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"Thor Heyerdahl",
"Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)",
"What was he doing",
"In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island",
"Who was apart of this team",
"The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists"
]
| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | What did they do while there | 3 | What did the scientific staff and archaeologists do while at Easter Island? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | false | [
"Follow Me! is a series of television programmes produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk and the BBC in the late 1970s to provide a crash course in the English language. It became popular in many overseas countries as a first introduction to English; in 1983, one hundred million people watched the show in China alone, featuring Kathy Flower.\n\nThe British actor Francis Matthews hosted and narrated the series.\n\nThe course consists of sixty lessons. Each lesson lasts from 12 to 15 minutes and covers a specific lexis. The lessons follow a consistent group of actors, with the relationships between their characters developing during the course.\n\nFollow Me! actors\n Francis Matthews\n Raymond Mason\n David Savile\n Ian Bamforth\n Keith Alexander\n Diane Mercer\n Jane Argyle\n Diana King\n Veronica Leigh\n Elaine Wells\n Danielle Cohn\n Lashawnda Bell\n\nEpisodes \n \"What's your name\"\n \"How are you\"\n \"Can you help me\"\n \"Left, right, straight ahead\"\n \"Where are they\"\n \"What's the time\"\n \"What's this What's that\"\n \"I like it very much\"\n \"Have you got any wine\"\n \"What are they doing\"\n \"Can I have your name, please\"\n \"What does she look like\"\n \"No smoking\"\n \"It's on the first floor\"\n \"Where's he gone\"\n \"Going away\"\n \"Buying things\"\n \"Why do you like it\"\n \"What do you need\"\n \"I sometimes work late\"\n \"Welcome to Britain\"\n \"Who's that\"\n \"What would you like to do\"\n \"How can I get there?\"\n \"Where is it\"\n \"What's the date\"\n \"Whose is it\"\n \"I enjoy it\"\n \"How many and how much\"\n \"What have you done\"\n \"Haven't we met before\"\n \"What did you say\"\n \"Please stop\"\n \"How can I get to Brightly\"\n \"Where can I get it\"\n \"There's a concert on Wednesday\"\n \"What's it like\"\n \"What do you think of him\"\n \"I need someone\"\n \"What were you doing\"\n \"What do you do\"\n \"What do you know about him\"\n \"You shouldn't do that\"\n \"I hope you enjoy your holiday\"\n \"Where can I see a football match\"\n \"When will it be ready\"\n \"Where did you go\"\n \"I think it's awful\"\n \"A room with a view\"\n \"You'll be ill\"\n \"I don't believe in strikes\"\n \"They look tired\"\n \"Would you like to\"\n \"Holiday plans\"\n \"The second shelf on the left\"\n \"When you are ready\"\n \"Tell them about Britain\"\n \"I liked everything\"\n \"Classical or modern\"\n \"Finale\"\n\nReferences \n\n BBC article about the series in China\n\nExternal links \n Follow Me – Beginner level \n Follow Me – Elementary level\n Follow Me – Intermediate level\n Follow Me – Advanced level\n\nAdult education television series\nEnglish-language education television programming",
"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)"
]
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| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | What where highlights of the dig | 4 | What where highlights of the Rapa Nui archaeological dig? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | true | [
"How to Speak Hip is a comedy album by Del Close and John Brent, released by Mercury Records in 1959.\n\nDescription \n\nThe album is designed as a satire of language-learning records, where the secret language of the 'hipster' is treated as a foreign language. Part of the joke, however, is that it actually does a good job of describing the Beat Generation/Beatnik sub-culture: Basic concepts such as \"cool\" and \"uncool\" are taught, as well as vocabulary building (\"dig\", \"dig it\", \"dig yourself, baby\", \"dig the chick\", \"dig the cat\", \"What a drag!\").\n\nMany of the phrases and expressions survived to become elements of the counterculture vocabulary.\n\nSocial notes are presented as for many language courses, and later in the album, the teacher (Close) is taken on field trips into the secret life of the hipster (Brent). However, the hipster rebels against participating in the teaching tool, leading to a humorously compromised teaching style.\n\nTrack 12 contains an excerpt of 'We Free Kings' by Rahsaan Roland Kirk.\nThe album came with a booklet expanding on the concepts discussed in the album, providing a supplementary reading list, and so on.\n\nThe album was illustrated in a style of line drawing popular throughout the 50s (similar to the early commercial work of Andy Warhol). The woodcuts used as illustrations on the LP were stolen from Close's Chicago apartment in the 1980s.\n\nContext \n\nAn interest with hipster slang had been present in the mainstream culture since the late-30s/1940s when jazz music became a popular form. Cab Calloway released a recording of a song called the \"Hepsters Dictionary\" in 1938 (along with a published booklet). In the film Song of the Thin Man from 1947 the \"straight\" Nick and Nora have trouble following the jargon of the jazz musicians in the story.\n\nDuring the 1950s, as people became conscious of the Beat Generation phenomena, amid fears of juvenile delinquency, there was an increased urgency to understand the language spoken by the new youth culture.\n\nInfluences \n\nBrian Wilson can be heard fondly mentioning this album in the box set The Pet Sounds Sessions during the highlights of the recording sessions of the song \"Hang On to Your Ego\". The full working title for the album track \"Let's Go Away For Awhile\" was \"Let's Go Away For Awhile (And Then We'll Have World Peace),\" the parenthetical being an allusion to the album.\n\nDimitri from Paris sampled the opening of the album on the first track of his album Sacrebleu.\n\nLoop Guru sampled from the album in its 2006 release Elderberry Shiftglass, as did Hans Dulfer on his album Big Boy.\n\nDeadmau5 used excerpts from 'Uncool', on his track, \"Sometimes I Fail\", from the album Get Scraped. It was used again on his track, \"GH-XSW\" (or \"GH\" as named on At Play Vol. 4)\n\nThe album 'Kaleidoscope' by DJ Food and 'USSR: Life from the Other Side' by DJ Vadim extensively sample 'The Riff' and 'Dig Yourself Baby!' respectively; coincidentally, both albums were released on the Ninja Tune label.\n\nExternal links\n Listen to the album.\n\nDel Close albums\nJohn Brent (comedian) albums\nBeat Generation\nHistory of Chicago\n1950s comedy albums\nMercury Records albums",
"Dave Wright (born May 16, 1985) is an American poet, writer, and publisher. He is the author of one book of poems titled Riverwalkers, and one chapbook of poems titled Pixels, which was published by Reality Hands in 2014. He lives in Dickson, TN and Sewanee, Tennessee during the summer, where he attends the Sewanee School of Letters at Sewanee: The University of the South. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of indie publishing company Dig That Book Co., LLC.\n\nLife\nWright grew up on a farm in Dickson, TN. He attended undergraduate school at Tennessee Technological University, where he earned a BS in Communication Sciences. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Fiction at Sewanee School of Letters in Sewanee, Tennessee. He is a member of The Porch Writer's Collective in Nashville, TN.\n\nWork\nWright's work has been featured in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Black Heart Magazine, Best of Black Heart 2014, The Newer York, HUSMW, Cutty Spot Interviews, Calliope Magazine, The Caper Literary Journal's Anthology VWA: Poems for Haiti\n\nHe was the featured poet at East Side Storytellin' #42: Where The River Life Ran Through Us All, a popular reading and music series in East Nashville.\n\nDig That Book Co., LLC\nWright founded the independent publishing company Dig That Book Co. in August 2013.\n\nList of current titles:\n#urananimal by Nicholas Spence\nFurthest Agent by D.C DeMarse\nIt Doesn't Matter What You Look Like On The Outside It's What's On The Internet That Counts by Beach Sloth\nI Will Always Be in Love by Alexandra Naughton\nThe End of the World by Megan Lent\nThe Ghosts That Surrounded Them by Timmy Reed (Winner of the 2015 Baker Artist Grant)\n\nForthcoming titles:\nNUMBSKULL by No Glykon \nTaco Jehovah by Josh Spilker\n\nBibliography\nRiverwalkers (poems, Dig That Book Co. 2013)\nPixels (poems, Reality Hands, 2014)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nDig That Book Co., LLC\nRiverwalkers\n\nAmerican male poets\nLiving people\nTennessee Technological University\nSewanee: The University of the South\n1985 births\nPeople from Dickson, Tennessee\nPeople from Sewanee, Tennessee\n21st-century American poets\n21st-century American male writers"
]
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[
"Thor Heyerdahl",
"Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)",
"What was he doing",
"In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island",
"Who was apart of this team",
"The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists",
"What did they do while there",
"archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites.",
"What where highlights of the dig",
"Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike."
