynbee of regarding himself as a Messiah complete with "the youthful Temptations; the missionary Journeys; the Miracles; the Revelations; the Agony".
For Trevor-Roper, the major themes of early modern Europe were its intellectual vitality, and the quarrels between Protestant and Catholic states, the latter being outpaced by the former, economically and constitutionally. In Trevor-Roper's view, another theme of early modern Europe was expansion overseas in the form of colonies and intellectual expansion in the form of the Reformation and the Enlightenment. In Trevor-Roper's view, the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries can ultimately be traced back to the conflict between the religious values of the Reformation and the rationalistic approach of what became the Enlightenment.
Trevor-Roper argued that history should be understood as an art, not a science and that the attribute of a successful historian was imagination. He viewed history as full of contingency, with the past neither a story of continuous advance nor of continuous decline but the consequence of choices made by individuals at the time. In his studies of early modern Europe, Trevor-Roper did not focus exclusively upon political history but sought to examine the interaction between the political, intellectual, social and religious trends. His preferred medium of expression was the essay rather than the book. In his essays in social history, written during the 1950s and 1960s, Trevor-Roper was influenced by the work of the French Annales School, especially Fernand Braudel and did much to introduce the work of the Annales school to the English-speaking world. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper wrote that Braudel and the rest of the school were doing much innovative historical work but were "totally excluded from Oxford which remains, in historical matters, a retrograde provincial backwater".
English Civil War
In Trevor-Roper's opinion, the dispute between the Puritans and the Arminians was a major, although not the sole, cause of the English Civil War. For him, the dispute was over such issues as free will and predestination and the role of preaching versus the sacraments; only later did the dispute become a matter of the structure of the Church of England. The Puritans desired a more decentralised and egalitarian church, with an emphasis on the laity, while the Arminians wished for an ordered church with a hierarchy, an emphasis on divine right and salvation through free will.
As a historian of early modern Britain, Trevor-Roper was known for his disputes with fellow historians such as Lawrence Stone and Christopher Hill, whose materialist (and in some measure "inevitablist") explanations of the English Civil War he attacked. Trevor-Roper was a leading player in the historiographical storm over the gentry (also known as the Gentry controversy), a dispute with the historians R. H. Tawney and Stone, about whether the English gentry were, economically, on the way down or up, in the century before the English Civil War and whether this helped cause that war.
Stone, Tawney and Hill argued that the gentry were rising economically and that this caused the Civil War. Trevor-Roper argued that while office-holders and lawyers were prospering, the lesser gentry were in decline. A third group of history men around J. H. Hexter and Geoffrey Elton, argued that the causes of the Civil War had nothing to do with the gentry. In 1948, a paper put forward by Stone in support of Tawney's thesis was vigorously attacked by Trevor-Roper, who showed that Stone had exaggerated the debt problems of the Tudor nobility. He also rejected Tawney's theories about the rising gentry and declining nobility, arguing that he was guilty of selective use of evidence and that he misunderstood the statistics.
World War II and Hitler
Trevor-Roper attacked the philosophies of history advanced by Arnold J. Toynbee and E. H. Carr, as well as his colleague A. J. P. Taylor's account of the origins of World War II. Another dispute was with Taylor and Alan Bullock over the question of whether Adolf Hitler had fixed aims. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper was ferocious in his criticism of Bullock for his portrayal of Hitler as a "mountebank" instead of the ideologue Trevor-Roper believed him to be. When Taylor offered a picture of Hitler similar to Bullock's, in his 1961 book The Origins of the Second World War, the debate continued. Another feud was with the novelist and Catholic convert Evelyn Waugh, who was angered by Trevor-Roper's repeated harsh attacks on the Catholic Church.
In the globalist–continentalist debate between those who argued that Hitler aimed to conquer the world and those who argued that he sought only the conquest of Europe, Trevor-Roper was one of the leading continentalists. He argued that the globalist case sought to turn a scattering of Hitler's remarks made over decades into a plan. In his analysis, the only consistent objective Hitler sought was the domination of Europe, as laid out in Mein Kampf. The American historian Lucy Dawidowicz in The Holocaust and Historians (1981) delivered what the British historian David Cesarani called an "ad hominem attack", writing that Trevor-Roper in his writings on Nazi Germany was indifferent to Nazi antisemitism, because she believed that he was a snobbish antisemite, who was apathetic about the murder of six million Jews. Cesarani wrote that Dawidowicz was wrong to accuse Trevor-Roper of antisemitism but argued that there was an element of truth to her critique in that the Shoah was a blind-spot for Trevor-Roper.
Trevor-Roper was a very firm "intentionist" who treated Hitler as a serious, if slightly deranged thinker who, from 1924 until his death in 1945, was obsessed with "the conquest of Russia, the extermination of the Slavs, and the colonization of the English". In his 1962 essay "The Mind of Adolf Hitler", Trevor-Roper again criticized Bullock, writing "Even Mr. Bullock seems content to regard him as a diabolical adventurer animated solely by an unlimited lust for personal power... Hitler was a systematic thinker and his mind is, to the historian, as important as the mind of Bismarck or Lenin". Trevor-Roper maintained that Hitler, on the basis of a wide range of antisemitic literature, from the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, had constructed a racist ideology that called for making Germany the world's greatest power and the extermination of perceived enemies like the Jews and Slavs.
Trevor-Roper wrote that the mind of Hitler was "a terrible phenomenon, imposing indeed in its granite harshness and yet infinitely squalid in its miscellaneous cumber, like some huge barbarian monolith; the expression of giant strength and savage genius; surrounded by a festering heap of refuse, old tins and vermin, ashes and eggshells and ordure, the intellectual detritus of centuries". Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper regarded Hitler, in marked contrast to Bullock, as a man who was serious about what he said but at the same time, Trevor-Roper's picture of Hitler as a somewhat insane leader, fanatically pursuing lunatic policies, meant paradoxically that it was hard to take Hitler seriously, at least on the basis of Trevor-Roper's writings. Cesarani stated that Trevor-Roper was sincere in his hatred and contempt for the Nazis and everything they stood for but he had considerable difficulty when it came to writing about the complicity and involvement of traditional German elites in National Socialism, because the traditional elites in Germany were so similar in many ways to the British Establishment, which Trevor-Roper identified with so strongly.
In this respect, Cesarani argued that it was very revealing that Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler was especially damning in his picture of the German Finance Minister, Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, whom Trevor-Roper noted "had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, but he had acquired none of its values". Cesarani wrote "Thus, to Trevor-Roper the values of Oxford University stood at the opposite pole to those of Hitler's Reich, and one reason for the ghastly character of Nazism was that it did not share them". Cesarani noted that while Trevor-Roper supported the Conservatives and ended his days as a Tory life-peer, he was broadly speaking a liberal and believed that Britain was a great nation because of its liberalism. Because of this background, Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper naturally saw the liberal democracy Britain as anathema to Nazi Germany. Cesarani concluded "...to maintain the illusion of virtuous British liberalism, Hitler had to be depicted as either a statesman like any other or a monster without equal, and those who did business with him as, respectively, pragmatists or dupes. Every current of Nazi society that made it distinctive could be charted, while the anti-Jewish racism that it shared with Britain was discreetly avoided".
General crisis of the 17th century
A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis,” various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the “general crisis” in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between “Court” and “Country”; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis."
The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis,” but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis,” for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schöffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory.
At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper, the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya, attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis"; instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism.
First World War
In 1973, Trevor-Roper in the foreword to a book by John Röhl endorsed the view that Germany was largely responsible for the First World War. Trevor-Roper wrote that in his opinion far too many British historians had allowed themselves to be persuaded of the theory that the outbreak of war in 1914 had been the fault of all the great powers. He claimed that this theory had been promoted by the German government's policy of selective publication of documents, aided and abetted by most German historians in a policy of "self-censorship." He praised Röhl for finding and publishing two previously secret documents that showed German responsibility for the war.
Backhouse frauds
In 1973, Trevor-Roper was invited to visit Switzerland to examine a manuscript entitled Decadence Mandchoue written by the sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse (1873–1944) in a mixture of English, French, Latin and Chinese that had been in the custody of Reinhard Hoeppli, a Swiss diplomat who was the Swiss consul in Beijing during World War II. Hoeppli, given Decadence Mandchoue in 1943 by his friend Backhouse, had been unable to publish it owing to its sexually explicit content. But by 1973 looser censorship and the rise of the gay rights movement meant a publisher was willing to release Decadence Mandchoue to the market. However, before doing so they wanted Trevor-Roper, who as a former MI6 officer was an expert on clandestine affairs, to examine some of the more outlandish claims contained in the text.
For an example, Backhouse claimed in Decadence Mandchoue that the wives and daughters of British diplomats in Beijing had trained their dogs and tamed foxes to perform cunnilingus on them, which the fascistic Backhouse used as evidence of British "decadence", which in turn explained why he was supporting Germany and Japan in the Second World War. Trevor-Roper regarded Decadence Mandchoue with considerable distaste calling the manuscript "pornographic" and "obscene" as Backhouse related in graphic detail sexual encounters he claimed to have had with the French poet Paul Verlaine, the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, the British Prime Minister Lord Rosebery and the Empress Dowager Cixi of China whom the openly gay Backhouse had maintained had forced herself on him.
Backhouse also claimed to have been the friend of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. For the next two years, Trevor-Roper went on an odyssey that took him all over Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and China as he sought to unravel the mystery of just who the elusive Backhouse was. Backhouse had between 1898 and his death in 1944 worked as a sinologist, the business agent for several British and American companies in China, a British spy, gun-runner and translator before finally ending his days in World War II China as a fascist and a Japanese collaborator who wished fervently for an Axis victory which would destroy Great Britain. Trevor-Roper noted that despite Backhouse's homosexuality and Nazi Germany's policy of persecuting homosexuals, Backhouse's intense hatred of his own country together with his sadistic-masochistic sexual needs meant that Backhouse longed to be "...ravished and possessed by the brutal, but still perverted masculinity of the fascist Führerprinzip".
The end result was one of Trevor-Roper's most successful later books, his 1976 biography of Backhouse, originally entitled A Hidden Life but soon republished in Britain and the US as The Hermit of Peking. Backhouse had long been regarded as a world's leading expert on China. In his biography, Trevor-Roper exposed the vast majority of Sir Edmund's life-story and virtually all of his scholarship as a fraud. In Decadence Mandchoue, Backhouse spoke of his efforts to raise money to pay the defence lawyers for Wilde while he was an undergraduate at Oxford. Trevor-Roper established that while Backhouse did indeed raise money for the Wilde defence fund, he spent it all on buying expensive jewellery, especially pearl necklaces, which were a special passion of Backhouse's. It was this embezzlement of the money Backhouse had raised for the Wilde defence fund that led to him fleeing Britain in 1895. The discrediting of Backhouse as a source led to much of China's history being re-written in the West. Backhouse had portrayed Prince Ronglu as a friend of the West and an enemy of the Boxers when the opposite was true.
Trevor-Roper noted that in the "diary" of Ching Shan, which Backhouse claimed to have looted from Ching's house just before it was burned down by Indian troops in the Boxer Rebellion, it has Prince Ronglu saying about the government's support of the Boxers: "C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute" ("It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder."). Trevor-Roper argued that it was extremely unlikely that Prince Ronglu – who only knew Manchu and Mandarin – would be quoting a well-known French expression, but noted that Backhouse was fluent in French. Backhouse was fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, lived most of his life in Beijing and after moving to China had declined to wear western clothes, preferring instead the gown of a Chinese mandarin, which led most Westerners to assume that Backhouse "knew" China. Trevor-Roper noted that despite his superficial appearance of affection for the Chinese, much of what Backhouse wrote about on China worked subtly to confirm Western "Yellow Peril" stereotypes, as Backhouse variously depicted the Chinese as pathologically dishonest, sexually perverted, morally corrupt and generally devious and treacherous – in short, Chinese civilization for Backhouse was a deeply sick civilization.
Oxford activities
In 1960, Trevor-Roper waged a successful campaign against the candidacy of Sir Oliver Franks who was backed by the heads of houses marshalled by Maurice Bowra, for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford, helping the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to be elected instead. In 1964, Trevor-Roper edited a Festschrift in honour of his friend Sir Keith Feiling's 80th birthday. In 1970, he was the author of The Letters of Mercurius, a satirical work on the student revolts and university politics of the late 1960s, originally published as letters in The Spectator.
Debates on African history
Another aspect of Trevor-Roper's outlook on history and on scholarly research that has inspired controversy, is his statement about the historical experiences of pre-literate societies. Following Voltaire's remarks on the fall of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian tribes, he asserted that Africa had no history prior to European exploration and colonisation. Africa is "no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit". Trevor-Roper said "there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness", its past "the unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe." These comments, recapitulated in a later article which called Africa "unhistoric", spurred intense debate between historians, anthropologists, sociologists, in the emerging fields of postcolonial and cultural studies about the definition of "history". Historians have argued, in response, that historical myths of the kind perpetrated by Trevor-Roper need to be actively countered: "Only a process of counter-selection can correct this, and African historians have to concentrate on those aspects which were ignored by the disparaging mythologies".
Many historians now argue, against Trevor-Roper, that historical evidence should also include oral traditions as well as written history, a former criterion for a society having left "prehistory". Critics of Trevor-Roper's claim have questioned the validity of systematic interpretations of the African past, whether by materialist, Annalist or the traditional historical methods used by Trevor-Roper. Some say approaches which compare Africa with Europe or directly integrate it into European history cannot be accurate descriptions of African societies. Virtually all scholars now agree that Africa has a "history". Despite controversies over historical accuracy in oral records, as in Alex Haley's Roots book and popular TV mini-series, African griots, or oral memoirists, provided a historical oral record.
"Hitler Diaries" hoax
The nadir of his career came in 1983, when as a director of The Times, Baron Dacre of Glanton (as he was by this point) made statements that authenticated the so-called Hitler Diaries. Others were unsure: David Irving, for example, initially decried them as forgeries but subsequently changed his mind and declared that they could be genuine, before finally stating that they were a forgery. Historians Gerhard Weinberg and Eberhard Jäckel had also expressed doubt regarding the authenticity of the diaries.