]
| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | What else did this dig produce | 5 | What else did the Rapa Nui dig produce in addition to the transport and erection of the moai and excavations at the Orongo and Poike sites? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | true | [
"Look What the Rookie Did is the debut album by Canadian band Zumpano, released in 1995. The album is available for listening online. Videos were released for the singles \"The Party Rages On\" and \"I Dig You\".\n\nProduction\nThe album was produced by Kevin Kane. It was recorded about two years prior to its release.\n\nCritical reception\nAllMusic wrote that \"the freshness of Zumpano's sound, combined with adventurous melodies and rhythms, makes this an essential piece of work.\" Trouser Press wrote that \"Zumpano is able to fight off the potential for coyness in its polka dot endeavors and ambitious enough to raise the ante with dramatic horns and pedal steel, treating period evocation as an intermediate goal rather than the stylistic finish line.\" The Washington Post wrote that \"the proceedings are sometimes a little arch, but Zumpano and company usually marshal the melodies to keep their concept from flagging.\" CMJ New Music Monthly thought that \"the sound is so perversely incongruous with everything else going on today, and is played with such unabashed garage-band innocence, that it actually sounds fresh, and you just can't help but be charmed.\" Exclaim! opined that Look What the Rookie Did \"combines peerless tunefulness with instrumental complexity (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals and horns all stacked Yurtle high), topped with [Carl] Newman's incomparable, lispy vocals.\"\n\nIn a retrospective review, Magnet wrote that the album's \"best songs ('The Party Rages On', 'Temptation Summary', 'I Dig You') were on par with the Brill Building breezy-listening pop that inspired them, possessing the sort of pristine, heartfelt, melancholy melodies that were all but banished from the airwaves by 1995.\"\n\nTrack listing\n The Party Rages On \n Oh That Atkinson Girl \n Rosecrans Boulevard \n Platinum Is Best Served Cold \n Evil Black Magic \n Temptation Summary \n I Dig You \n Wraparound Shades \n Snowflakes and Heartaches \n Jeez-Louise \n (She's a) Full-Blooded Sicilian\n Bonus Track\n\nReferences\n\n1995 debut albums\nZumpano albums\nSub Pop albums",
"This is the discography of American DJ and producer Todd Terry.\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nSelected remixes\nBasement Jaxx - \"Fly Life\"\nBoston Bun - \"Don't Wanna Dance\"\nRoberto Surace - \"Joys\"\nTom Walker - \"Better Half of Me\"\nTodd Terry featuring The Raid - \"Jump Up in the Air\"\nTodd Terry - \"Can U Dig It\"\nSteve Aoki featuring Rich the Kid and ILoveMakonnen - \"How Else\"\nMelanie C - \"Overload\"\n\nReferences\n\nDiscographies of American artists\nHouse music discographies"
]
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"Thor Heyerdahl",
"Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)",
"What was he doing",
"In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island",
"Who was apart of this team",
"The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists",
"What did they do while there",
"archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites.",
"What where highlights of the dig",
"Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike.",
"What else did this dig produce",
"two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island)."
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| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | What did this do | 6 | What did the Expedition to Rapa Nui do in addition to producing three scientific reports? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | true | [
"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)",
"What Did I Do To Deserve This My Lord!? 2 (formerly known as Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time To Tighten Up Security!, known as Yūsha no Kuse ni Namaiki da or2, 勇者のくせになまいきだor2, literally \"For a hero, [you are] quite impudent/cheeky/bold] 2)\" in Japan) is a real-time strategy/god game for the PlayStation Portable, sequel to What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord?.\n\nThe game was released in Japan in 2008, and was announced for a North American release during Tokyo Game Show 2009. This release was delayed until May 4, 2010, due to NIS America changing the game's name from Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time to Tighten Up Security! to What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 to avoid conflict with the Batman license.. The UMD release includes the first game.\n\nGameplay \nThe gameplay is almost identical to the first game, with a few different additions and changes. These include 'Mutation' (monsters can mutate in three forms: by deformity, by obesity and by gigantism) and 'The Overlord's Chamber', where you can grow monsters and observe their evolution.\nWhat Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 contains \"4 times more stages, 3.3 times more monsters and 2.3 times more heroes\" than the first game.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n\n2008 video games\nGod games\nPlayStation Portable games\nPlayStation Portable-only games\nReal-time strategy video games\nSony Interactive Entertainment games\nVideo game sequels\nVideo games developed in Japan"
]
|
[
"Thor Heyerdahl",
"Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)",
"What was he doing",
"In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island",
"Who was apart of this team",
"The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists",
"What did they do while there",
"archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites.",
"What where highlights of the dig",
"Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike.",
"What else did this dig produce",
"two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island).",
"What did this do",
"Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller."
]
| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | What else did he produce | 7 | What else did Heyerdahl produce in addition to his book Aku-Aku? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | 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",
"A psychon was a minimal unit of psychic activity proposed by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts in \"A Logical Calculus of Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity\" in 1943. McCulloch was later to reflect that he intended to invent a kind of \"least psychic event\" with the following properties:\n it either happened or else it did not happen.\n it would happen only if its was the product of a temporal antecedent.\n it was to lead to subsequent psychons.\n these could be compounded to produce the equivalents of more complicated propositions concerning their antecedents.\n\nThis dual value logic was adopted by Jacques Lacan and applied to psychoanalysis.\n\nReferences\n\nNeurology\nCybernetics"
]
|
[
"Thor Heyerdahl",
"Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)",
"What was he doing",
"In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island",
"Who was apart of this team",
"The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists",
"What did they do while there",
"archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites.",
"What where highlights of the dig",
"Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike.",
"What else did this dig produce",
"two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island).",
"What did this do",
"Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.",
"What else did he produce",
"In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history."