Within two weeks, forensic scientist Julius Grant demonstrated that the diaries were forgeries. The ensuing fiasco gave Trevor-Roper's enemies the opportunity to criticise him openly, while Trevor-Roper's initial endorsement of the diaries raised questions about his integrity: The Sunday Times, a newspaper to which he regularly contributed book reviews and of which he was an independent director, had already paid a considerable sum for the right to serialise the diaries if and only if they were genuine.
Trevor-Roper explained that he had been given assurances (that turned out to be false) about how the diaries had come into the possession of their "discoverer", and about the age of the paper and ink used in them and of their authenticity. Nonetheless, this incident prompted the satirical magazine Private Eye to nickname him Hugh Very-Ropey (Lord Lucre of Claptout), or more concisely, Lord Facre.
Despite the shadow this cast over his later career, he continued to write and publish and his work remained well received. Trevor-Roper was portrayed in the 1991 TV miniseries Selling Hitler by Alan Bennett.
Election as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge
In 1980 at the age of 67, he became Master of Peterhouse, the oldest and smallest college in the University of Cambridge. His election, which surprised his friends, was engineered by a group of fellows led by Maurice Cowling, then the leading Peterhouse historian. The fellows chose him because Cowling's reactionary clique thought he would be an arch-conservative who would oppose the admission of women. In the event, Trevor-Roper feuded constantly with Cowling and his allies, while launching a series of administrative reforms. Women were admitted in 1983 at his urging. The British journalist Neal Ascherson summarised the quarrel between Cowling and Trevor-Roper as:Lord Dacre, far from being a romantic Tory ultra, turned out to be an anti-clerical Whig with a preference for free speech over superstition. He did not find it normal that fellows should wear mourning on the anniversary of General Franco’s death, attend parties in SS uniform or insult black and Jewish guests at high table. For the next seven years, Trevor-Roper battled to suppress the insurgency of the Cowling clique ("a strong mind trapped in its own glutinous frustrations"), and to bring the college back to a condition in which students might actually want to go there. Neither side won this struggle, which soon became a campaign to drive Trevor-Roper out of the college by grotesque rudeness and insubordination. In a review of Adam Sisman's 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper, the Economist wrote that the picture of Peterhouse in the 1980s was "startling", stating the college had become under Cowling's influence a sort of right-wing "lunatic asylum", who were determined to sabotage Trevor-Roper's reforms. In 1987 he retired complaining of "seven wasted years."
Festschrift
In 1981 a Festschrift was published in honour of Trevor-Roper, History and the Imagination. Some of the contributors were Sir Geoffrey Elton, John Clive, Arnaldo Momigliano, Frances Yates, Jeremy Catto, Robert S. Lopez, Michael Howard, David S. Katz, Dimitri Obolensky, J. H. Elliott, Richard Cobb, Walter Pagel, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Valerie Pearl and Fernand Braudel. The topics contributed by this group of American, British, French, Russian, Italian, Israeli, Canadian and German historians extended from whether the Odyssey was a part of an oral tradition that was later written down, to the question of the responsibility for the Jameson Raid.
Personal life
On 4 October 1954, Trevor-Roper married Lady Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Howard-Johnston (9 March 1907 – 15 August 1997), eldest daughter of Field Marshal Earl Haig by his wife, the former Hon. Dorothy Maud Vivian. Lady Alexandra was a goddaughter of Queen Alexandra and had previously been married to Rear-Admiral Clarence Dinsmore Howard-Johnston, by whom she had had three children. There were no children by his marriage with her.
Hugh Trevor-Roper was made a life peer in 1979 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was raised to the Peerage on 27 September 1979, and was introduced to the House of Lords as Baron Dacre of Glanton, of Glanton in the County of Northumberland. He did not base his title on his surname, because "double-barrelled titles are an invention, and a monopoly, of Wilsonian peers", and "under the rules of the College of Arms either ['Lord Trevor' or 'Lord Roper'] would require him to change his surname to either 'Trevor' or 'Roper.'" On mentioning the family's connection to the Dacre title to his wife, who liked the sound of it, Trevor-Roper was persuaded to opt for the title of "Baron Dacre", despite staunch opposition from the suo jure 27th Baroness Dacre (née Brand). She had her cousin, Anthony Brand, 6th Viscount Hampden, "as titular head of the Brand family", inform Trevor-Roper that the Dacre title belonged to the Brand family "and no-one else should breach their monopoly", on the grounds of the title's antiquity of over six centuries. This high-handed treatment strengthened Trevor-Roper's resolve in the face of his initial ambivalence; he observed "why should the Brands be so 'proud', or so jealous, of a mere title... a gewgaw, which has been bandied intermittently from family to family for six centuries, without tradition or continuity or distinction (except for murder, litigation and extravagance) or, for the last 250 years, land? They only acquired this pretty toy, in 1829, because a Mr Brand, of whom nothing whatever is known, had married into the Trevor-Ropers (who had themselves acquired it by marrying into the Lennards). Now they behave as if they had owned it for six centuries and had a monopoly of it for ever. A fig for their stuffiness!" Notwithstanding objections, Trevor-Roper duly took the title of Baron Dacre of Glanton.
In his last years he had suffered from failing eyesight, which made it difficult for him to read and write. He underwent cataract surgery and obtained a magnifying machine, which allowed him to continue writing. In 2002, at the age of 88, Trevor-Roper submitted a sizable article on Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School, to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in part with notes he had written decades earlier, which editor Brian Harrison praised as "the work of a master". Trevor-Roper suffered several other minor ailments related to his advanced age, but according to his stepson, "bore all his difficulties stoically and without complaint". That year, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on 26 January 2003 in a hospice in Oxford, aged 89.
Posthumous books
Five books by Trevor-Roper were published posthumously. The first was Letters from Oxford, a collection of letters written by Trevor-Roper between 1947–59 to his close friend the American art collector Bernard Berenson. The second book was 2006's Europe’s Physician, an unfinished biography of Sir Theodore de Mayerne, the Franco-Swiss court physician to Henri IV, James I and Charles I. The latter work was largely completed by 1979, but for some unknown reasons was not finished.
The third book was The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, a critique written in the mid-1970s of what Trevor-Roper regarded as the myths of Scottish nationalism. It was published in 2008. The fourth book collecting together some of his essays on History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays was published in 2010. The fifth book was The Wartime Journals, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, published in 2011. The Wartime Journals are from Trevor-Roper's journals that he kept during his years in the Secret Intelligence Service.
Works
Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645, 1940.
The Last Days of Hitler, 1947 (revised editions followed, until the last in 1995)
"The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized," Economic History Review (1951) 3 No 3 pp. 279–298 in JSTOR
Secret Conversations, 1941–1944 (published later as Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944), 1953.
Historical Essays, 1957 (published in the United States in 1958 as Men and Events).
"The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century", Past and Present, Volume 16, 1959 pp. 31–64.
"Hitlers Kriegsziele", in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitsgeschichte, Volume 8, 1960 pp. 121–133, translated into English as "Hitler's War Aims" pages 235–250 from Aspects of the Third Reich edited by H.W. Koch, London: Macmillan Ltd, 1985.
"A. J. P. Taylor, Hitler and the War", Encounter, Volume 17, July 1961 pp. 86–96.
"E. H. Carr's Success Story", Encounter, Volume 84, Issue No 104, 1962 pp. 69–77.
Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler's War Directives, 1939–1945, 1964, 1965.
Essays in British history presented to Sir Keith Feiling edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper; with a foreword by Lord David Cecil (1964)
The Rise of Christian Europe (History of European Civilization series), 1965.
Hitler's Place in History, 1965.
The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century: Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change, and Other Essays, 1967.
The Age of Expansion, Europe and the World, 1559–1600, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1968.
The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason and Secret Services, 1968.
The Romantic Movement and the Study of History: the John Coffin memorial lecture delivered before the University of London on 17 February 1969, 1969.
The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1969
The Plunder of the Arts in the Seventeenth Century, 1970.
The Letters of Mercurius, 1970. (London: John Murray)
Queen Elizabeth's First Historian: William Camden and the Beginning of English "Civil History", 1971.
"Fernand Braudel, the Annales, and the Mediterranean," The Journal of Modern History Vol. 44, No. 4, December 1972
"Foreword" pages 9–16 from 1914: Delusion or Design The Testimony of Two German Diplomats edited by John Röhl, 1973.
A Hidden Life: The Enigma of Sir Edmund Backhouse (published in the US, and in later Eland editions in the UK, as The Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse), 1976.
Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517–1633, 1976.
History and Imagination: A Valedictory Lecture Delivered before the University of Oxford on 20 May 1980, 1980.
Renaissance Essays, 1985.
Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: Seventeenth Century Essays, 1987.
The Golden Age of Europe: From Elizabeth I to the Sun King, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1987.
From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, 1992.
Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 introduction (London: Everyman's Library, 1993).
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson. Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines. L.: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, .
Europe’s Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore De Mayerne, 2007, .
The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, 2008,
History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays, 2010,
Primary sources
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson edited by Richard Davenport-Hines (2007)
My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to Hugh Trevor-Roper and Others edited by Tim Heald (2011) [NB does not contain any letters written by Trevor-Roper]
One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, and Adam Sisman (2013) except and text search Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
The Wartime Journals: Hugh Trevor-Roper, Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, 2011 . Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
Dacre made an extended appearance on the television programme After Dark in 1989 (discussed here)
See also
List of books by or about Adolf Hitler
Historiography of the United Kingdom
Notes
References
; published in North America as
Discussion of H. R. Trevor-Roper: "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" pages 8–42 from Past and Present, No. 18, November 1960 with contributions from Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, H. R. Trevor-Roper, E. H. Kossmann, E. J. Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter.
Further reading
External links
About Trevor-Roper
Michael Knox Beran: H. R. Trevor-Roper, R.I.P, nationalreview.com, 31 January 2003.
Barnard, T. (Faculty of History, University of Oxford) Obituary, History Faculty Alumni Newsletter, No. 1, April 2003.
(there are several discrepancies between these sources)
By Trevor-Roper
1914 births
2003 deaths
20th-century English historians
Academic scandals
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Deaths from cancer in England
Dacre of Glanton
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford
Fellows of Merton College, Oxford
Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Historians of Nazism
Masters of Peterhouse, Cambridge
People educated at Charterhouse School
People from Northumberland
Regius Professors of History (University of Oxford)
People educated at Belhaven Hill School
Fellows of the British Academy
| true |
[
"There are more than 1,000 chemical compounds in coffee, and their molecular and physiological effects are areas of active research in food chemistry.\n\nOverview\n\nThere are a large number of ways to organize coffee compounds. The major texts in the area variously sort by effects on flavor, physiology, pre- and post-roasting effects, growing and processing effects, botanical variety differences, country of origin differences, and many others. Interactions between chemical compounds also is a frequent area of taxonomy, as are the major organic chemistry categories (protein, carbohydrate, lipid, etc.) that are relevant to the field. In the field of aroma and flavor alone, Flament gives a list of 300 contributing chemicals in green beans, and over 850 after roasting. He lists 16 major categories to cover those compounds related to aroma and flavor.\n\nThe chemical complexity of coffee is emerging, especially due to observed physiological effects which cannot be related only to the presence of caffeine. Moreover, coffee contains an exceptionally substantial amount of antioxidants such as chlorogenic acids, hydroxycinnamic acids, caffeine and Maillard reaction products, such as melanoidins. Chemical groups, such as alkaloids and caffeoylquinic acids, are common insecticides; their effects on coffee quality and flavor have been investigated in most studies. Although health effects are certainly a valid taxonomy category, less than 30 of the over 1,000 compounds have been subjected to juried, health-related research (e.g. official potential carcinogen classification — see furans, for example), so health categorization has been avoided.\n\nOn the other hand, physiological effects are well documented in some (e.g. stimulant effects of caffeine), and those are listed where they are relevant and well-documented. Internet claims for individual chemicals, or compound synergies, such as preventing dental cavities (speculative but unproven effect of the alkaloid trigonelline with in vitro bacterial attachment research, but missing in vivo research on any health effects), preventing kidney stones, or negative effects, also have been avoided.\n\nGroups\n\nChemicals found in coffee can be categorized in the following groups:\n\nAcids and anhydrides \nQuinic acid, 3,5-Di-caffeoylquinic acid\n\nAlkaloids \nCaffeine, Putrescine, Theophylline, Trigonelline\n\nAlcohols \nQuinic acid, Acetoin\n\nAmines \n Harmane\n Norharman\n\nEsters \n3,5-Di-caffeoylquinic acid\n\nKetones \nAcetoin\n\nOrganosulfuric compounds \nDimethyl disulfide\n\nPhenols \n3,5-Di-caffeoylquinic acid\n\nTriglycerides \n Commonly called coffee oils. Ester bonded Glycerol with three hydroxyl (OH-) groups connected to fatty acids, each having its own carboxyl group\n\nSee also\n\nReferences \n\nBiochemistry\nFood chemistry\nCoffee chemistry\nCoffee chemicals",
"Vilazodone, sold under the brand name Viibryd among others, is a medication used to treat major depressive disorder. While it was being studied for generalized anxiety disorder, such research had stopped as of 2017. It is taken by mouth.\n\nCommon side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and trouble sleeping. Serious side effects may include increased suicidal thoughts or actions in those under the age of 25, serotonin syndrome, bleeding, mania, pancreatitis, and SIADH. Vilazodone may cause less emotional blunting than typical SSRIs and SNRIs. A withdrawal syndrome may occur if the dose is rapidly decreased. Use during pregnancy and breastfeeding is not generally recommended. It is in the serotonin modulator class of medications and is believed to work both as an SSRI and activator of the 5-HT1A receptor.\n\nVilazodone was approved for medical use in the United States in 2011 and in Canada in 2018. In 2017, it was the 285th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than one million prescriptions.\n\nMedical uses\nSeven controlled efficacy trials were conducted of vilazodone for treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Five of these trials showed no significant influence of vilazodone over placebo on depressive symptoms. In the remaining two trials, small but significant advantages of vilazodone over placebo were found. According to these two eight-week trials in adults, vilazodone has an antidepressant response after one week of treatment. After eight weeks it resulted in a 13% greater response than placebo. Remission rates, however, were not significantly different versus placebo.\n\nAccording to FDA staff in 2011, \"it is unknown whether vilazodone has any advantages compared to other drugs in the antidepressant class.\" A 2019 review stated that \"present studies do not suggest the superiority of vilazodone compared with other antidepressants.\"\n\nDevelopment of vilazodone for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has been stopped as of 2017. While there is tentative evidence of a small benefit in GAD, there is a high rate of side effects.\n\nAdverse effects\nOn September 6, 2016, the FDA wrote a letter to Forest Labs requiring a new warning to be added to the label related to a link between the drug and acute pancreatitis and sleep paralysis.\n\nAfter a one-year, open-label study assessing the safety and tolerability of vilazodone in people with major depressive disorder, the most common adverse effects were diarrhea (35.7%), nausea (31.6%), and headache (20.0%); greater than 90% of these adverse effects were mild or moderate. In randomized controlled trials, meanwhile, these rates were 28%, 23.4% and 13.3%, respectively. In contrast to other SSRIs, initial trials showed that vilazodone did not cause decreased sexual desire/function, which often cause people to abandon their use. Additionally, Vilazodone may cause less emotional blunting than typical SSRIs and SNRIs.\nIncidence of adverse effects include:\n\nVery common adverse effects (incidence >10%)\n Nausea\n Diarrhea\n Headache\n\nCommon adverse effects (1–10% incidence)\n\n Vomiting\n Dry mouth\n Dizziness\n Insomnia\n\nUncommon adverse effects (0.1–1% incidence)\n\n Somnolence\n Paraesthesia\n Tremor\n Abnormal dreams\n Libido decreased\n Restlessness\n Akathisia\n Restless legs syndrome\n Abnormal orgasms (men only)\n Delayed ejaculations (men only)\n Erectile dysfunction (men only)\n Fatigue\n Feeling jittery \n Palpitations\n Ventricular premature contractions\n Arthralgia\n Increased appetite\n\nRare adverse effects (<0.1% incidence)\n Serotonin syndrome—a serious adverse effect characterised by:\nNausea\nVomiting\nMental status change (e.g. confusion, hallucinations, agitation, coma, stupor)\nMuscle rigidity\nTremor\nMyoclonus\nHyperreflexia—overresponsive/overactive reflexes\nHyperthermia—elevated body temperature\nAutonomic instability (e.g. tachycardia, dizziness, abnormally excessive sweating, etc.)\n Mania/hypomania—a potentially dangerously elated/agitated mood. Every antidepressant has the potential to induce these psychiatric reactions. They are particularly problematic in those with a history of hypomania/mania such as those with bipolar disorder.\n\nUnknown-incidence adverse effects\n Suicidal ideation—all antidepressants can cause suicidal ideation especially in young adults and adolescents under the age of 25.\n Abnormal bleeding—the SSRIs are known for their ability to increase the incidence of gastrointestinal bleeds and other bleeding abnormalities.\n Seizures\n Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH)—a condition characterised by an abnormally excessive secretion of antidiuretic hormone causing potentially-fatal electrolyte abnormalities (such as hyponatraemia). \n Hyponatraemia (a complication of the former)—low blood sodium.\n\nPregnancy\nAntidepressant exposure (including vilazodone) is associated with shorter average duration of pregnancy (by three days), increased risk of preterm delivery (by 55%), lower birth weight (by 75 g), and lower Apgar scores (by <0.4 points). It is uncertain whether there is an increased rate of septal heart defects among children whose mothers were prescribed an SSRI in early pregnancy.\n\nPharmacology\n\nPharmacodynamics\nVilazodone acts as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (IC50 = 2.1 nM; Ki = 0.1 nM) and 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist (IC50 = 0.2 nM; IA = ~60–70%). It has negligible affinity for other serotonin receptors such as 5-HT1D, 5-HT2A, and 5-HT2C. It also exhibits clinically unimportant inhibitory activity at the norepinephrine and dopamine transporters (Ki = 56 nM for NET and 37 nM for DAT). A small clinical study found occupancy of the 5-HT1A receptor with vilazodone, whereas occupancy of the SERT by vilazodone in humans does not seem to have been studied.\n\nPharmacokinetics\nVilazodone is best absorbed with food and has a bioavailability of 72% under fed conditions. The Cmax increased between 147 to 160% and the AUC increased between 64 to 85% of vilazodone when it was administered with either a fatty or light meal.\n\nHistory\nIt was developed by Merck KGaA and licensed by Clinical Data, a biotech company purchased by Forest Laboratories in 2011.\n\nSee also\n Vortioxetine\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nAbbVie brands\nBenzofuran-2-carboxamides\nBenzonitriles\nIndoles\nMerck brands\nPhenylpiperazines\nSerotonin receptor agonists\nSerotonin reuptake inhibitors\nWikipedia medicine articles ready to translate"
] |
[
"Hugh Trevor-Roper",
"General crisis of the 17th century",
"What were Trevor-Ropers thoughts on the general crisis of the 17th century?",
"He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society",
"What were the effects of this break-down?",
"English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown",
"Were there other major effects?",
"the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country."
] |
C_5497310d59f3429a948d2617f5f10abd_0
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How did European society and its people change after these major shifts?
| 4 |
How did European society and its people change after the general crisis of the 17th century ?
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Hugh Trevor-Roper
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A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis," various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the "general crisis" in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between "Court" and "Country"; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis." The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis," but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis," for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schoffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory. At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis;" instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism. CANNOTANSWER
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In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis."
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Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford.
Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of historical topics, but particularly England in the 16th and 17th centuries and Nazi Germany. In the view of John Kenyon, "some of [Trevor-Roper's] short essays have affected the way we think about the past more than other men's books". This is echoed by Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman in the introduction to One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (2014): "The bulk of his publications is formidable... Some of his essays are of Victorian length. All of them reduce large subjects to their essence. Many of them... have lastingly transformed their fields." On the other hand, his biographer Adam Sisman also writes that "the mark of a great historian is that he writes great books, on the subject which he has made his own. By this exacting standard Hugh failed."
Trevor-Roper's most widely read and financially rewarding book was titled The Last Days of Hitler (1947). It emerged from his assignment as a British intelligence officer in 1945 to discover what happened in the last days of Hitler's bunker. From his interviews with a range of witnesses and study of surviving documents he demonstrated that Hitler was dead and had not escaped from Berlin. He also showed that Hitler's dictatorship was not an efficient unified machine but a hodge-podge of overlapping rivalries.
Trevor-Roper's reputation was "severely damaged" in 1983 when he authenticated the Hitler Diaries shortly before they were shown to be forgeries.
Early life and education
Trevor-Roper was born at Glanton, Northumberland, England, the son of Kathleen Elizabeth Davidson (died 1964) and Bertie William Edward Trevor-Roper (1885–1978), a doctor, descended from Henry Roper, 8th Baron Teynham, who married, Anne, (her second husband) 16th Baroness Dacre. Trevor-Roper "enjoyed (but not too seriously)... that he was a collateral descendant of William Roper, the son-in-law and biographer of Sir Thomas More... as a boy he was aware that only a dozen lives (several of them those of elderly bachelors) separated him from inheriting the Teynham peerage."
Trevor-Roper's brother, Patrick, became a leading eye surgeon and gay rights activist. Trevor-Roper was educated at Belhaven Hill School, Charterhouse, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read first Classics (Literae Humaniores) and then Modern History, later moving to Merton College, Oxford, to become a Research Fellow. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the exclusive Stubbs Society and was initiated as a Freemason in the Apollo University Lodge.
Trevor-Roper took a first in Classical Moderations in 1934 and won the Craven, the Ireland, and the Hertford scholarships in Classics. Initially, he intended to make his career in the Classics but became bored with what he regarded as the pedantic technical aspects of the classics course at Oxford and switched to History, where he obtained first-class honours in 1936. Trevor-Roper's first book was a 1940 biography of Archbishop William Laud, in which he challenged many of the prevailing perceptions surrounding Laud.
Military service in World War II
During World War II, Trevor-Roper served as an officer in the Radio Security Service of the Secret Intelligence Service, and then on the interception of messages from the German intelligence service, the Abwehr. In early 1940, Trevor-Roper and E. W. B. Gill decrypted some of these intercepts, demonstrating the relevance of the material and spurring Bletchley Park efforts to decrypt the traffic. Intelligence from Abwehr traffic later played an important part in many operations including the Double-Cross System.
He formed a low opinion of most pre-war professional intelligence agents, but a higher one of some of the post-1939 recruits. In The Philby Affair (1968) Trevor-Roper argues that the Soviet spy Kim Philby was never in a position to undermine efforts by the chief of the Abwehr, German Military Intelligence, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to overthrow the Nazi regime and negotiate with the British government.
Investigating Hitler's last days
In November 1945, Trevor-Roper was ordered by Dick White, then head of counter-intelligence in the British sector of Berlin, to investigate the circumstances of Adolf Hitler's death, and to rebut the Soviet propaganda that Hitler was alive and living in the West. Using the alias of "Major Oughton", Trevor-Roper interviewed or prepared questions for several officials, high and low, who had been present in the Führerbunker with Hitler, and who had been able to escape to the West, including Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven.
For the most part Trevor-Roper relied on investigations and interviews by hundreds of British, American and Canadian intelligence officers. He did not have access to Soviet materials. Working rapidly, Trevor-Roper drafted his report, which served as the basis for his most famous book, The Last Days of Hitler, in which he described the last ten days of Hitler's life and the fates of some of the higher-ranking members of the inner circle, as well as those of key lesser figures. Trevor-Roper transformed the evidence into a literary work, with sardonic humour and drama, and was much influenced by the prose styles of two of his favourite historians, Edward Gibbon and Lord Macaulay.
The book was cleared by British officials in 1946 for publication as soon as the war crimes trials ended. It was published in English in 1947; six English editions and many foreign language editions followed. According to American journalist Ron Rosenbaum, Trevor-Roper received a letter from Lisbon written in Hebrew stating that the Stern Gang would assassinate him for The Last Days of Hitler, which, they believed, portrayed Hitler as a "demoniacal" figure but let ordinary Germans who followed Hitler off the hook, and that for this he deserved to die. Rosenbaum reports that Trevor-Roper told him this was the most extreme response he had ever received for one of his books.
Anti-communism
In June 1950, Trevor-Roper attended a conference in Berlin of anti-Communist intellectuals along with Sidney Hook, Melvin J. Lasky, Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron and Franz Borkenau that resulted in the founding of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and its magazine Encounter. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a frequent contributor to Encounter, but had reservations about what he regarded as the over-didactic tone of some of its contributors, particularly Koestler and Borkenau.
Historical debates and controversies
Trevor-Roper was famous for his lucid and acerbic writing style. In reviews and essays he could be pitilessly sarcastic, and devastating in his mockery. In attacking Arnold J. Toynbee's A Study of History, for instance, Trevor-Roper accused Toynbee of regarding himself as a Messiah complete with "the youthful Temptations; the missionary Journeys; the Miracles; the Revelations; the Agony".
For Trevor-Roper, the major themes of early modern Europe were its intellectual vitality, and the quarrels between Protestant and Catholic states, the latter being outpaced by the former, economically and constitutionally. In Trevor-Roper's view, another theme of early modern Europe was expansion overseas in the form of colonies and intellectual expansion in the form of the Reformation and the Enlightenment. In Trevor-Roper's view, the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries can ultimately be traced back to the conflict between the religious values of the Reformation and the rationalistic approach of what became the Enlightenment.
Trevor-Roper argued that history should be understood as an art, not a science and that the attribute of a successful historian was imagination. He viewed history as full of contingency, with the past neither a story of continuous advance nor of continuous decline but the consequence of choices made by individuals at the time. In his studies of early modern Europe, Trevor-Roper did not focus exclusively upon political history but sought to examine the interaction between the political, intellectual, social and religious trends. His preferred medium of expression was the essay rather than the book. In his essays in social history, written during the 1950s and 1960s, Trevor-Roper was influenced by the work of the French Annales School, especially Fernand Braudel and did much to introduce the work of the Annales school to the English-speaking world. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper wrote that Braudel and the rest of the school were doing much innovative historical work but were "totally excluded from Oxford which remains, in historical matters, a retrograde provincial backwater".
English Civil War
In Trevor-Roper's opinion, the dispute between the Puritans and the Arminians was a major, although not the sole, cause of the English Civil War. For him, the dispute was over such issues as free will and predestination and the role of preaching versus the sacraments; only later did the dispute become a matter of the structure of the Church of England. The Puritans desired a more decentralised and egalitarian church, with an emphasis on the laity, while the Arminians wished for an ordered church with a hierarchy, an emphasis on divine right and salvation through free will.
As a historian of early modern Britain, Trevor-Roper was known for his disputes with fellow historians such as Lawrence Stone and Christopher Hill, whose materialist (and in some measure "inevitablist") explanations of the English Civil War he attacked. Trevor-Roper was a leading player in the historiographical storm over the gentry (also known as the Gentry controversy), a dispute with the historians R. H. Tawney and Stone, about whether the English gentry were, economically, on the way down or up, in the century before the English Civil War and whether this helped cause that war.
Stone, Tawney and Hill argued that the gentry were rising economically and that this caused the Civil War. Trevor-Roper argued that while office-holders and lawyers were prospering, the lesser gentry were in decline. A third group of history men around J. H. Hexter and Geoffrey Elton, argued that the causes of the Civil War had nothing to do with the gentry. In 1948, a paper put forward by Stone in support of Tawney's thesis was vigorously attacked by Trevor-Roper, who showed that Stone had exaggerated the debt problems of the Tudor nobility. He also rejected Tawney's theories about the rising gentry and declining nobility, arguing that he was guilty of selective use of evidence and that he misunderstood the statistics.
World War II and Hitler
Trevor-Roper attacked the philosophies of history advanced by Arnold J. Toynbee and E. H. Carr, as well as his colleague A. J. P. Taylor's account of the origins of World War II. Another dispute was with Taylor and Alan Bullock over the question of whether Adolf Hitler had fixed aims. In the 1950s, Trevor-Roper was ferocious in his criticism of Bullock for his portrayal of Hitler as a "mountebank" instead of the ideologue Trevor-Roper believed him to be. When Taylor offered a picture of Hitler similar to Bullock's, in his 1961 book The Origins of the Second World War, the debate continued. Another feud was with the novelist and Catholic convert Evelyn Waugh, who was angered by Trevor-Roper's repeated harsh attacks on the Catholic Church.