]
| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | What was this book based on | 8 | What was the book "In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved" based on? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | false | [
"Just Kids is a memoir by Patti Smith, published on January 19, 2010, documenting her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe.\n\n\"I didn't write it to be cathartic,\" she noted. \"I wrote it because Robert asked me to… Our relationship was such that I knew what he would want and the quality of what he deserved. So that was my agenda for writing that book. I wrote it to fulfil my vow to him, which was on his deathbed. In finishing, I did feel that I'd fulfilled my promise.\"\n\nCritical reception\n\nJust Kids won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction.\nIt was a Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Best Books (2010), ALA Notable Book (2011), Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist (Current Interest, 2010), New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction, 2010), and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (Autobiography/Memoir, 2010).\n\nJust Kids was featured on the January 19, 2010, episode of Fresh Air, with Smith being interviewed by Terry Gross. Just Kids was also featured on KQED's Forum with Michael Krasny on January 28, 2010 and KCRW's Bookworm with host Michael Silverblatt in March 2010. It was the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 from 1–5 March 2010, with Smith reading five 15-minute excerpts from her book.\n\nTelevision series\nIn August 2015, it was announced that Showtime was developing a limited series based on the memoir. The network landed the rights partly because Smith wanted to collaborate with writer John Logan, being a fan of his series Penny Dreadful.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nReview in The Guardian by Edmund White\nReview on Frontier Psychiatrist by Gina Myers\nReview on Thought Catalog by The Thoughtful Reader\n\nBooks by Patti Smith\nAmerican memoirs\nNational Book Award for Nonfiction winning works\n2010 non-fiction books\nEcco Press books",
"The Marvel Comics anthology series What If? tells alternate reality stories outside the mainstream Marvel Universe continuity, which the company sets on what it calls Earth-616. A number of these stories have been set on alternate Earths in the Marvel Comics Multiverse (i.e., multiple universes) for which Marvel has given official numerical designations.\n\nVolume 1 (1977–1984)\n What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #1)\n Reprinted in The Best of What If? Followed by What If? #21. Alternate sequels appeared in What If? vol. 2, #35, and Paradise X: Heralds. This world was designated Earth-772 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\nSpider-Man did eventually join the team as a member of the \"New Fantastic Four\" and, more recently, as a member of the Future Foundation.\n What if the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner? (based on The Incredible Hulk #1)\n This world was designated Earth-774 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the Avengers had never been? (based on The Avengers #3)\n What if the Invaders stayed together after World War II?\n What if Captain America had not vanished during World War II? (based on Avengers #4)\n What if the Fantastic Four had different super-powers? (based on The Fantastic Four #1)\n This version of the team reappeared in What If? (vol. 2) #39. This world was designated Earth-7712 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if someone else besides Spider-Man had been bitten by the radioactive spider? (based on Amazing Fantasy #15)\n Three different stories look at what would have happened if either Peter's class bully Flash Thompson, his would-have-been temporary girlfriend Betty Brant, or publisher J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son John, had been bitten by the radioactive spider instead. With the exception of Betty Brant, the protagonist dies in each story. A darker version of the Flash story is redone as What If? (vol. 2) #76.\n What if the world knew Daredevil was blind? (based on Daredevil #2)\n This issue also contained the first humor-based What If? in the series asking, \"What if the spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?\"\n What if the Avengers fought evil in the 1950s?\n Designated Earth-9904 in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: A-Z Update #2 (2007). A version of this timeline was revisited in Avengers Forever, and yet another version made a cameo in Paradise X: Heralds.\nThe Agents of Atlas, a superhero team from the 1950s, was based on this concept.\n What if Jane Foster had found the hammer of Thor? (based on Journey into Mystery #83)\n Jane Foster would eventually become the new Thor in Thor (vol. 4) #1.\n What if the original Marvel Bullpen had become the Fantastic Four? (based on The Fantastic Four #1)\n This world made a brief tongue-in-cheek appearance in Paradise X: Heralds. It was designated Earth-1228 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n What if Rick Jones had become the Hulk? (based on The Incredible Hulk #1)\n What if Conan the Barbarian walked the Earth today? (based on The Savage Sword of Conan #7 \"The Citadel at the Center of Time\")\n An alternate ending to this story can be seen in What If? #43.\n What if Sgt. Fury had fought World War II in outer space?\n This universe made a brief appearance in Paradise X: Heralds.\n What if Nova had been four other people? (based on Nova #1)\n Instead of the random decision for Richard Rider to become Nova, the powers of Nova are transferred to a vengeful wife whose husband had been murdered, a kind and homeless black man in a universe with no superheroes, Peter Parker in a world where the radioactive spider that bit him had crippled him, and an unknown character with a villainous personality.\n What if Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, fought on the side of Fu Manchu? (based on Master of Kung Fu #15)\n What if the Ghost Rider, Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel were villains? (based on Marvel Spotlight #5 and #32 and Marvel Super Heroes #12)\n As with issue #7, this contained three short stories with the theme of Marvel characters who strayed close to becoming villains rather than heroes in the Earth-616 universe.\n What if Dr. Strange were a disciple of Dormammu? (based on Strange Tales #110)\n What if Spider-Man had never become a crimefighter? (based on Amazing Fantasy #15)\n What if the Avengers fought the Kree-Skrull War without Rick Jones? (based on Avengers #96)\n What if the Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four had married the Sub-Mariner?\n A sequel to What If? #1.\n What if Doctor Doom had become a hero? (based on Fantastic Four #5)\n This world was designated Earth-808 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the Hulk had become a barbarian? (based on The Incredible Hulk #205)\n This issue also contains the back-up humor story, \"What if Aunt May had been bitten by the radioactive spider?\"\n What if Gwen Stacy had lived? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #121)\n Reprinted in The Best of What If?\n What if Thor and the Avengers fought the gods? (based on Thor #136)\n Also features the backup story \"The First Uni-Mind\", explaining the origins and concept of the Uni-Mind and the origin story of A'lars and Zuras.\n What if Captain America had been elected president? (based on Captain America #250)\n This issue also contained the back-up story, \"What if the Man-Thing had regained Ted Sallis' brain?\" (based on Man-Thing (vol. 2) #1)\n What if Phoenix had not died? (based on X-Men #137)\n Reprinted in The Best of What If? Redone in What If? (vol. 2) #32-33.\n What if Daredevil became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? (based on Daredevil #1)\n Reprinted in The Best of What If?\n This also contained the back-up story, \"What if the Ghost Rider had been separated from Johnny Blaze?\"\n What if the Avengers defeated everybody? (based on Avengers Special #2)\n This world was designated Earth-8110 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n This also contained the backup story, \"What if Namor had never regained his memories?\"\n What if Spider-Man's clone had lived? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #149)\n It was revealed years later that the clone had indeed lived, but had just been in hiding. He reappeared in the Spider-Man titles under the name Ben Reilly.\n What if Wolverine had killed the Hulk? (based on The Incredible Hulk #181)\n The concept was reversed in What If? (vol. 2) #50 (although it followed a later rematch between the characters). This issue also includes \"What if the Fantastic Four had never been?\" (based on The Fantastic Four #1). The latter world was designated Earth-8222 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the Avengers had become pawns of Korvac? (based on Avengers #177)\n Reprinted in The Best of What If? Extended in #43. A version of this world was visited by Quasar in Quasar #30.