In the globalist–continentalist debate between those who argued that Hitler aimed to conquer the world and those who argued that he sought only the conquest of Europe, Trevor-Roper was one of the leading continentalists. He argued that the globalist case sought to turn a scattering of Hitler's remarks made over decades into a plan. In his analysis, the only consistent objective Hitler sought was the domination of Europe, as laid out in Mein Kampf. The American historian Lucy Dawidowicz in The Holocaust and Historians (1981) delivered what the British historian David Cesarani called an "ad hominem attack", writing that Trevor-Roper in his writings on Nazi Germany was indifferent to Nazi antisemitism, because she believed that he was a snobbish antisemite, who was apathetic about the murder of six million Jews. Cesarani wrote that Dawidowicz was wrong to accuse Trevor-Roper of antisemitism but argued that there was an element of truth to her critique in that the Shoah was a blind-spot for Trevor-Roper.
Trevor-Roper was a very firm "intentionist" who treated Hitler as a serious, if slightly deranged thinker who, from 1924 until his death in 1945, was obsessed with "the conquest of Russia, the extermination of the Slavs, and the colonization of the English". In his 1962 essay "The Mind of Adolf Hitler", Trevor-Roper again criticized Bullock, writing "Even Mr. Bullock seems content to regard him as a diabolical adventurer animated solely by an unlimited lust for personal power... Hitler was a systematic thinker and his mind is, to the historian, as important as the mind of Bismarck or Lenin". Trevor-Roper maintained that Hitler, on the basis of a wide range of antisemitic literature, from the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, had constructed a racist ideology that called for making Germany the world's greatest power and the extermination of perceived enemies like the Jews and Slavs.
Trevor-Roper wrote that the mind of Hitler was "a terrible phenomenon, imposing indeed in its granite harshness and yet infinitely squalid in its miscellaneous cumber, like some huge barbarian monolith; the expression of giant strength and savage genius; surrounded by a festering heap of refuse, old tins and vermin, ashes and eggshells and ordure, the intellectual detritus of centuries". Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper regarded Hitler, in marked contrast to Bullock, as a man who was serious about what he said but at the same time, Trevor-Roper's picture of Hitler as a somewhat insane leader, fanatically pursuing lunatic policies, meant paradoxically that it was hard to take Hitler seriously, at least on the basis of Trevor-Roper's writings. Cesarani stated that Trevor-Roper was sincere in his hatred and contempt for the Nazis and everything they stood for but he had considerable difficulty when it came to writing about the complicity and involvement of traditional German elites in National Socialism, because the traditional elites in Germany were so similar in many ways to the British Establishment, which Trevor-Roper identified with so strongly.
In this respect, Cesarani argued that it was very revealing that Trevor-Roper in The Last Days of Hitler was especially damning in his picture of the German Finance Minister, Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, whom Trevor-Roper noted "had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, but he had acquired none of its values". Cesarani wrote "Thus, to Trevor-Roper the values of Oxford University stood at the opposite pole to those of Hitler's Reich, and one reason for the ghastly character of Nazism was that it did not share them". Cesarani noted that while Trevor-Roper supported the Conservatives and ended his days as a Tory life-peer, he was broadly speaking a liberal and believed that Britain was a great nation because of its liberalism. Because of this background, Cesarani wrote that Trevor-Roper naturally saw the liberal democracy Britain as anathema to Nazi Germany. Cesarani concluded "...to maintain the illusion of virtuous British liberalism, Hitler had to be depicted as either a statesman like any other or a monster without equal, and those who did business with him as, respectively, pragmatists or dupes. Every current of Nazi society that made it distinctive could be charted, while the anti-Jewish racism that it shared with Britain was discreetly avoided".
General crisis of the 17th century
A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the "general crisis of the 17th century". He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems. In this "general crisis,” various events, such as the English Civil War, the Fronde in France, the climax of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, troubles in the Netherlands, and revolts against the Spanish Crown in Portugal, Naples and Catalonia, were all manifestations of the same problems. The most important causes of the “general crisis” in Trevor-Roper's opinion were conflicts between “Court” and “Country”; that is between the increasingly powerful centralizing, bureaucratic, sovereign princely states, represented by the Court, and the traditional, regional, land-based aristocracy and gentry, representing the country. In addition, he said that the religious and intellectual changes introduced by the Reformation and the Renaissance were important secondary causes of the "general crisis."
The "general crisis" thesis generated controversy between supporters of this theory, and those, such as the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who agreed with him that there was a "general crisis,” but saw the problems of 17th century Europe as more economic in origin than Trevor-Roper would allow. A third faction denied that there was any "general crisis,” for example the Dutch historian Ivo Schöffer, the Danish historian Niels Steengsgaard, and the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya. Trevor-Roper's "general crisis" thesis provoked much discussion, and led experts in 17th century history such as Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, E. H. Kossmann, Eric Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter to become advocates of the pros and cons of the theory.
At times the discussion became quite heated; the Italian Marxist historian Rosario Villari, speaking of the work of Trevor-Roper and Mousnier, claimed that: "The hypothesis of imbalance between bureaucratic expansion and the needs of the state is too vague to be plausible, and rests on inflated rhetoric, typical of a certain type of political conservative, rather than on effective analysis." Villari accused Trevor-Roper of downgrading the importance of what Villari called the English Revolution (the usual Marxist term for the English Civil War), and insisted that the "general crisis" was part of a Europe-wide revolutionary movement. Another Marxist critic of Trevor-Roper, the Soviet historian A. D. Lublinskaya, attacked the concept of a conflict between "Court" and "Country" as fiction, arguing there was no "general crisis"; instead she maintained that the so-called "general crisis" was merely the emergence of capitalism.
First World War
In 1973, Trevor-Roper in the foreword to a book by John Röhl endorsed the view that Germany was largely responsible for the First World War. Trevor-Roper wrote that in his opinion far too many British historians had allowed themselves to be persuaded of the theory that the outbreak of war in 1914 had been the fault of all the great powers. He claimed that this theory had been promoted by the German government's policy of selective publication of documents, aided and abetted by most German historians in a policy of "self-censorship." He praised Röhl for finding and publishing two previously secret documents that showed German responsibility for the war.
Backhouse frauds
In 1973, Trevor-Roper was invited to visit Switzerland to examine a manuscript entitled Decadence Mandchoue written by the sinologist Sir Edmund Backhouse (1873–1944) in a mixture of English, French, Latin and Chinese that had been in the custody of Reinhard Hoeppli, a Swiss diplomat who was the Swiss consul in Beijing during World War II. Hoeppli, given Decadence Mandchoue in 1943 by his friend Backhouse, had been unable to publish it owing to its sexually explicit content. But by 1973 looser censorship and the rise of the gay rights movement meant a publisher was willing to release Decadence Mandchoue to the market. However, before doing so they wanted Trevor-Roper, who as a former MI6 officer was an expert on clandestine affairs, to examine some of the more outlandish claims contained in the text.
For an example, Backhouse claimed in Decadence Mandchoue that the wives and daughters of British diplomats in Beijing had trained their dogs and tamed foxes to perform cunnilingus on them, which the fascistic Backhouse used as evidence of British "decadence", which in turn explained why he was supporting Germany and Japan in the Second World War. Trevor-Roper regarded Decadence Mandchoue with considerable distaste calling the manuscript "pornographic" and "obscene" as Backhouse related in graphic detail sexual encounters he claimed to have had with the French poet Paul Verlaine, the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, the British Prime Minister Lord Rosebery and the Empress Dowager Cixi of China whom the openly gay Backhouse had maintained had forced herself on him.
Backhouse also claimed to have been the friend of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. For the next two years, Trevor-Roper went on an odyssey that took him all over Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and China as he sought to unravel the mystery of just who the elusive Backhouse was. Backhouse had between 1898 and his death in 1944 worked as a sinologist, the business agent for several British and American companies in China, a British spy, gun-runner and translator before finally ending his days in World War II China as a fascist and a Japanese collaborator who wished fervently for an Axis victory which would destroy Great Britain. Trevor-Roper noted that despite Backhouse's homosexuality and Nazi Germany's policy of persecuting homosexuals, Backhouse's intense hatred of his own country together with his sadistic-masochistic sexual needs meant that Backhouse longed to be "...ravished and possessed by the brutal, but still perverted masculinity of the fascist Führerprinzip".
The end result was one of Trevor-Roper's most successful later books, his 1976 biography of Backhouse, originally entitled A Hidden Life but soon republished in Britain and the US as The Hermit of Peking. Backhouse had long been regarded as a world's leading expert on China. In his biography, Trevor-Roper exposed the vast majority of Sir Edmund's life-story and virtually all of his scholarship as a fraud. In Decadence Mandchoue, Backhouse spoke of his efforts to raise money to pay the defence lawyers for Wilde while he was an undergraduate at Oxford. Trevor-Roper established that while Backhouse did indeed raise money for the Wilde defence fund, he spent it all on buying expensive jewellery, especially pearl necklaces, which were a special passion of Backhouse's. It was this embezzlement of the money Backhouse had raised for the Wilde defence fund that led to him fleeing Britain in 1895. The discrediting of Backhouse as a source led to much of China's history being re-written in the West. Backhouse had portrayed Prince Ronglu as a friend of the West and an enemy of the Boxers when the opposite was true.
Trevor-Roper noted that in the "diary" of Ching Shan, which Backhouse claimed to have looted from Ching's house just before it was burned down by Indian troops in the Boxer Rebellion, it has Prince Ronglu saying about the government's support of the Boxers: "C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute" ("It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder."). Trevor-Roper argued that it was extremely unlikely that Prince Ronglu – who only knew Manchu and Mandarin – would be quoting a well-known French expression, but noted that Backhouse was fluent in French. Backhouse was fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, lived most of his life in Beijing and after moving to China had declined to wear western clothes, preferring instead the gown of a Chinese mandarin, which led most Westerners to assume that Backhouse "knew" China. Trevor-Roper noted that despite his superficial appearance of affection for the Chinese, much of what Backhouse wrote about on China worked subtly to confirm Western "Yellow Peril" stereotypes, as Backhouse variously depicted the Chinese as pathologically dishonest, sexually perverted, morally corrupt and generally devious and treacherous – in short, Chinese civilization for Backhouse was a deeply sick civilization.
Oxford activities
In 1960, Trevor-Roper waged a successful campaign against the candidacy of Sir Oliver Franks who was backed by the heads of houses marshalled by Maurice Bowra, for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford, helping the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to be elected instead. In 1964, Trevor-Roper edited a Festschrift in honour of his friend Sir Keith Feiling's 80th birthday. In 1970, he was the author of The Letters of Mercurius, a satirical work on the student revolts and university politics of the late 1960s, originally published as letters in The Spectator.
Debates on African history
Another aspect of Trevor-Roper's outlook on history and on scholarly research that has inspired controversy, is his statement about the historical experiences of pre-literate societies. Following Voltaire's remarks on the fall of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian tribes, he asserted that Africa had no history prior to European exploration and colonisation. Africa is "no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit". Trevor-Roper said "there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness", its past "the unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe." These comments, recapitulated in a later article which called Africa "unhistoric", spurred intense debate between historians, anthropologists, sociologists, in the emerging fields of postcolonial and cultural studies about the definition of "history". Historians have argued, in response, that historical myths of the kind perpetrated by Trevor-Roper need to be actively countered: "Only a process of counter-selection can correct this, and African historians have to concentrate on those aspects which were ignored by the disparaging mythologies".
Many historians now argue, against Trevor-Roper, that historical evidence should also include oral traditions as well as written history, a former criterion for a society having left "prehistory". Critics of Trevor-Roper's claim have questioned the validity of systematic interpretations of the African past, whether by materialist, Annalist or the traditional historical methods used by Trevor-Roper. Some say approaches which compare Africa with Europe or directly integrate it into European history cannot be accurate descriptions of African societies. Virtually all scholars now agree that Africa has a "history". Despite controversies over historical accuracy in oral records, as in Alex Haley's Roots book and popular TV mini-series, African griots, or oral memoirists, provided a historical oral record.
"Hitler Diaries" hoax
The nadir of his career came in 1983, when as a director of The Times, Baron Dacre of Glanton (as he was by this point) made statements that authenticated the so-called Hitler Diaries. Others were unsure: David Irving, for example, initially decried them as forgeries but subsequently changed his mind and declared that they could be genuine, before finally stating that they were a forgery. Historians Gerhard Weinberg and Eberhard Jäckel had also expressed doubt regarding the authenticity of the diaries.
Within two weeks, forensic scientist Julius Grant demonstrated that the diaries were forgeries. The ensuing fiasco gave Trevor-Roper's enemies the opportunity to criticise him openly, while Trevor-Roper's initial endorsement of the diaries raised questions about his integrity: The Sunday Times, a newspaper to which he regularly contributed book reviews and of which he was an independent director, had already paid a considerable sum for the right to serialise the diaries if and only if they were genuine.
Trevor-Roper explained that he had been given assurances (that turned out to be false) about how the diaries had come into the possession of their "discoverer", and about the age of the paper and ink used in them and of their authenticity. Nonetheless, this incident prompted the satirical magazine Private Eye to nickname him Hugh Very-Ropey (Lord Lucre of Claptout), or more concisely, Lord Facre.
Despite the shadow this cast over his later career, he continued to write and publish and his work remained well received. Trevor-Roper was portrayed in the 1991 TV miniseries Selling Hitler by Alan Bennett.
Election as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge
In 1980 at the age of 67, he became Master of Peterhouse, the oldest and smallest college in the University of Cambridge. His election, which surprised his friends, was engineered by a group of fellows led by Maurice Cowling, then the leading Peterhouse historian. The fellows chose him because Cowling's reactionary clique thought he would be an arch-conservative who would oppose the admission of women. In the event, Trevor-Roper feuded constantly with Cowling and his allies, while launching a series of administrative reforms. Women were admitted in 1983 at his urging. The British journalist Neal Ascherson summarised the quarrel between Cowling and Trevor-Roper as:Lord Dacre, far from being a romantic Tory ultra, turned out to be an anti-clerical Whig with a preference for free speech over superstition. He did not find it normal that fellows should wear mourning on the anniversary of General Franco’s death, attend parties in SS uniform or insult black and Jewish guests at high table. For the next seven years, Trevor-Roper battled to suppress the insurgency of the Cowling clique ("a strong mind trapped in its own glutinous frustrations"), and to bring the college back to a condition in which students might actually want to go there. Neither side won this struggle, which soon became a campaign to drive Trevor-Roper out of the college by grotesque rudeness and insubordination. In a review of Adam Sisman's 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper, the Economist wrote that the picture of Peterhouse in the 1980s was "startling", stating the college had become under Cowling's influence a sort of right-wing "lunatic asylum", who were determined to sabotage Trevor-Roper's reforms. In 1987 he retired complaining of "seven wasted years."