\n What if the Dazzler had become the herald of Galactus? (based on Dazzler #11) / What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur? (based on Iron Man #150)\n What If Humor Issue\n Parts reprinted in The Best of What If?\n What if Elektra had lived? 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Only one diverges from a specific point: the Captain America story \"What if Sharon Carter had not died?\"\n What if Thor battled Conan the Barbarian?\n What if Dr. Strange had not become Master of the Mystic Arts? (based on Strange Tales #110)\n This timeline made a cameo appearance in Paradise X: Heralds.\n What if the Sub-Mariner had saved Atlantis from its...Destiny? (based on Sub-Mariner #1)\n What if the Invisible Girl had died in childbirth? (based on Fantastic Four Annual #6)\n This world was designated Earth-8312 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if Conan the Barbarian was stranded in the 20th century?\n An alternate ending to What If? #13. Also includes an extended ending to What If? #32.\n What if Captain America were revived today? (1983) (based on Avengers #4)\n Redone in What If? (vol. 2) #67-68 and 103.\n What if the Hulk went berserk? (based on The Incredible Hulk #1)\n What if Spider-Man's Uncle Ben had lived (and Aunt May was murdered instead)? (based on Amazing Fantasy #15)\n Redone in What If Spider-Man (2005)\n What if Loki had found the hammer of Thor? (based on Journey into Mystery #83)\n Final issue of the original series.\n\nSelect stories (noted above) were collected in a trade paperback, The Best of What If, in 1991. The entire series was collected in a series of seven volumes titled What If Classic from 2004 to 2010, with the exception of issues #13 and 16 and the lead story of #43 because they featured licensed characters, namely Conan the Barbarian and Fu Manchu.\n\nSpecial (1988)\n What if Iron Man had been a traitor? (based on Tales of Suspense #39)\n\nVolume 2 (1989–1998)\n What if the Avengers had lost the Evolutionary War? (based on Avengers Annual #17)\n Visited by Quasar in Quasar #30.\n What if Daredevil had killed the Kingpin? (based on Daredevil #228)\n What if Steve Rogers had refused to give up being Captain America? (based on Captain America #332)\n What if the alien costume had possessed Spider-Man? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #258)\n Visited by Quasar in Quasar #30.\n What if the Vision had destroyed the Avengers? (based on Avengers #9)\n What if the X-Men lost Inferno? (based on The New Mutants #73)\n What if Wolverine was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? (based on The Incredible Hulk #181)\n What if Iron Man lost the Armor Wars? (based on Iron Man #225)\n What if the X-Men died on their first mission? (based on Giant Size X-Men #1)\n This world was designated Earth-105709 in Quasar #30.\n What if the Punisher's family had not been killed?\n What if the Fantastic Four all had the same power? (based on Fantastic Four #1)\n The four worlds shown here were designated Earths 9031 through 9034 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the X-Men had stayed in Asgard? (based on The New Mutants Special Edition #1)\n What if Professor X of the X-Men had become the Juggernaut? (based on Uncanny X-Men #12)\n What if Captain Marvel had not died? (based on The Death of Captain Marvel)\n Visited by Quasar in Quasar #30.\n What if the Fantastic Four had lost the trial of Galactus? (based on Fantastic Four #262)\n This world was designated Earth-907 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if Wolverine battled Conan the Barbarian? (based on Uncanny X-Men #137)\n What if Kraven the Hunter had killed Spider-Man? (based on Web of Spider-Man #31-32)\n What if the Fantastic Four battled Doctor Doom before they got their powers?\n This world was designated Earth-9011 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the Vision of the Avengers conquered the world? (based on Avengers #254)\n Two takes, one of which (a utopian world) was revisited in What If? (vol. 2) #36. The utopian world was designated Earth-90110 and the dystopian world Earth-90111 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n What if Spider-Man had not married Mary Jane? (Part 1 of 2) (based on Amazing Spider-Man #292)\n What if Spider-Man had married the Black Cat? (Part 2 of 2) (based on Amazing Spider-Man #292)\n The first of several two-parters throughout the second series.\n What if the Silver Surfer had not escaped Earth? (based on Silver Surfer (vol. 2) #1)\n This world was designated Earth-912 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the all-new, all-different X-Men had never existed? (based on Giant Size X-Men #1)\n What if Wolverine was Lord of the Vampires? (based on Uncanny X-Men #159)\n Visited by Quasar in Quasar #30. This world was designated Earth-9140 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005. An alternate version features in What If? (vol. 2) #37.\n What if the Marvel Super Heroes had lost Atlantis Attacks? (based on Iron Man Annual #10)\n Visited by Quasar in Quasar #30.\n What if the Punisher had killed Daredevil? (based on Daredevil #183)\n The issue uses the original planned continuity order for Frank Miller's Daredevil run, as Daredevil #183-184 were originally planned to run in Daredevil #168-169, but held back for a year and a half due to issues with the story's plot involving drugs. \n What if Namor had joined the Fantastic Four? (based on Fantastic Four #4)\n This world was designated Earth-917 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if Captain America had led an army of supersoldiers in World War II? (Part 1 of 2) (based on Captain America Comics #1)\n What if Captain America had formed the Avengers? (Part 2 of 2) (based on Captain America Comics #1 and Avengers #4)\n Recycles themes from What If? #44. Redone as What If? (vol. 2) #103.\n What if the Fantastic Four's second child had lived? (based on Fantastic Four #267)\n Two takes; the worse world was designated Earth-91111 and the better world Earth-91112 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\nThis plot idea was subsequently picked up for the mainstream continuity with the introduction of Valeria Richards.\n What if Spider-Man had kept his cosmic powers? (based on Amazing Spider-Man #329)\n What if Phoenix had not died? (Part 1 of 2) (based on Uncanny X-Men #137)\n What if Phoenix rose again? (Part 2 of 2) (based on Uncanny X-Men #137)\n A two-part remake of What If? #27.\n Part One (#32) uses Chris Claremont's notes for the original plan for Uncanny X-Men #138-150 for its story.\n What if no one was watching the Watcher? (humor issue)\n What if the Fantastic Five fought Doctor Doom & Annihilus? (Timequake Part 1 of 5)\n An alternate outcome of What If? #1.\n What if the Cosmic Avengers battled the Guardians of the Galaxy? (Timequake Part 2 of 5)\n A sequel to What If? (vol. 2) #19's \"Utopia\" story.\n What if Wolverine had been Lord of the Vampires during Inferno? (Timequake Part 3 of 5)\n An alternate version of What If? (vol. 2) #24. This world was designated Earth-9250 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n What if Thor was a thrall of Seth? (Timequake Part 4 of 5) (based on The Mighty Thor #400)\n This world was designated Earth-9260 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n What if the Watcher saved the universe? (Timequake Part 5 of 5)\n The events of Timequake were reflected later in Avengers Forever.\n What if Storm of the X-Men had remained a thief? (based on Uncanny X-Men #117)\n Reprinted in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions.\n What if the Avengers had fought Galactus? (based on Fantastic Four #1 and Fantastic Four #48-50)\n This world was designated Earth-929 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if Spider-Man had kept his six arms? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #100)\n What if Wolverine had married Mariko? (based on Uncanny X-Men #173)\n What if Venom had possessed the Punisher? (based on Web of Spider-Man #1)\n What if Barbara Ketch had become the Ghost Rider? (based on Ghost Rider (vol. 3) #1)\n This world was designated Earth-11993 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n What if Cable had destroyed the X-Men? (Part 1 of 2) (based on Uncanny X-Men #269)\n What if Magneto took over the U.S.A.? (Part 2 of 2) (based on Uncanny X-Men #269)\n This world was designated Earth-21993 in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005.\n What if Daredevil had saved Nuke? (based on Daredevil #233)\n What if the Silver Surfer possessed the Infinity Gauntlet? (based on Infinity Gauntlet #4)\n Another take appears in What If? vol. 2 #104.\n What if the Hulk had killed Wolverine? (based on The Incredible Hulk #340)\n A reversed sort-of remake of What If? #31.