Festschrift
In 1981 a Festschrift was published in honour of Trevor-Roper, History and the Imagination. Some of the contributors were Sir Geoffrey Elton, John Clive, Arnaldo Momigliano, Frances Yates, Jeremy Catto, Robert S. Lopez, Michael Howard, David S. Katz, Dimitri Obolensky, J. H. Elliott, Richard Cobb, Walter Pagel, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Valerie Pearl and Fernand Braudel. The topics contributed by this group of American, British, French, Russian, Italian, Israeli, Canadian and German historians extended from whether the Odyssey was a part of an oral tradition that was later written down, to the question of the responsibility for the Jameson Raid.
Personal life
On 4 October 1954, Trevor-Roper married Lady Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Howard-Johnston (9 March 1907 – 15 August 1997), eldest daughter of Field Marshal Earl Haig by his wife, the former Hon. Dorothy Maud Vivian. Lady Alexandra was a goddaughter of Queen Alexandra and had previously been married to Rear-Admiral Clarence Dinsmore Howard-Johnston, by whom she had had three children. There were no children by his marriage with her.
Hugh Trevor-Roper was made a life peer in 1979 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was raised to the Peerage on 27 September 1979, and was introduced to the House of Lords as Baron Dacre of Glanton, of Glanton in the County of Northumberland. He did not base his title on his surname, because "double-barrelled titles are an invention, and a monopoly, of Wilsonian peers", and "under the rules of the College of Arms either ['Lord Trevor' or 'Lord Roper'] would require him to change his surname to either 'Trevor' or 'Roper.'" On mentioning the family's connection to the Dacre title to his wife, who liked the sound of it, Trevor-Roper was persuaded to opt for the title of "Baron Dacre", despite staunch opposition from the suo jure 27th Baroness Dacre (née Brand). She had her cousin, Anthony Brand, 6th Viscount Hampden, "as titular head of the Brand family", inform Trevor-Roper that the Dacre title belonged to the Brand family "and no-one else should breach their monopoly", on the grounds of the title's antiquity of over six centuries. This high-handed treatment strengthened Trevor-Roper's resolve in the face of his initial ambivalence; he observed "why should the Brands be so 'proud', or so jealous, of a mere title... a gewgaw, which has been bandied intermittently from family to family for six centuries, without tradition or continuity or distinction (except for murder, litigation and extravagance) or, for the last 250 years, land? They only acquired this pretty toy, in 1829, because a Mr Brand, of whom nothing whatever is known, had married into the Trevor-Ropers (who had themselves acquired it by marrying into the Lennards). Now they behave as if they had owned it for six centuries and had a monopoly of it for ever. A fig for their stuffiness!" Notwithstanding objections, Trevor-Roper duly took the title of Baron Dacre of Glanton.
In his last years he had suffered from failing eyesight, which made it difficult for him to read and write. He underwent cataract surgery and obtained a magnifying machine, which allowed him to continue writing. In 2002, at the age of 88, Trevor-Roper submitted a sizable article on Thomas Sutton, the founder of Charterhouse School, to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in part with notes he had written decades earlier, which editor Brian Harrison praised as "the work of a master". Trevor-Roper suffered several other minor ailments related to his advanced age, but according to his stepson, "bore all his difficulties stoically and without complaint". That year, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on 26 January 2003 in a hospice in Oxford, aged 89.
Posthumous books
Five books by Trevor-Roper were published posthumously. The first was Letters from Oxford, a collection of letters written by Trevor-Roper between 1947–59 to his close friend the American art collector Bernard Berenson. The second book was 2006's Europe’s Physician, an unfinished biography of Sir Theodore de Mayerne, the Franco-Swiss court physician to Henri IV, James I and Charles I. The latter work was largely completed by 1979, but for some unknown reasons was not finished.
The third book was The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, a critique written in the mid-1970s of what Trevor-Roper regarded as the myths of Scottish nationalism. It was published in 2008. The fourth book collecting together some of his essays on History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays was published in 2010. The fifth book was The Wartime Journals, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, published in 2011. The Wartime Journals are from Trevor-Roper's journals that he kept during his years in the Secret Intelligence Service.
Works
Archbishop Laud, 1573–1645, 1940.
The Last Days of Hitler, 1947 (revised editions followed, until the last in 1995)
"The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized," Economic History Review (1951) 3 No 3 pp. 279–298 in JSTOR
Secret Conversations, 1941–1944 (published later as Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944), 1953.
Historical Essays, 1957 (published in the United States in 1958 as Men and Events).
"The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century", Past and Present, Volume 16, 1959 pp. 31–64.
"Hitlers Kriegsziele", in Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitsgeschichte, Volume 8, 1960 pp. 121–133, translated into English as "Hitler's War Aims" pages 235–250 from Aspects of the Third Reich edited by H.W. Koch, London: Macmillan Ltd, 1985.
"A. J. P. Taylor, Hitler and the War", Encounter, Volume 17, July 1961 pp. 86–96.
"E. H. Carr's Success Story", Encounter, Volume 84, Issue No 104, 1962 pp. 69–77.
Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler's War Directives, 1939–1945, 1964, 1965.
Essays in British history presented to Sir Keith Feiling edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper; with a foreword by Lord David Cecil (1964)
The Rise of Christian Europe (History of European Civilization series), 1965.
Hitler's Place in History, 1965.
The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century: Religion, the Reformation, and Social Change, and Other Essays, 1967.
The Age of Expansion, Europe and the World, 1559–1600, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1968.
The Philby Affair: Espionage, Treason and Secret Services, 1968.
The Romantic Movement and the Study of History: the John Coffin memorial lecture delivered before the University of London on 17 February 1969, 1969.
The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1969
The Plunder of the Arts in the Seventeenth Century, 1970.
The Letters of Mercurius, 1970. (London: John Murray)
Queen Elizabeth's First Historian: William Camden and the Beginning of English "Civil History", 1971.
"Fernand Braudel, the Annales, and the Mediterranean," The Journal of Modern History Vol. 44, No. 4, December 1972
"Foreword" pages 9–16 from 1914: Delusion or Design The Testimony of Two German Diplomats edited by John Röhl, 1973.
A Hidden Life: The Enigma of Sir Edmund Backhouse (published in the US, and in later Eland editions in the UK, as The Hermit of Peking: The Hidden Life of Sir Edmund Backhouse), 1976.
Princes and Artists: Patronage and Ideology at Four Habsburg Courts, 1517–1633, 1976.
History and Imagination: A Valedictory Lecture Delivered before the University of Oxford on 20 May 1980, 1980.
Renaissance Essays, 1985.
Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: Seventeenth Century Essays, 1987.
The Golden Age of Europe: From Elizabeth I to the Sun King, edited by Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1987.
From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, 1992.
Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 introduction (London: Everyman's Library, 1993).
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson. Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines. L.: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, .
Europe’s Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore De Mayerne, 2007, .
The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, 2008,
History and the Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Essays, 2010,
Primary sources
Letters from Oxford: Hugh Trevor-Roper to Bernard Berenson edited by Richard Davenport-Hines (2007)
My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to Hugh Trevor-Roper and Others edited by Tim Heald (2011) [NB does not contain any letters written by Trevor-Roper]
One Hundred Letters From Hugh Trevor-Roper, edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, and Adam Sisman (2013) except and text search Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
The Wartime Journals: Hugh Trevor-Roper, Edited by Richard Davenport-Hines, 2011 . Corrected paperback edition, 2015.
Dacre made an extended appearance on the television programme After Dark in 1989 (discussed here)
See also
List of books by or about Adolf Hitler
Historiography of the United Kingdom
Notes
References
; published in North America as
Discussion of H. R. Trevor-Roper: "The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century" pages 8–42 from Past and Present, No. 18, November 1960 with contributions from Roland Mousnier, J. H. Elliott, Lawrence Stone, H. R. Trevor-Roper, E. H. Kossmann, E. J. Hobsbawm and J. H. Hexter.
Further reading
External links
About Trevor-Roper
Michael Knox Beran: H. R. Trevor-Roper, R.I.P, nationalreview.com, 31 January 2003.
Barnard, T. (Faculty of History, University of Oxford) Obituary, History Faculty Alumni Newsletter, No. 1, April 2003.
(there are several discrepancies between these sources)
By Trevor-Roper
1914 births
2003 deaths
20th-century English historians
Academic scandals
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Deaths from cancer in England
Dacre of Glanton
Deaths from esophageal cancer
Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford
Fellows of Merton College, Oxford
Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Historians of Nazism
Masters of Peterhouse, Cambridge
People educated at Charterhouse School
People from Northumberland
Regius Professors of History (University of Oxford)
People educated at Belhaven Hill School
Fellows of the British Academy
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"Culture change is a term used in public policy making that emphasizes the influence of cultural capital on individual and community behavior. It has been sometimes called repositioning of culture, which means the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society. It places stress on the social and cultural capital determinants of decision making and the manner in which these interact with other factors like the availability of information or the financial incentives facing individuals to drive behavior.\n \n\nThese cultural capital influences include the role of parenting, families and close associates; organizations such as schools and workplaces; communities and neighborhoods; and wider social influences such as the media. It is argued that this cultural capital manifests into specific values, attitudes or social norms which in turn guide the behavioral intentions that individuals adopt in regard to particular decisions or courses of action. These behavioral intentions interact with other factors driving behavior such as financial incentives, regulation and legislation, or levels of information, to drive actual behavior and ultimately feed back into underlying cultural capital.\n\nIn general, cultural stereotypes present great resistance to change and to their own redefinition. Culture, often appears fixed to the observer at any one point in time because cultural mutations occur incrementally. Cultural change is a long-term process. Policymakers need to make a great effort to improve some basics aspects of a society’s cultural traits.\n\nIt has been estimated from archaeological data that the human capacity for cumulative culture emerged somewhere between 500,000–170,000 years ago.\n\nRaimon Panikkar identified 29 ways in which cultural change can be brought about, including growth, development, evolution, involution, renovation, reconception, reform, innovation, revivalism, revolution, mutation, progress, diffusion, osmosis, borrowing, eclecticism, syncretism, modernization, indigenization, and transformation. In this context, modernization could be viewed as adoption of Enlightenment era beliefs and practices, such as science, rationalism, industry, commerce, democracy, and the notion of progress. Rein Raud, building on the work of Umberto Eco, Pierre Bourdieu and Jeffrey C. Alexander, has proposed a model of cultural change based on claims and bids, which are judged by their cognitive adequacy and endorsed or not endorsed by the symbolic authority of the cultural community in question.\n\nCultural invention has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global \"accelerating culture change period,\" driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and above all, the human population explosion, among other factors. Culture repositioning means the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society.\n\nCultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change. These forces are related to both social structures and natural events, and are involved in the perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within current structures, which themselves are subject to change. (See structuration.)\n\nSocial conflict and the development of technologies can produce changes within a society by altering social dynamics and promoting new cultural models, and spurring or enabling generative action. These social shifts may accompany ideological shifts and other types of cultural change. For example, the U.S. feminist movement involved new practices that produced a shift in gender relations, altering both gender and economic structures. Environmental conditions may also enter as factors. For example, after tropical forests returned at the end of the last ice age, plants suitable for domestication were available, leading to the invention of agriculture, which in turn brought about many cultural innovations and shifts in social dynamics.\n\nCultures are externally affected via contact between societies, which may also produce—or inhibit—social shifts and changes in cultural practices. War or competition over resources may impact technological development or social dynamics. Additionally, cultural ideas may transfer from one society to another, through diffusion or acculturation. In diffusion, the form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, Western restaurant chains and culinary brands sparked curiosity and fascination to the Chinese as China opened its economy to international trade in the late 20th-century. \"Stimulus diffusion\" (the sharing of ideas) refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention or propagation in another. \"Direct borrowing,\" on the other hand, tends to refer to technological or tangible diffusion from one culture to another. Diffusion of innovations theory presents a research-based model of why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products.\n\nAcculturation has different meanings. Still, in this context, it refers to the replacement of traits of one culture with another, such as what happened to certain Native American tribes and many indigenous peoples across the globe during the process of colonization. Related processes on an individual level include assimilation (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and transculturation. The transnational flow of culture has played a major role in merging different cultures and sharing thoughts, ideas, and beliefs.\n\nAchieving culture change\nThe term is used by Knott et al. of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit in the publication: Achieving Culture Change: A Policy Framework (Knott et al., 2008). The paper sets out how public policy can achieve social and cultural change through 'downstream' interventions including fiscal incentives, legislation, regulation and information provision and also 'upstream' interventions such as parenting, peer and mentoring programs, or development of social and community networks.\n\nThe key concepts the paper is based on include:\n\n Cultural capital - such as the attitudes, values, aspirations and sense of self-efficacy which influence behavior. Cultural capital is itself influenced by behavior over time\n The shifting social zeitgeist - whereby social norms and values that predominate within the cultural capital in society evolve in over time\n The process by which political narrative and new ideas and innovations shift the social zeitgeist over time within the constraint of the 'elastic band' of public opinion\n The process of behavioral normalization - whereby behavior and actions pass through into social and cultural norms (for example, Knott et al. argue that the UK experience of seat belt enforcement established and reinforced this as a social norm)\n The use of customer insight\n The importance of tailoring policy programmes around an ecological model of human behavior to account for how policy will interact with cultural capital and affect it over time.\n\nKnott et al. use examples from a range of policy areas to demonstrate how the culture change framework can be applied to policymaking. for example:\n To encourage educational aspiration they recommend more use of early years and parenting interventions, an improved childhood offer, and development of positive narratives on education as well as integrated advisory systems, financial assistance and targeted social marketing approaches.\n To promote healthy living and personal responsibility they recommend building healthy living into community infrastructure, building partnerships with schools and employers, more one-to-one support for wellbeing alongside use of regulation and legislation on unhealthy products, provision of robust health information and health marketing to promote adaptive forms of behaviour.\n To develop environmentally sustainable norms they recommend reinforcing sustainability throughout policy narratives, using schools and the voluntary sector to promote environmental messages, development of infrastructure that make sustainable choices easy, together with a wider package of measures on fiscal incentives, regulation, advisory services and coalition movements.\n\nSee also \n\n Behavioural economics\n Cultural capital\n Market failure\n Mediatization (media)\n Social change\n Sociocultural evolution\n Theory of planned behavior\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n Groh, Arnold (2019). Theories of Culture. London: Routledge, . \n Knott, David; Muers, Stephen; Aldridge, Stephen (2008). \n GSR Behaviour Change Knowledge Review (2008). Reference Report: An overview of behaviour change models and their uses\n\nExternal links \n Baconbutty on Culture Change\n Cut crime with drink tax, Gordon Brown told, Daily Telegraph\n The naughty nation, New Statesman \n Winning Hearts and Minds \n Transformer une culture : un cadre d’action pour les politiques publiques (in French)\n Leading Teams on Culture Change \n\nCulture\nPolicy\nChange",
"Lorraine Elisabeth Whitmarsh is a British psychologist and environmental scientist at the University of Bath. She serves as Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. Her research considers how the public engage with climate change, energy and transport.\n\nEarly life and education \nWhitmarsh was an undergraduate student at the University of Kent, where she studied theology and religious studies. As a graduate student, Whitmarsh studied psychology at the University of Bath. Her doctoral research considered the public understanding of climate change in Southern England. She moved to the University of East Anglia as a research associate in 2005, where she spent four years.\n\nResearch and career \nWhitmarsh joined the faculty at Cardiff University in 2009, where she was promoted to Professor in 2015. In 2014, Whitmarsh was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant to investigate low carbon lifestyles. Whitmarsh was later awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant where she studied the moments that cause pro-environmental behaviour shifts. \n\nWhitmarsh moved to the University of Bath in 2020, where she was made a Professor of Environmental Psychology. She leads the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation, which considers how society must adapt to reduce emissions. In particular, Whitmarsh has focussed on mobility, food, insulation and material consumption. Whitmarsh has argued that psychologists can effectively communicate the risks associated with climate change, as well as helping people to mitigate hyperthermia or natural disasters. She has worked with city councils to design interventions that encourage low-carbon travel, as well as supporting the roll-out of infrastructure changes such as cycle paths. Whitmarsh was involved with the UK Climate Assembly, a citizen science engagement process that looked to take public opinion on climate change to the Government of the United Kingdom.\n\nWhitmarsh has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and served as lead author for the IPCC Working Group II. She serves on the advisory team of the parliamentary group for a green new deal.\n\nWhitmarsh was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to social research in climate change, energy and transport.\n\nSelected publications\n\nBooks\n\nReferences \n\nBritish psychologists\nEnvironmental scientists\nAlumni of the University of Kent\nAcademics of the University of Bath\nAlumni of the University of Bath\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nMembers of the Order of the British Empire"
] |
[
"Harold Shipman",
"Trial and imprisonment"
] |
C_14ae90b760b746eeac0702be4d0a5121_1
|
How old was he when he was arrested?