\n What if the Punisher became Captain America? (based on Captain America #212)\n What if Doctor Doom became Sorcerer Supreme? (based on Fantastic Four #5)\n This world was designated Earth-938 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if ...the Iron Man of 2020 had been stranded in the past? / ...Rick Jones and Bruce Banner had both remained as the Hulk? / ...Spider-Man had killed the Lizard?\n Featuring Iron Man (based on The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20), the Hulk (based on The Incredible Hulk #332), and Spider-Man (based on Spider-Man #5).\n What if Death's Head I had lived? (Based on Death's Head II #1)\n The only Marvel UK-themed issue. Written and pencilled by Death's Head I co-creators Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, Furman later claimed that this issue's high body count was a sort-of revenge for killing the character.\n What if the Avengers lost Operation: Galactic Storm? (Part 1 of 2) (based on Avengers #346)\n What if the Avengers lost Operation: Galactic Storm? (Part 2 of 2) (based on Avengers #346)\n What if the Punisher became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.?\n What if the Punisher had killed Spider-Man? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #129)\n What if Wolverine led Alpha Flight? (based on Uncanny X-Men #121)\n Reprinted in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions.\n A What If? X-Men Wedding Album\n Three different stories all related to the Cyclops-Jean Grey relationship, looking at what would have happened had Scott married Jean in the early days of the X-Men, if the pair had never gotten together, or if Jean had married Wolverine instead. (based on Amazing Adventures #11, Uncanny X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #101)\n What if Spider-Man's parents destroyed his family? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #387)\n What if Wolverine battled Weapon X? (based on Marvel Comics Presents #72)\n Reprinted in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions.\n What if War Machine had not destroyed the Living Laser? (based on Iron Man #289)\n The issue allows the reader to choose from three different endings.\n What if Iron Man sold out? (based on Tales of Suspense #39)\n What if Archangel fell from grace? (based on X-Factor #25)\n What if Rogue possessed the power of Thor? (based on Avengers Annual #10)\n Reprinted in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions.\n What if Captain America was revived in 1994? (Part 1 of 2) (based on Avengers #4)\n What if Captain America was revived in 1994? (Part 2 of 2) (based on Avengers #4)\n A remake of What If? #44.\n What if Stryfe had killed the X-Men? (based on X-Force #18)\n Reprinted in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions.\n What if the Silver Surfer had not betrayed Galactus? (based on Fantastic Four #50)\n This world was designated Earth-952 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if the gamma bomb had spawned a thousand Hulks?\n What if Spider-Man was a murderer? (based on Amazing Fantasy #15)\n What if the Kingpin owned Daredevil? (based on Daredevil #1)\n What if Mr. Sinister had formed the X-Men? (based on Uncanny X-Men #1)\n What if Blink from Generation X had not died? (based on X-Men #37)\n What if Peter Parker had to destroy Spider-Man? (based on Amazing Fantasy #15)\n The last issue to officially feature Uatu the Watcher as the narrator (although he had been absent from several previous issues). This story is another take on one of the three from What If? #7.\n What if Legion had killed Magneto? (based on Uncanny X-Men #320)\n What if the New Fantastic Four had remained a team? (based on Fantastic Four #349)\n This world was designated Earth-9510 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if Storm had the power of Phoenix? (based on Uncanny X-Men #100)\n What if the Hulk had evolved into the Maestro? (based on The Incredible Hulk #377)\n What if the Age of Apocalypse had not ended? (based on X-Men: Omega)\n What if J. Jonah Jameson had adopted Spider-Man? (based on The Amazing Spider-Man #1)\n What if Daredevil was the disciple of Doctor Strange? (based on Strange Tales #110 and Daredevil #1)\n What if Shard had lived instead of Bishop? (based on Uncanny X-Men #282)\n What if Magneto ruled all mutants? (based on Uncanny X-Men #304)\n What if the Scarlet Spider had killed Spider-Man? (based on Web of Spider-Man #129)\n What if...starring Sabretooth: Screams in the night! (What if Sabretooth was loose in the X-Mansion?)\n Starting with this issue, the covers no longer explicitly state what each story's \"what if\" is, making them more like DC Comics' Elseworlds.\n What if...starring Spider-Man: Arachnamorphosis (What if Spider-Man had evolved into a Spider-Monster? - based on Amazing Fantasy #15)\n What if...starring the Fantastic Four: Deadly inheritance (What if the Fantastic Four's powers were out of control? - based on The Fantastic Four #1)\n This world was designated Earth-969 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if...starring Cyclops and Havok: Their early years, their darkest fears! (What if Cyclops and Havok were not orphaned?)\n What if...starring The Incredible Hulk: The man, the monster (What if Bruce Banner was savage and the Hulk intelligent? - based on The Incredible Hulk #1)\n What if...starring Cannonball's little brother, Josh—and his pet Sentinel! (What if Josh had discovered a Sentinel?)\n Fairly similar in plot to the recent Sentinel series.\n What if...starring Wolverine: A man no more (What if Wolverine became savage? - based on Wolverine (vol. 2) #100)\n What if...starring Juggernaut: The kingdom of Cain (What if the Juggernaut had killed Xavier and the X-Men? - based on Uncanny X-Men #12)\n What if...starring Ghost Rider: Burn, baby, burn! (What if the Ghost Rider was different? - based on Ghost Rider #1)\n What if...starring Quicksilver: The quick and the dead (What if Magneto had raised his children?)\n What if...starring Black Knight: Camelot reborn (What if Doctor Doom had conquered Camelot?)\n What if...starring Rogue: Children in the attic (What if Mystique had raised Nightcrawler?)\n What if...starring Spider-Man: The men behind the mask (What if the Black Cat was a celebrity?)\n What if...starring Gambit: The greatest secrets of the Marvel Universe revealed!\n What if Mr. Sinister learned the greatest secrets of the Marvel Universe?\n What if the Fantastic Four had crashed in the Land of Oz after gaining their powers?\n What if Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive sheep!?\n What if Wolverine was a wimp?\n What If Xavier was in charge of a sales executive company?\n What if Wolverine and Sabretooth were best friends?\n What if...starring Archangel: Death and disobedience (What if Archangel had killed X-Factor and the Horsemen? - based on X-Factor #25)\n Also includes... What If Gambit was a card hustler?\n What if...starring Daredevil: The fight of his life...has ended! (What if Matt Murdock had become a boxer like his father? - based on Daredevil #1)\n What if...starring Captain America: The unknown soldier (What if Captain America had awoken in a dystopian America? - based on Avengers #4)\n A remake of What If? (vol. 2) #28-29\n What if...starring the Silver Surfer (What if the Impossible Man possessed the Infinity Gauntlet? - based on Infinity Gauntlet #4)\n A variation on What If? (vol. 2) #49.\n What if...starring Spider-Girl (What if Spider-Man and Mary Jane's child had survived?)\n The first appearance of Spider-Girl. Later spun off into the Marvel Comics 2 line. This world was designated Earth-982 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n Also includes...What if Bucky had survived and was Captain America's partner?\n Was reprinted in Spider-Girl #0 (the Bucky story was replaced with previews of two other MC2 titles).\n What if...starring Gambit: Revenge! (What if Marrow had killed Gambit? - based on Uncanny X-Men #350)\n What if...starring The Mighty Thor:...and who shall be king?! (What if Thor had assumed the throne of Asgard?)\n What if...starring the Avengers (What if Carnage had bonded permanently to the Silver Surfer? - based on The Amazing Spider-Man #431)\n What if...starring the Fantastic Four: The Thing...human again?! (What if Ben Grimm had stayed in Liddleville? - based on Fantastic Four #236)\n This world was designated Earth-989 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n What if...starring The Uncanny X-Men: With Phoenix possessed...who will save Professor X...from the fury of Colossus? (What if Colossus had joined the U.S.S.R.'s Soviet Super-Soldiers? - based on Giant Size X-Men #1)\n Also includes... What if Doctor Doom had succeeded in conquering the world?\n What if...starring Wolverine (What if Wolverine was a Horseman of War? - based on Wolverine #100)\n What if...starring Ka-Zar: New York...the new Savage Land...no escape! (What if Thanos turned Manhattan into a Savage Land?)