| 1 |
How old was Harold Shipman when he was arrested?
|
Harold Shipman
|
Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999. Shipman was charged with the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998. His legal representatives tried, but failed, to have the Grundy case, where a clear motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no motive was apparent. On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery. Mr Justice Forbes subsequently sentenced Shipman to life imprisonment on all 15 counts of murder, with a recommendation that he never be released, to be served concurrently with a sentence of four years for forging Grundy's will. On 11 February 2000, ten days after his conviction, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off its register. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners. While many additional charges could have been brought, authorities concluded that a fair hearing would be impossible in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Furthermore, the 15 life sentences already handed down rendered further litigation unnecessary. Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any public statements about his actions. Shipman's wife, Primrose, steadfastly maintained her husband's innocence, even after his conviction. Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients. John Bodkin Adams was charged in 1957 with murdering a patient, amid rumours he had killed dozens more over a ten-year period and "possibly provided the role model for Shipman". However, he was acquitted. Historian Pamela Cullen has argued that because of Adams' acquittal, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the British system until the Shipman case. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner who is believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history. On 31 January 2000, Shipman was found guilty of the murder of fifteen patients under his care. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released. Shipman killed himself by hanging, in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 13 January 2004, a day before his 58th birthday.
The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, examined Shipman's crimes. The inquiry identified 218 victims and estimated his total victim count at 250, about 80 percent of whom were elderly women. Shipman's youngest confirmed victim was a 41-year-old man, although suspicion arose that he had killed patients as young as four.
Shipman, who has been nicknamed "Dr Death" and "The Angel of Death", is the only British doctor to date to have been convicted of murdering his patients, although other doctors have been acquitted of similar crimes or convicted on lesser charges.
Early life and career
Harold Frederick Shipman was born on 14 January 1946 on the Bestwood council estate in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, the second of the three children of Harold Frederick Shipman (12 May 1914 – 5 January 1985), a truck driver, and Vera Brittan (23 December 1919 – 21 June 1963). His working-class parents were devout Methodists. When growing up, Shipman was an accomplished rugby player in youth leagues.
Shipman passed his eleven-plus in 1957, moving to High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, which he left in 1964. He excelled as a distance runner, and in his final year at school served as vice-captain of the athletics team. Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died of lung cancer when he was aged 17. Her death came in a manner similar to what later became Shipman's own modus operandi: in the later stages of her disease, she had morphine administered at home by a doctor. Shipman witnessed his mother's pain subside, despite her terminal condition, until her death on 21 June 1963. On 5 November 1966, he married Primrose May Oxtoby; the couple had four children.
Shipman studied medicine at Leeds School of Medicine, University of Leeds, graduating in 1970. He began working at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1974 took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden. In the following year, Shipman was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine (Demerol) for his own use. He was fined £600 and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic in York. He became a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, near Manchester, in 1977.
Shipman continued working as a GP in Hyde throughout the 1980s and established his own surgery at 21 Market Street in 1993, becoming a respected member of the community. In 1983, he was interviewed in an edition of the Granada Television documentary World in Action on how the mentally ill should be treated in the community. A year after his conviction, the interview was re-broadcast on Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Detection
In March 1998, Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular, she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had needed countersigned. Police were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges and closed the investigation on 17 April. The Shipman Inquiry later blamed the Greater Manchester Police for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. After the investigation was closed, Shipman killed three more people. In August, taxi driver John Shaw told the police that he suspected Shipman of murdering 21 patients. Shaw became suspicious as many of the elderly customers he took to the hospital, who seemed to be in good health, died in Shipman's care.
Shipman's last victim was Kathleen Grundy, who was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. He was the last person to see her alive; he later signed her death certificate, recording the cause of death as old age. Grundy's daughter, lawyer Angela Woodruff, became concerned when solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently by her mother, with doubts about its authenticity. The will excluded Woodruff and her children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. At Burgess's urging, Woodruff went to the police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was exhumed and found to contain traces of diamorphine (heroin), often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients. Shipman claimed that Grundy had been an addict and showed them comments he had written to that effect in his computerised medical journal; however, examination of his computer showed that they were written after her death. Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a Brother typewriter of the kind used to make the forged will. Prescription for Murder, a 2000 book by journalists Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie, suggested that Shipman forged the will either because he wanted to be caught, because his life was out of control, or because he planned to retire at 55 and leave the UK.
The police investigated other deaths Shipman had certified and investigated 15 specimen cases. They discovered a pattern of his administering lethal doses of diamorphine, signing patients' death certificates, and then falsifying medical records to indicate that they had been in poor health.
In 2003, David Spiegelhalter et al. suggested that "statistical monitoring could have led to an alarm being raised at the end of 1996, when there were 67 excess deaths in females aged over 65 years, compared with 119 by 1998."
Trial and imprisonment
Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999. He was charged with the murders of 15 women by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998:
Shipman's legal representatives tried unsuccessfully to have the Grundy case tried separately from the others, as a motive was shown by the alleged forgery of Grundy's will.
On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery. Mr Justice Forbes subsequently sentenced Shipman to life imprisonment on all 15 counts of murder, with a recommendation that he never be released, to be served concurrently with a sentence of four years for forging Grundy's will. On 11 February, eleven days after his conviction, Shipman was struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC). Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners. While authorities could have brought many additional charges, they concluded that a fair hearing would be impossible in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Furthermore, the 15 life sentences already handed down rendered further litigation unnecessary. Shipman became friends with fellow serial killer Peter Moore while incarcerated.
Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any public statements about his actions. Shipman's wife, Primrose, steadfastly maintained her husband's innocence even after his conviction.
Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients. John Bodkin Adams was charged in 1957 with murdering a patient, amid rumours he had killed dozens more over a ten-year period and "possibly provided the role model for Shipman"; however, he was acquitted. Historian Pamela Cullen has argued that because of Adams' acquittal, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the British legal system until the Shipman case.
Death
Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield at 6:20 a.m. on 13 January 2004, the eve of his 58th birthday. He was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. A statement from Her Majesty's Prison Service indicated that he had hanged himself from the window bars of his cell using his bed sheets. After Shipman's death, his body was taken to the mortuary at the Medico Legal Centre for a post-mortem examination. West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff eventually released the body to his family after an inquest was opened and adjourned shortly after.
Some of the victims' families said they felt cheated, as Shipman's suicide meant they would never have the satisfaction of a confession, nor answers as to why he committed his crimes. Home Secretary David Blunkett admitted that celebration was tempting: "You wake up and you receive a call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's done it."
Shipman's death divided national newspapers, with the Daily Mirror branding him a "cold coward" and condemning the Prison Service for allowing his suicide to happen. However, The Sun ran a celebratory front-page headline; "Ship Ship hooray!" The Independent called for the inquiry into Shipman's suicide to look more widely at the state of UK prisons as well as the welfare of inmates. In The Guardian, an article by General Sir David Ramsbotham, who had formerly served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, suggested that whole life sentencing be replaced by indefinite sentencing, for this would at least give prisoners the hope of eventual release and reduce the risk of their ending their own lives by suicide as well as making their management easier for prison officials.
Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, though he reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide to assure his wife's financial security after he was stripped of his National Health Service pension.
Primrose Shipman received a full NHS pension; she would not have been entitled to it if Shipman had lived past the age of 60. Additionally, there was evidence that Primrose, who had consistently protested Shipman's innocence despite the overwhelming evidence, had begun to suspect his guilt. Shipman refused to take part in courses which would have encouraged acknowledgement of his crimes, leading to a temporary removal of privileges, including the opportunity to telephone his wife. During this period, according to Shipman's cellmate, he received a letter from Primrose exhorting him to, "Tell me everything, no matter what." A 2005 inquiry found that Shipman's suicide "could not have been predicted or prevented," but that procedures should nonetheless be re-examined.
After Shipman's body was released to his family, it remained in Sheffield for more than a year despite multiple false reports about his funeral. His widow was advised by police against burying her husband in case the grave was attacked. Shipman was eventually cremated on 19 March 2005 at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium. The cremation took place outside normal hours to maintain secrecy and was attended only by Primrose and the couple's four children.
Aftermath
In January 2001, Chris Gregg, a senior West Yorkshire Police detective, was selected to lead an investigation into 22 of the West Yorkshire deaths. Following this, The Shipman Inquiry, submitted in July 2002, concluded that he had killed at least 218 of his patients between 1975 and 1998, during which time he practised in Todmorden (1974–1975) and Hyde (1977–1998). Dame Janet Smith, the judge who submitted the report, admitted that many more deaths of a suspicious nature could not be definitively ascribed to Shipman. Most of his victims were elderly women in good health.
In her sixth and final report, issued on 24 January 2005, Smith reported that she believed that Shipman had killed three patients, and she had serious suspicions about four further deaths, including that of a four-year-old girl, during the early stage of his medical career at Pontefract General Infirmary. In total, 459 people died while under his care between 1971 and 1998, but it is uncertain how many of those were murder victims, as he was often the only doctor to certify a death. Smith's estimate of Shipman's total victim count over that 27-year period was 250.
The GMC charged six doctors, who signed cremation forms for Shipman's victims, with misconduct, claiming they should have noticed the pattern between Shipman's home visits and his patients' deaths. All these doctors were found not guilty. In October 2005, a similar hearing was held against two doctors who worked at Tameside General Hospital in 1994, who failed to detect that Shipman had deliberately administered a "grossly excessive" dose of morphine. The Shipman Inquiry recommended changes to the structure of the GMC.
In 2005 it came to light that Shipman may have stolen jewellery from his victims. In 1998, police had seized over £10,000 worth of jewellery they found in his garage. In March 2005, when Primrose asked for its return, police wrote to the families of Shipman's victims asking them to identify the jewellery. Unidentified items were handed to the Assets Recovery Agency in May. The investigation ended in August. Authorities returned 66 pieces to Primrose and auctioned 33 pieces that she confirmed were not hers. Proceeds of the auction went to Tameside Victim Support. The only piece returned to a murdered patient's family was a platinum diamond ring, for which the family provided a photograph as proof of ownership.
A memorial garden to Shipman's victims, called the Garden of Tranquillity, opened in Hyde Park, Hyde, on 30 July 2005. As of early 2009, families of over 200 of the victims of Shipman were still seeking compensation for the loss of their relatives. In September 2009, letters Shipman wrote in prison to friends were to be sold at auction, but following complaints from victims' relatives and the media, the sale was withdrawn.
Shipman effect
The Shipman case, and a series of recommendations in the Shipman Inquiry report, led to changes to standard medical procedures in the UK (now referred to as the "Shipman effect"). Many doctors reported changes in their dispensing practices, and a reluctance to risk over-prescribing pain medication may have led to under-prescribing. Death certification practices were altered as well. Perhaps the largest change was the movement from single-doctor general practices to multiple-doctor general practices. This was not a direct recommendation, but rather because the report stated that there was not enough safeguarding and monitoring of doctors' decisions.
The forms needed for a cremation in England and Wales have had their questions altered as a direct result of the Shipman case. For example, the person(s) organising the funeral must answer, "Do you know or suspect that the death of the person who has died was violent or unnatural? Do you consider that there should be any further examination of the remains of the person who has died?"