\n What if...starring Iron Man: Alone against Dormammu...Tony Stark--Sorcerer Supreme? (What if Tony Stark had become Sorcerer Supreme? - based on Strange Tales #110 and Tales of Suspense #39)\n What if...starring Secret Wars: 25 years later...comes a new generation of heroes! (What if all the participants of Secret Wars had been trapped on Battleworld? - based on Secret Wars #12)\n Final issue. This world was designated Earth-9811 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.\n\nIssue #-1, What if...starring Bishop (based on Uncanny X-Men #282), was published as a part of the \"Flashback\" event, in which most of Marvel's series published issues numbered \"-1\" that were set in the past.\n\nMarvel Alterniverse\n\nThe Alterniverse was what Marvel briefly labeled their What If stories from 1995 to 1996. The stories told under the Alterniverse label are typically one-shots and limited series, such as Ruins, Punisher: A Man Named Frank, Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, and The Last Avengers Story.\n\nVolume 3 (2005)\nA series of What If one-shot issues was released cover-dated February 2005.\n\nWhat if Karen Page had lived?\nWhat if Doctor Doom had become the Thing?\nWhat if General Ross had become the Hulk?\nWhat if Jessica Jones had joined the Avengers?\nWhat if Professor X and Magneto formed the X-Men together?\nWhat if Aunt May had died instead of Uncle Ben?\nWha—Huh? (humor issue) \n\nThe series, including the \"Wha-Huh?\" humor issue, was later collected into a trade paperback entitled What If: Why Not.\n\nVolume 4 (early 2006)\nThe February 2006 one-shot issues took place in a single fictional universe, dubbed Earth-717 in previews, with four of the six stories more like DC's Elseworlds with various heroes in historical periods.\n\nWhat if Captain America had lived in the American Civil War?\nWhat if the Fantastic Four were Russian cosmonauts?\nWhat if the Sub-Mariner had grown up on land instead of Atlantis?\nWhat if Daredevil had lived in feudal Japan?\nWhat if Thor was a Herald of Galactus?\nWhat if Wolverine was Public Enemy Number One?\n\nThe series was later collected into a trade paperback entitled What If: Mirror Mirror.\n\nVolume 5 (late 2006)\nThe November 2006 one-shot issues were based on major storylines or crossovers:\n\nWhat If: Avengers Disassembled - What if the Scarlet Witch had not acted alone?\nWhat If: Spider-Man: The Other - What if Peter Parker had rejected his inner spider?\nWhat If: Wolverine: Enemy of the State - What if Wolverine was never deprogrammed?\nWhat If: Age of Apocalypse - What if both Xavier and Magneto were killed by Legion?\nWhat If: X-Men: Deadly Genesis - What if Vulcan became the leader of the X-Men?\n\nThe series was later collected into a trade paperback entitled What If: Event Horizon featuring the cover from the Spider-Man one-shot.\n\nVolume 6 (2007)\nThe sixth series of What If? continued the theme of the previous series of examining possible alternatives for major storylines.\n\nWhat If: Planet Hulk\n What if Caiera the Oldstrong had survived the destruction on Sakaar instead of the Hulk?\n What if the Hulk had landed on the planet the Illuminati had intended for him?\n What if the Hulk had reverted to Bruce Banner when he crashed on Sakaar?\nWhat If: Annihilation\n What if the Annihilation Wave reached Earth?\nWhat If: X-Men: Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire\n What if Vulcan absorbed the energies of the M'Kraan Crystal and became Phoenix?\nWhat If: Civil War\n What if Captain America led all the heroes against the Superhero Registration Act?\n What if Iron Man lost the Civil War?\nWhat If: Spider-Man vs. Wolverine\n What if Spider-Man had remained in 1980s Russia after an accidental death?\n\nThe series was also due to feature What If?: The New Fantastic Four, which featured the \"original\" New Fantastic Four with Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Ghost Rider, and the Hulk teaming up, as seen in Fantastic Four #347-349 and #374. This story was halted due to the passing of artist Mike Wieringo, and was released as a 48-Page Special as a tribute in June 2008. All the issues of this run, aside from the New Fantastic Four one, were later collected into a trade paperback simply entitled What If? Civil War. The version of the \"New\" Fantastic Four is also erroneous, as the Ghost Rider of that time period had been Danny Ketch, not Johnny Blaze, who appears in the issue instead for unexplained reasons (in reality, Wieringo had drawn the wrong Ghost Rider in his initial pages by mistake and it was not noticed until after his death).\n\nVolume 7 (2008)\nThis series continues the theme of alternatives for three recent Marvel events along with two around a classic event. The New Fantastic Four story was a sequel to the one-shot What If? released previously, seeing Iron Man replace Ghost Rider in an alternate take on the Infinity Gauntlet storyline. However, this series also features a storyline featuring the Runaways that runs through all five comics. This series was released between December 2008 and January 2009.\n\n What If: House of M - What if the Scarlet Witch had said 'No more powers' instead of 'No more mutants'?\n What If: Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America - What if Iron Man had been killed instead of Captain America?\n What If: Newer Fantastic Four - What if the New Fantastic Four had battled Thanos?\n What If: Spider-Man: Back in Black - What if Mary Jane had been shot instead of Aunt May?\n What If: Secret Wars - What if Doctor Doom had kept the Beyonder's power?\n What If: Runaways - What if the Runaways had become the Young Avengers? (Runs through all five above issues)\n\nThe seventh series was later collected into a trade paperback entitled What If?: Secret Wars featuring the cover from the Secret Wars one-shot.\n\nVolume 8 (2009)\nAt Fan Expo Canada '09, it was revealed a new five-part What If series would be released, featuring five one-shot issues, each with two alternatives for the focused event, except for Daredevil vs. Elektra, which had only one story. As a back-up feature in the other four one-shot issues, there is a humorous Say What? short story.\n\nWhat If? Spider-Man: House of M\n What if Emma Frost had not mindwiped Gwen Stacy?\n What if the Scarlet Witch had let Gwen Stacy and her son cross to the default reality and survive?\nWhat If? Secret Invasion\n What if Reed Richards had been killed before revealing the Skrull weakness and the Skrulls won?\n What if the Skrulls had kept the invasion secret throughout all the campaign?\nWhat If? World War Hulk\n What if Tony Stark had not hesitated to use the Red Satellite on the Hulk in the final battle?\n What if Thor had battled the Hulk instead of the Sentry?\nWhat If? Daredevil vs. Elektra\n What if Daredevil had been shot and resurrected by the Hand instead of Elektra?\nWhat If? Astonishing X-Men\n What if Ord had resurrected Jean Grey instead of Colossus?\n What if Ultron became aware of Danger during her battle with the X-Men and planned to make her his bride?\n\nThe eighth series was later collected into a trade paperback entitled What If?: Secret Invasion featuring the cover from the Secret Invasion one-shot.\n\nVolume 9 (2010)\nIn early September 2010, Marvel announced a series of new What If? issues, including the celebration of the 200th issue of What If?. It features a story regarding the Siege event, and a story by Stan Lee about the Watcher and Galactus. Further What If stories were released for Dark Reign, Spider-Man: Grim Hunt, a story focusing on Wolverine and his son Daken, and another on the pre-hero and villain lives of Iron Man and Doctor Doom. Those four issues also have a back-up story on Deadpool being controlled by the Venom symbiote. The Venom/Deadpool backup chapters were subsequently released as a stand-alone one-shot.\n\nWhat If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor\n What if Tony Stark became Dr. Doom?\n What if the Venom symbiote had managed to control Deadpool? (back-up story Part 1)\nWhat If? Wolverine: Father\n What if Wolverine had known about and raised Daken from birth?\n What if the Venom symbiote had managed to control Deadpool? (back-up story Part 2)\nWhat If? Spider-Man: Grim Hunt\n What if Spider-Man had decided to kill Kraven the Hunter instead of letting him live?\n What if the Venom symbiote had managed to control Deadpool? (back-up story Part 3)\nWhat If? Dark Reign - The Osborn Assassination\n What if Clint Barton had managed to kill Norman Osborn?\n What if the Venom symbiote had managed to control Deadpool? (back-up story Part 4)\nWhat If? #200\n What if Norman Osborn had won the Siege on Asgard?\n What if the Watcher had killed Galactus?\n\nWhat If?: Avengers vs. X-Men (2013)\nIn July 2013, Marvel released a four-issue miniseries for What If based on the 2012 event Avengers vs X-Men, telling the story of what might have happened if Magneto had been more influential in Hope's development for Phoenix.