In media
Harold and Fred (They Make Ladies Dead) was a cartoon strip in a 2001 issue of Viz comic, also featuring serial killer Fred West. Some relatives of Shipman's victims voiced anger at the cartoon.
Harold Shipman: Doctor Death, an ITV television dramatisation of the case, was broadcast in 2002; it starred James Bolam in the title role.
A documentary also titled Harold Shipman: Doctor Death, with new witness testimony about the serial killer, was shown by ITV as part of its Crime & Punishment strand on 26 April 2018. The programme was criticised as offering "little new insight".
A play titled Beyond Belief – Scenes from the Shipman Inquiry, written by Dennis Woolf and directed by Chris Honer was performed at the Library Theatre, Manchester, from 20 October to 22 November 2004. The script of the play comprised edited verbatim extracts from the Shipman Inquiry, spoken by actors playing the witnesses and lawyers at the inquiry. This provided a "stark narrative" that focused on personal tragedies.
A BBC drama-documentary, entitled Harold Shipman and starring Ian Brooker in the title role, was broadcast in April 2014.
The satirical artist Cold War Steve regularly features Harold Shipman in his work.
The Shipman Files: A Very British Crime Story, a three-part documentary by Chris Wilson, was broadcast on BBC Two on 28–30 September 2020 and focussed on the victims and how he went undetected for so long.
Podcast episode Catching a Killer Doctor from the Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford podcast series features the story of Harold Shipman and how it could have been detected much earlier with good statistical models.
See also
List of serial killers by country
List of serial killers by number of victims
Euthanasia
John Bodkin Adams
Colin Norris
2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident
Niels Högel
Jayant Patel
Beverley Allitt
Michael Swango
Leonard Arthur
Howard Martin
David Moor
Thomas Lodwig
Nigel Cox
Christopher Duntsch
Charles Cullen
Doctor Jack Kevorkian
References
External links
Shipman Inquiry (archived)
BBC – The Shipman Murders
List of suspected murders
Harold Shipman's Clinical Practice 1974–1998
Caso abierto, Dr Death: The Shipman Case
1946 births
2004 deaths
20th-century English criminals
20th-century English medical doctors
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Criminals from Nottinghamshire
English people convicted of murder
English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
English serial killers
Male serial killers
Medical doctors struck off by the General Medical Council
Medical practitioners convicted of murdering their patients
Medical controversies in the United Kingdom
People convicted of murder by England and Wales
People educated at Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School
People from Nottingham
People with antisocial personality disorder
People who committed suicide in prison custody
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales
Prisoners who died in England and Wales detention
Serial killers who committed suicide in prison custody
2004 suicides
Suicides by hanging in England
History of Tameside
Medical serial killers
| false |
[
"Massinissa Guermah (1983, in Beni Douala, Tizi Ouzou Province – 20 April 2001) was an 18-year-old Kabyle (Algerian) high school student arrested by Algerian gendarmes on 18 April 2001. In circumstances still not clear, he received gunshot wounds inside the gendarmerie. The same day, three college students were arbitrarily arrested in the town of Amizour (Béjaïa). Guermah later died of his wounds in the Mustapha Hospital on 20 April 2001.\n\nOn 22 April 2001, the commander of La Gendarmerie Nationale released a statement in which he said that Guermah had been arrested after aggressive behaviour following a theft. The Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni described Guermah as a \"twenty-six year old delinquent.\" In response to the Interior Minister's statement, Guermah's parents sent the national press a school report stating that the Massinissa was indeed an eighteen-year-old school student. Seven days after Guermah's death the military authorities gave an account of how it had occurred. Constable Mestari Merabet was referred to the Blida Military Tribunai for \"breach of instructions and manslaughter.\" But the incident was described as an accident caused when Merabet accidentally fired his gun. However, according to Koceila Merakeb who was arrested with Guermah, one round of bullets was fired in the waiting room, two bullets ricocheted off the floor and the third landed at the feet of another constable close by. Then Constable Mestari Merabet directed his gun at Guermah and fired.\n\nGuermah's killing caused riots in Kabylia lasting for several months; this series of events is referred to as the Black Spring. The violence was fuelled by an Algerian national campaign to impose the Arabic language on its people in place of indigenous languages, including Kabyle.\n\nSources\nL'Association Internet pour la promotion des droits de l'homme - L'enquête sur les morts de Kabylie - III. LES ÉVÉNEMENTS DÉCLENCHANTS\n :fr:Massinissa Guermah\n\nSee also \nBlack Spring\nBerberism\n\n1983 births\n2001 deaths\nPeople from Beni Douala\nKabyle people\nBerberism in Algeria\nBerber Algerians",
"Byron Sonne is a Canadian activist who was wrongly accused of planning to bomb the Toronto G20 Summit in 2010. He was charged with possessing explosives and counseling mischief, later to be acquitted of all charges on May 15, 2012, putting an end to his two-year ordeal. Sonne was a self-proclaimed troubleshooter and was trying to find weaknesses and points of vulnerability in the G20 security systems when he was arrested. The incident created an outrage and started a debate regarding whether citizens have the right to goad their government and just how far one can push the boundaries of civil liberties.\n\nHe was arrested on June 22, 2010 and was charged with possession of explosives and dangerous weapons, intimidating justice officials and mischief. By the time the case got to trial, all counts were dropped except the four counts of explosives possession and one of \"counseling mischief not committed.\" He remained behind bars for 11 months before finally being granted bail.\n\nHis wife at the time, Kristen Peterson, was arrested two days after him and charged with weapons and explosives offenses; she was let out on soon after, and charges against her were also dropped seven months later.\n\nReferences\n\nCanadian activists"
] |
[
"Harold Shipman",
"Trial and imprisonment",
"How old was he when he was arrested?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_14ae90b760b746eeac0702be4d0a5121_1
|
How long was the trial?
| 2 |
How long was Harold Shipman's trial?
|
Harold Shipman
|
Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999. Shipman was charged with the murders of Marie West, Irene Turner, Lizzie Adams, Jean Lilley, Ivy Lomas, Muriel Grimshaw, Marie Quinn, Kathleen Wagstaff, Bianka Pomfret, Norah Nuttall, Pamela Hillier, Maureen Ward, Winifred Mellor, Joan Melia and Kathleen Grundy by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998. His legal representatives tried, but failed, to have the Grundy case, where a clear motive was alleged, tried separately from the others, where no motive was apparent. On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery. Mr Justice Forbes subsequently sentenced Shipman to life imprisonment on all 15 counts of murder, with a recommendation that he never be released, to be served concurrently with a sentence of four years for forging Grundy's will. On 11 February 2000, ten days after his conviction, the General Medical Council formally struck Shipman off its register. Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners. While many additional charges could have been brought, authorities concluded that a fair hearing would be impossible in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Furthermore, the 15 life sentences already handed down rendered further litigation unnecessary. Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any public statements about his actions. Shipman's wife, Primrose, steadfastly maintained her husband's innocence, even after his conviction. Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients. John Bodkin Adams was charged in 1957 with murdering a patient, amid rumours he had killed dozens more over a ten-year period and "possibly provided the role model for Shipman". However, he was acquitted. Historian Pamela Cullen has argued that because of Adams' acquittal, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the British system until the Shipman case. CANNOTANSWER
|
after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty
|
Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner who is believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history. On 31 January 2000, Shipman was found guilty of the murder of fifteen patients under his care. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released. Shipman killed himself by hanging, in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 13 January 2004, a day before his 58th birthday.
The Shipman Inquiry, a two-year-long investigation of all deaths certified by Shipman, chaired by Dame Janet Smith, examined Shipman's crimes. The inquiry identified 218 victims and estimated his total victim count at 250, about 80 percent of whom were elderly women. Shipman's youngest confirmed victim was a 41-year-old man, although suspicion arose that he had killed patients as young as four.
Shipman, who has been nicknamed "Dr Death" and "The Angel of Death", is the only British doctor to date to have been convicted of murdering his patients, although other doctors have been acquitted of similar crimes or convicted on lesser charges.
Early life and career
Harold Frederick Shipman was born on 14 January 1946 on the Bestwood council estate in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, the second of the three children of Harold Frederick Shipman (12 May 1914 – 5 January 1985), a truck driver, and Vera Brittan (23 December 1919 – 21 June 1963). His working-class parents were devout Methodists. When growing up, Shipman was an accomplished rugby player in youth leagues.
Shipman passed his eleven-plus in 1957, moving to High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, which he left in 1964. He excelled as a distance runner, and in his final year at school served as vice-captain of the athletics team. Shipman was particularly close to his mother, who died of lung cancer when he was aged 17. Her death came in a manner similar to what later became Shipman's own modus operandi: in the later stages of her disease, she had morphine administered at home by a doctor. Shipman witnessed his mother's pain subside, despite her terminal condition, until her death on 21 June 1963. On 5 November 1966, he married Primrose May Oxtoby; the couple had four children.
Shipman studied medicine at Leeds School of Medicine, University of Leeds, graduating in 1970. He began working at Pontefract General Infirmary in Pontefract, West Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1974 took his first position as a general practitioner (GP) at the Abraham Ormerod Medical Centre in Todmorden. In the following year, Shipman was caught forging prescriptions of pethidine (Demerol) for his own use. He was fined £600 and briefly attended a drug rehabilitation clinic in York. He became a GP at the Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, near Manchester, in 1977.
Shipman continued working as a GP in Hyde throughout the 1980s and established his own surgery at 21 Market Street in 1993, becoming a respected member of the community. In 1983, he was interviewed in an edition of the Granada Television documentary World in Action on how the mentally ill should be treated in the community. A year after his conviction, the interview was re-broadcast on Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Detection
In March 1998, Linda Reynolds of the Brooke Surgery in Hyde expressed concerns to John Pollard, the coroner for the South Manchester District, about the high death rate among Shipman's patients. In particular, she was concerned about the large number of cremation forms for elderly women that he had needed countersigned. Police were unable to find sufficient evidence to bring charges and closed the investigation on 17 April. The Shipman Inquiry later blamed the Greater Manchester Police for assigning inexperienced officers to the case. After the investigation was closed, Shipman killed three more people. In August, taxi driver John Shaw told the police that he suspected Shipman of murdering 21 patients. Shaw became suspicious as many of the elderly customers he took to the hospital, who seemed to be in good health, died in Shipman's care.
Shipman's last victim was Kathleen Grundy, who was found dead at her home on 24 June 1998. He was the last person to see her alive; he later signed her death certificate, recording the cause of death as old age. Grundy's daughter, lawyer Angela Woodruff, became concerned when solicitor Brian Burgess informed her that a will had been made, apparently by her mother, with doubts about its authenticity. The will excluded Woodruff and her children, but left £386,000 to Shipman. At Burgess's urging, Woodruff went to the police, who began an investigation. Grundy's body was exhumed and found to contain traces of diamorphine (heroin), often used for pain control in terminal cancer patients. Shipman claimed that Grundy had been an addict and showed them comments he had written to that effect in his computerised medical journal; however, examination of his computer showed that they were written after her death. Shipman was arrested on 7 September 1998, and was found to own a Brother typewriter of the kind used to make the forged will. Prescription for Murder, a 2000 book by journalists Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie, suggested that Shipman forged the will either because he wanted to be caught, because his life was out of control, or because he planned to retire at 55 and leave the UK.
The police investigated other deaths Shipman had certified and investigated 15 specimen cases. They discovered a pattern of his administering lethal doses of diamorphine, signing patients' death certificates, and then falsifying medical records to indicate that they had been in poor health.
In 2003, David Spiegelhalter et al. suggested that "statistical monitoring could have led to an alarm being raised at the end of 1996, when there were 67 excess deaths in females aged over 65 years, compared with 119 by 1998."
Trial and imprisonment
Shipman's trial began at Preston Crown Court on 5 October 1999. He was charged with the murders of 15 women by lethal injections of diamorphine, all between 1995 and 1998:
Shipman's legal representatives tried unsuccessfully to have the Grundy case tried separately from the others, as a motive was shown by the alleged forgery of Grundy's will.
On 31 January 2000, after six days of deliberation, the jury found Shipman guilty of 15 counts of murder and one count of forgery. Mr Justice Forbes subsequently sentenced Shipman to life imprisonment on all 15 counts of murder, with a recommendation that he never be released, to be served concurrently with a sentence of four years for forging Grundy's will. On 11 February, eleven days after his conviction, Shipman was struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC). Two years later, Home Secretary David Blunkett confirmed the judge's whole life tariff, just months before British government ministers lost their power to set minimum terms for prisoners. While authorities could have brought many additional charges, they concluded that a fair hearing would be impossible in view of the enormous publicity surrounding the original trial. Furthermore, the 15 life sentences already handed down rendered further litigation unnecessary. Shipman became friends with fellow serial killer Peter Moore while incarcerated.
Shipman consistently denied his guilt, disputing the scientific evidence against him. He never made any public statements about his actions. Shipman's wife, Primrose, steadfastly maintained her husband's innocence even after his conviction.
Shipman is the only doctor in the history of British medicine found guilty of murdering his patients. John Bodkin Adams was charged in 1957 with murdering a patient, amid rumours he had killed dozens more over a ten-year period and "possibly provided the role model for Shipman"; however, he was acquitted. Historian Pamela Cullen has argued that because of Adams' acquittal, there was no impetus to examine the flaws in the British legal system until the Shipman case.
Death
Shipman hanged himself in his cell at HM Prison Wakefield at 6:20 a.m. on 13 January 2004, the eve of his 58th birthday. He was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. A statement from Her Majesty's Prison Service indicated that he had hanged himself from the window bars of his cell using his bed sheets. After Shipman's death, his body was taken to the mortuary at the Medico Legal Centre for a post-mortem examination. West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff eventually released the body to his family after an inquest was opened and adjourned shortly after.
Some of the victims' families said they felt cheated, as Shipman's suicide meant they would never have the satisfaction of a confession, nor answers as to why he committed his crimes. Home Secretary David Blunkett admitted that celebration was tempting: "You wake up and you receive a call telling you Shipman has topped himself and you think, is it too early to open a bottle? And then you discover that everybody's very upset that he's done it."
Shipman's death divided national newspapers, with the Daily Mirror branding him a "cold coward" and condemning the Prison Service for allowing his suicide to happen. However, The Sun ran a celebratory front-page headline; "Ship Ship hooray!" The Independent called for the inquiry into Shipman's suicide to look more widely at the state of UK prisons as well as the welfare of inmates. In The Guardian, an article by General Sir David Ramsbotham, who had formerly served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, suggested that whole life sentencing be replaced by indefinite sentencing, for this would at least give prisoners the hope of eventual release and reduce the risk of their ending their own lives by suicide as well as making their management easier for prison officials.
Shipman's motive for suicide was never established, though he reportedly told his probation officer that he was considering suicide to assure his wife's financial security after he was stripped of his National Health Service pension.
Primrose Shipman received a full NHS pension; she would not have been entitled to it if Shipman had lived past the age of 60. Additionally, there was evidence that Primrose, who had consistently protested Shipman's innocence despite the overwhelming evidence, had begun to suspect his guilt. Shipman refused to take part in courses which would have encouraged acknowledgement of his crimes, leading to a temporary removal of privileges, including the opportunity to telephone his wife. During this period, according to Shipman's cellmate, he received a letter from Primrose exhorting him to, "Tell me everything, no matter what." A 2005 inquiry found that Shipman's suicide "could not have been predicted or prevented," but that procedures should nonetheless be re-examined.
After Shipman's body was released to his family, it remained in Sheffield for more than a year despite multiple false reports about his funeral. His widow was advised by police against burying her husband in case the grave was attacked. Shipman was eventually cremated on 19 March 2005 at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium. The cremation took place outside normal hours to maintain secrecy and was attended only by Primrose and the couple's four children.
Aftermath
In January 2001, Chris Gregg, a senior West Yorkshire Police detective, was selected to lead an investigation into 22 of the West Yorkshire deaths. Following this, The Shipman Inquiry, submitted in July 2002, concluded that he had killed at least 218 of his patients between 1975 and 1998, during which time he practised in Todmorden (1974–1975) and Hyde (1977–1998). Dame Janet Smith, the judge who submitted the report, admitted that many more deaths of a suspicious nature could not be definitively ascribed to Shipman. Most of his victims were elderly women in good health.
In her sixth and final report, issued on 24 January 2005, Smith reported that she believed that Shipman had killed three patients, and she had serious suspicions about four further deaths, including that of a four-year-old girl, during the early stage of his medical career at Pontefract General Infirmary. In total, 459 people died while under his care between 1971 and 1998, but it is uncertain how many of those were murder victims, as he was often the only doctor to certify a death. Smith's estimate of Shipman's total victim count over that 27-year period was 250.
The GMC charged six doctors, who signed cremation forms for Shipman's victims, with misconduct, claiming they should have noticed the pattern between Shipman's home visits and his patients' deaths. All these doctors were found not guilty. In October 2005, a similar hearing was held against two doctors who worked at Tameside General Hospital in 1994, who failed to detect that Shipman had deliberately administered a "grossly excessive" dose of morphine. The Shipman Inquiry recommended changes to the structure of the GMC.
In 2005 it came to light that Shipman may have stolen jewellery from his victims. In 1998, police had seized over £10,000 worth of jewellery they found in his garage. In March 2005, when Primrose asked for its return, police wrote to the families of Shipman's victims asking them to identify the jewellery. Unidentified items were handed to the Assets Recovery Agency in May. The investigation ended in August. Authorities returned 66 pieces to Primrose and auctioned 33 pieces that she confirmed were not hers. Proceeds of the auction went to Tameside Victim Support. The only piece returned to a murdered patient's family was a platinum diamond ring, for which the family provided a photograph as proof of ownership.
A memorial garden to Shipman's victims, called the Garden of Tranquillity, opened in Hyde Park, Hyde, on 30 July 2005. As of early 2009, families of over 200 of the victims of Shipman were still seeking compensation for the loss of their relatives. In September 2009, letters Shipman wrote in prison to friends were to be sold at auction, but following complaints from victims' relatives and the media, the sale was withdrawn.
Shipman effect
The Shipman case, and a series of recommendations in the Shipman Inquiry report, led to changes to standard medical procedures in the UK (now referred to as the "Shipman effect"). Many doctors reported changes in their dispensing practices, and a reluctance to risk over-prescribing pain medication may have led to under-prescribing. Death certification practices were altered as well. Perhaps the largest change was the movement from single-doctor general practices to multiple-doctor general practices. This was not a direct recommendation, but rather because the report stated that there was not enough safeguarding and monitoring of doctors' decisions.
The forms needed for a cremation in England and Wales have had their questions altered as a direct result of the Shipman case. For example, the person(s) organising the funeral must answer, "Do you know or suspect that the death of the person who has died was violent or unnatural? Do you consider that there should be any further examination of the remains of the person who has died?"
In media
Harold and Fred (They Make Ladies Dead) was a cartoon strip in a 2001 issue of Viz comic, also featuring serial killer Fred West. Some relatives of Shipman's victims voiced anger at the cartoon.
Harold Shipman: Doctor Death, an ITV television dramatisation of the case, was broadcast in 2002; it starred James Bolam in the title role.
A documentary also titled Harold Shipman: Doctor Death, with new witness testimony about the serial killer, was shown by ITV as part of its Crime & Punishment strand on 26 April 2018. The programme was criticised as offering "little new insight".
A play titled Beyond Belief – Scenes from the Shipman Inquiry, written by Dennis Woolf and directed by Chris Honer was performed at the Library Theatre, Manchester, from 20 October to 22 November 2004. The script of the play comprised edited verbatim extracts from the Shipman Inquiry, spoken by actors playing the witnesses and lawyers at the inquiry. This provided a "stark narrative" that focused on personal tragedies.
A BBC drama-documentary, entitled Harold Shipman and starring Ian Brooker in the title role, was broadcast in April 2014.
The satirical artist Cold War Steve regularly features Harold Shipman in his work.
The Shipman Files: A Very British Crime Story, a three-part documentary by Chris Wilson, was broadcast on BBC Two on 28–30 September 2020 and focussed on the victims and how he went undetected for so long.
Podcast episode Catching a Killer Doctor from the Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford podcast series features the story of Harold Shipman and how it could have been detected much earlier with good statistical models.
See also
List of serial killers by country
List of serial killers by number of victims
Euthanasia
John Bodkin Adams
Colin Norris
2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident
Niels Högel
Jayant Patel
Beverley Allitt
Michael Swango
Leonard Arthur
Howard Martin
David Moor
Thomas Lodwig
Nigel Cox
Christopher Duntsch
Charles Cullen
Doctor Jack Kevorkian
References
External links
Shipman Inquiry (archived)
BBC – The Shipman Murders
List of suspected murders
Harold Shipman's Clinical Practice 1974–1998
Caso abierto, Dr Death: The Shipman Case
1946 births
2004 deaths
20th-century English criminals
20th-century English medical doctors
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Criminals from Nottinghamshire
English people convicted of murder
English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
English serial killers
Male serial killers
Medical doctors struck off by the General Medical Council
Medical practitioners convicted of murdering their patients
Medical controversies in the United Kingdom
People convicted of murder by England and Wales
People educated at Nottingham High Pavement Grammar School
People from Nottingham
People with antisocial personality disorder
People who committed suicide in prison custody
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales
Prisoners who died in England and Wales detention
Serial killers who committed suicide in prison custody
2004 suicides
Suicides by hanging in England
History of Tameside
Medical serial killers
| true |
[
"Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972), was a United States Supreme Court case involving the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, specifically the right of defendants in criminal cases to a speedy trial. The Court held that determinations of whether or not the right to a speedy trial has been violated must be made on a case-by-case basis, and set forth four factors to be considered in the determination.\n\nFacts and trial\nOn July 20, 1958, an elderly couple in Christian County, Kentucky were murdered in their home by intruders, later identified as Willie Barker and Silas Manning.\n\nBelieving that the case against Manning was the stronger of the two, and that Manning's testimony was needed to convict Barker (in his own case, Manning exercised his right under the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate himself), the prosecution chose to try Manning first, hoping that once convicted, Manning would later voluntarily testify against Barker. At the outset of Manning's trial on October 23, 1958, the prosecution sought and obtained the first of what would be 16 continuances in Barker's trial.\n\nThe prosecution, however, encountered numerous difficulties in getting a conviction against Manning; it would not be until December 1962 that Manning would be convicted in the second of the two murders. As the Christian County Circuit Court only held three terms each year (in February, June, and September), for each term the prosecution would seek a continuance in the Barker case, until the beginning of the following term, while the Manning cases were ongoing.\n\nBarker, through his counsel, did not object to any of the first eleven continuances. But on the 12th continuance (February 1962) Barker's counsel filed a motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds, which was rejected. Barker's counsel did not object to the 13th or 14th continuances, but objected to the 15th continuance (March 1963 on the date of Barker's trial; the prosecution sought a continuance due to illness of the former sheriff, the chief investigating officer in the case) as well as the 16th continuance (June 1963, requested for the sheriff's continued illness; while granting the continuance the Circuit Court ruled that the matter had to come to trial at the next term or would be dismissed for lack of prosecution).\n\nThe final trial date was set for October 9, 1963 and on that date, after Barker's counsel made another unsuccessful motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds, the trial was finally commenced; with Manning the chief prosecution witness, Barker was convicted and given a life sentence.\n\nAppeals\nBarker appealed his conviction on speedy trial grounds to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which affirmed it in 1964.\n\nIn 1970 Barker filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Though the District Court denied the petition, it granted Barker the right to proceed in forma pauperis and a certificate of probable cause to appeal.\n\nThe United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court's decision in 1971. The Sixth Circuit argued that Barker had waived any speedy trial claims up through February 1963 (which the Sixth Circuit erroneously believed was the first date that Barker's counsel objected to a further continuance) and that the eight-month period between February and October 1963 (the period between the objection and the actual trial) was not unduly long. Further, the Sixth Circuit ruled that granting a continuance based on the sheriff's illness was a justifiable reason for a delay.\n\nThe United States Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in 1972.\n\nThe Supreme Court decision\n\nOpinion of the court\n that \"[t]he right to a speedy trial is generically different from any of the other rights enshrined in the Constitution for the protection of the accused\" for three reasons:\nFirst, the Court noted that \"there is a societal interest in providing a speedy trial which exists separate from, and at times in opposition to, the interests of the accused\". The Court commented on the backlog of cases, mainly in urban courts, that often enable defendants to negotiate a plea for a lesser offense. The Court also noted that persons released on bond had the opportunity to commit further crimes, \"the longer an accused is free awaiting trial, the more tempting becomes his opportunity to jump bail and escape\", and that \"delay between arrest and punishment may have a detrimental effect on rehabilitation.\" The Court also noted that if the accused cannot make bail, that too can make rehabilitation difficult, that a lengthy pre-trial detention can be costly, and that \"society loses wages which might have been earned, and it must often support families of incarcerated breadwinners.\"\nSecond, the Court noted that \"deprivation of the right may work to the accused's advantage.\" As the time between arrest and trial lengthens, witnesses may become unavailable and/or their memories fade; if the witnesses were for the prosecution the case may be seriously weakened (as the prosecution has the burden to prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt).\nFinally, the Court noted that the concept is more vague than with other rights, in that the Court \"cannot definitely say how long is too long in a system where justice is supposed to be swift but deliberate.\"\n\nThe Court then noted that there were two competing approaches as to how to handle the uncertainty regarding \"how long is too long\"; neither of which it accepted:\nOne approach (supported by the American Bar Association) was to \"hold that the Constitution requires a criminal defendant to be offered a trial within a specified time period.\" The Court rejected this approach, stating that there was \"no constitutional basis for holding that the speedy trial right can be quantified into a specified number of days or months.\"\nThe other approach was to \"restrict consideration of the right to those cases in which the accused has demanded a speedy trial.\" In other words, if the defendant did not specifically demand a trial, the defendant waived his/her right to appeal the matter. The Court also rejected this approach, as it considered a speedy trial to be a fundamental right, and quoting Carnley v. Cochran the Court ruled that \"[p]resuming waiver from a silent record is impermissible. The record must show, or there must be an allegation and evidence which show, that an accused was offered counsel but intelligently and understandably rejected the offer. Anything less is not waiver.\"\n\nAs a balancing test, the Court adopted four factors to be considered in determining, on a case-by-case basis, whether a defendant has been prejudiced by the lack of a speedy trial:\nthe length of delay,\nthe reason for the delay,\nthe time and manner in which the defendant has asserted his right, and\nthe degree of prejudice to the defendant which the delay has caused.\n\nTaking these factors into consideration, though, Barker's conviction was upheld. The court agreed that the period of time between initial arrest and trial – over five years – was \"extraordinary\" and that only seven months of the delay was justifiable (the period of the ex-sheriff's illness).\n\nHowever, the Court also ruled that Barker was not prejudiced by the delay, since none of Barker's witnesses were harmed by the delay. More importantly, the Court determined that Barker did not want a speedy trial (a fact that Barker's counsel conceded at oral argument). The Court speculated that Barker's reason was his gambling on Manning's acquittal (the evidence against Manning not being strong as evidenced by two hung juries and two appellate court reversals), believing that if Manning was acquitted, he would never be tried (which Barker's counsel also conceded at oral argument). The Court further noted that, after Barker's counsel objected to the February 1962 continuance, he did not object to the June or September 1962 continuances; only in March 1963, after Manning's convictions became final, were objections raised to further continuances (this time brought about by the ex-sheriff's illness, which Barker conceded was a justifiable reason).\n\nConcurring opinion\nJustice White, joined by Justice Brennan, concurred in the verdict, and specifically commented that an overcrowded docket would not be a reasonable basis for a delay.\n\nSee also\nList of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 407\nContinuance\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links\n \n\nUnited States Supreme Court cases\nUnited States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court\nSpeedy Trial Clause case law\n1972 in United States case law",
"The men's individual time trial was a road bicycle racing event held as part of the cycling at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the first appearance of the event. The competition was held on Sunday July 7, 1912. The course was 320 kilometers (198.8 miles) long and the cyclists started at two minute interval.\n\n123 cyclists from 16 nations competed.\n\nResults of this race were used to determine the medals for the \nteam time trial as well.\n\nResults\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nCycling at the 1912 Summer Olympics\nRoad cycling at the 1912 Summer Olympics\nCycling at the Summer Olympics – Men's individual time trial"
] |
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