\n\nWhat If: Age of Ultron (2014)\nIn April 2014, Marvel released a five-issue miniseries for the 2013 event Age of Ultron, focusing on Wolverine and the Invisible Woman's trip back in time to kill Hank Pym in order to stop him from creating Ultron and showing the effects for the Marvel Universe if one of the other four founding Avengers had died, or if Hank had simply chosen not to create Ultron at all.\n\n What if the Wasp had been killed instead of Hank Pym?\n What if Iron Man had been killed instead of Hank Pym?\n What if Thor had been killed instead of Hank Pym?\n What if Captain America had been killed instead of Hank Pym?\n What if Hank Pym had never created Ultron at all?\n\nWhat If? Infinity (2015)\nIn October 2015, Marvel released a five-issue miniseries for the 2013 event Infinity that depicted alternate outcomes for Thanos' invasion of Earth and the war with the Builders. The five scenarios are the following:\n\nWhat if Thanos had joined the Avengers?\nWhat if Black Bolt had betrayed Earth?\nWhat if the X-Men were the sole survivors of Infinity?\nWhat if the Guardians of the Galaxy tried to free Thanos?\nWhat if the Green Goblin stole the Infinity Gauntlet?\n\nWhat If? With Great Power (2018)\nMarvel released a new series of What If? one-shot issues in October 2018, which revived the concept of the publisher's classic series that examines alternate outcomes for major storylines and alternate versions of well-known characters such as Spider-Man, Magik, the Ghost Rider, Thor, the X-Men and the Punisher.\n\nWhat if Flash Thompson became Spider-Man?\nWhat if the X-Men were .EXE/Men?\nWhat if Peter Parker became the Punisher?\nWhat if Marvel Comics went Metal with the Ghost Rider?\nWhat if Thor was raised by Frost Giants?\nWhat if Magik became the Sorcerer Supreme?\n\nThe 13th series was later collected into a trade paperback entitled What If? With Great Power featuring the cover from the Punisher one-shot.\n\nReferences\n\nWhat If"
]
|
[
"Thor Heyerdahl",
"Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)",
"What was he doing",
"In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island",
"Who was apart of this team",
"The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists",
"What did they do while there",
"archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites.",
"What where highlights of the dig",
"Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike.",
"What else did this dig produce",
"two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island).",
"What did this do",
"Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.",
"What else did he produce",
"In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history.",
"What was this book based on",
"Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe (\"Long"
]
| C_f914e6f88e1f4b3ebdc9afbf930aeb80_0 | Why is that | 9 | Why did Heyerdahl claim Easter Island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe? | Thor Heyerdahl | In 1955-1956, Heyerdahl organized the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjolsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Rapa Nui investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller. In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies. As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that (almost) all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline. CANNOTANSWER | Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. | Thor Heyerdahl (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography.
Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development.
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.
He died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.
Youth and personal life
Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studied zoology and geography at the faculty of biological science at the University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studied economics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.
After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he served with the Free Norwegian Forces from 1944, in the far north province of Finnmark.
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1969. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.
In 1991, Heyerdahl married Jacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially in Túcume, Peru, and Azov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project in Samoa before he died.
Fatu Hiva
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island of Fatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley of Omo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made their thatch-covered stilted home in the valley of Uia.
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.
It was in this setting, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly glorious Marquesan civilization, that Heyerdahl first developed his theories regarding the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between the pre-European Polynesians, and the peoples and cultures of South America.
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.
The events surrounding his stay on the Marquesas, most of the time on Fatu Hiva, were told first in his book På Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak of World War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the title Fatu Hiva (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related in Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
Kon-Tiki expedition
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia in a pae-pae raft that they had constructed from balsa wood and other native materials, christened the Kon-Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific with relative ease and safety, especially to the west (with the trade winds). The raft proved to be highly manoeuvrable, and fish congregated between the nine balsa logs in such numbers that ancient sailors could have possibly relied on fish for hydration in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Other rafts have repeated the voyage, inspired by Kon-Tiki.
Heyerdahl's book about The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas has been translated into 70 languages. The documentary film of the expedition entitled Kon-Tiki won an Academy Award in 1951. A dramatised version was released in 2012, also called Kon-Tiki, and was nominated for both the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Golden Globe Awards. It was the first time that a Norwegian film was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Anthropologists continue to believe that Polynesia was settled from west to east, based on linguistic, physical, and genetic evidence, migration having begun from the Asian mainland. There are controversial indications, though, of some sort of South American/Polynesian contact, most notably in the fact that the South American sweet potato is served as a dietary staple throughout much of Polynesia. Blood samples taken in 1971 and 2008 from Easter Islanders without any European or other external descent were analysed in a 2011 study, which concluded that the evidence supported some aspects of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. This result has been questioned because of the possibility of contamination by South Americans after European contact with the islands. However, more recent DNA work (after Heyerdahl's death) contradicts the post-European-contact contamination hypothesis, finding the South American DNA sequences to be far older than that. Heyerdahl had attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that he would prefer to believe that African-Americans came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.
Theory on Polynesian origins
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Viracocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.
Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari, who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea.
When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers. The Incas described these "white gods" as wise, peaceful instructors who had originally come from the north in the "morning of time" and taught the Incas' primitive forebears architecture as well as manners and customs. They were unlike other Native Americans in that they had "white skins and long beards" and were taller than the Incas. The Incas said that the "white gods" had then left as suddenly as they had come and fled westward across the Pacific. After they had left, the Incas themselves took over power in the country.
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that when Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's book Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.
Tiki people
Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD. They supposedly sailed from Peru to the Polynesian islands on pae-paes—large rafts built from balsa logs, complete with sails and each with a small cottage. They built enormous stone statues carved in the image of human beings on Pitcairn, the Marquesas, and Easter Island that resembled those in Peru. They also built huge pyramids on Tahiti and Samoa with steps like those in Peru.
But all over Polynesia, Heyerdahl found indications that Tiki's peaceable race had not been able to hold the islands alone for long. He found evidence that suggested that seagoing war canoes as large as Viking ships and lashed together two and two had brought Stone Age Northwest American Indians to Polynesia around 1100 AD, and they mingled with Tiki's people. The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined (Heyerdahl 1958).
In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 AD for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an "oven" by the "Long Ears", which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race that had ruled the island in the past (Heyerdahl 1958).
Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternative route. He proposes that Polynesians travelled with the wind along the North Pacific current. These migrants then arrived in British Columbia. Heyerdahl called contemporary tribes of British Columbia, such as the Tlingit and Haida, descendants of these migrants. Heyerdahl claimed that cultural and physical similarities existed between these British Columbian tribes, Polynesians, and the Old World source.
Controversy
Heyerdahl's theory of Polynesian origins has not gained acceptance among anthropologists. Physical and cultural evidence had long suggested that Polynesia was settled from west to east, migration having begun from the Asian mainland, not South America. In the late 1990s, genetic testing found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Polynesians is more similar to people from south-east Asia than to people from South America, showing that their ancestors most likely came from Asia.
Anthropologist Robert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "The Kon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales of Atlantis, Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."
Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis also criticised Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 book The Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."
A 2009 study by the Norwegian researcher Erik Thorsby suggested that there was some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that, while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed. Some critics suggest, however, that Thorsby's research is inconclusive because his data may have been influenced by recent population contact.
However, a 2014 research indicates that the South American component of Easter Island people's genomes pre-dates European contact: a team including Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas (from the Natural History Museum of Denmark) analysed the genomes of 27 native Rapanui people and found that their DNA was on average 76 per cent Polynesian, 8 per cent Native American and 16 per cent European. Analysis showed that: "although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200." Together with ancient skulls found in Brazil – with solely Polynesian DNA – this does suggest some pre-European-contact travel to and from South America from Polynesia.
A study based on wider genome analysis published in Nature in July 2020 is suggestive of a contact event, around 1200 AD, between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group most closely related to the indigenous inhabitants of present-day Colombia.
Expedition to Easter Island
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island. The expedition's scientific staff included Arne Skjølsvold, Carlyle Smith, Edwin Ferdon, Gonzalo Figueroa and William Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notable moai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.
In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonised by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity, Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation.
Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears". The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.
As for the origin of the people of Easter Island, DNA tests have shown a connection to South America, critics conjecture that this was a result of recent events, but whether this is inherited from a person coming in later times is hard to know. If the story that almost all Long Ears were killed in a civil war is true, as the islanders' story goes, it would be expected that the statue-building South American bloodline would have been nearly utterly destroyed, leaving for the most part the invading Polynesian bloodline.
Boats Ra and Ra II
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa. Based on drawings and models from ancient Egypt, the first boat, named Ra (after the Egyptian Sun god), was constructed by boat builders from Lake Chad using papyrus reed obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia and launched into the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. The Ra crew included Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Santiago Genovés (Mexico), Georges Sourial (Egypt) and Abdullah Djibrine (Chad). Only Heyerdahl and Baker had sailing and navigation experience.
After a number of weeks, Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility. Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel, Ra II, was built by Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi of papyrus from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield as Loo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reached Barbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with the Canary Current. The Ra II is now in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The book The Ra Expeditions and the film documentary Ra (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples of marine pollution and presented their report to the United Nations.
Tigris
Heyerdahl built yet another reed boat in 1977, Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linked Mesopotamia with the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built in Al Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, the Tigris was deliberately burnt in Djibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilised and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbours are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialised countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilisation from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
The Tigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway), Norman Baker (US), Carlo Mauri (Italy), Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway), Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
"The Search for Odin" in Azerbaijan and Russia
Background
Heyerdahl made four visits to Azerbaijan in 1981, 1994, 1999 and 2000. Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about at Gobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west of Baku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilisation. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-day Scandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
Snorri Sturluson
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at the Academy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made by Snorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer in Ynglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country called Aser." (see also House of Ynglings and Mythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities of geography and history. Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that of China and Mesopotamia."
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of the Church of Kish.
Revision of hypothesis
One of the last projects of his life, Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations in Azov, Russia, near the Sea of Azov at the northeast of the Black Sea. He searched for the remains of a civilisation to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g. Azov and Æsir, Udi and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.
, Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.
Other projects
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilisation which originated in what is now Sri Lanka, colonised the Maldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his book The Maldive Mystery.
In 1991 he studied the Pyramids of Güímar on Tenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean.
Heyerdahl was also an active figure in Green politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with many other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boat-building, and for his emphasis on cultural diffusionism.
Death
Heyerdahl died on 18 April 2002 in Colla Micheri, Liguria, Italy, where he had gone to spend the Easter holidays with some of his closest family members. He died, aged 87, from a brain tumour. After receiving the diagnosis, he prepared for death, by refusing to eat or take medication.
The Norwegian government honored him with a state funeral in the Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. He is buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri. He was an atheist.
Legacy
Despite the fact that, for many years, much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community, Heyerdahl, nonetheless, increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner of experimental archaeology. The Kon-Tiki Museum on the Bygdøy peninsula in Oslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. In Larvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather's Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from the Kon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition" has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Paul Theroux, in his book The Happy Isles of Oceania, criticises Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture. However, recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonised from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; several papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts with Easter Island.
More recently, some researchers published research confirming a wider impact on genetic and cultural elements in Polynesia due to South American contacts.
Decorations and honorary degrees
Asteroid 2473 Heyerdahl is named after him, as are HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian Nansen class frigate, along with MS Thor Heyerdahl (now renamed MS Vana Tallinn), and Thor Heyerdahl, a German three-masted sail training vessel originally owned by a participant of the Tigris expedition. Heyerdahl Vallis, a valley on Pluto, and Thor Heyerdahl Upper Secondary School in Larvik, the town of his birth, are also named after him. Google honoured Heyerdahl on his 100th birthday by making a Google Doodle.
Heyerdahl's numerous awards and honours include the following:
Governmental and state honours
Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (1987) (Commander with Star: 1970; Commander: 1951)
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Peru (1953)
Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 June 1965)
Knight in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knight of the Order of Merit, Egypt (1971)
Grand Officer of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco; 1971)
Officer, Order of the Sun (Peru) (1975) and Knight Grand Cross
International Pahlavi Environment Prize, United Nations (1978)
Knight of the Order of the Golden Ark, Netherlands (1980)
Commander, American Knights of Malta (1970)
Civitan International World Citizenship Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2000)
St. Hallvard's Medal
Academic honours
Retzius Medal, Royal Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1950)
Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Society for Geography (1951)
Bonaparte-Wyse Gold Medal, Société de Géographie de Paris (1951)
Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal, Geographical Society of Philadelphia (1952)
Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Norway (1953), Peru (1953), Brazil (1954)
Elected Member Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1958)
Fellow, New York Academy of Sciences (1960)
Vega Gold Medal, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1962)
Lomonosov Medal, Moscow State University (1962)
Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society, London (1964)
Distinguished Service Award, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington, US (1966)
Member American Anthropological Association (1966)
Kiril i Metodi Award, Geographical Society, Bulgaria (1972)
Honorary Professor, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico (1972)
Bradford Washburn Award, Museum of Science, Boston, US, (1982)
President's Medal, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, US (1996)
Honorary Professorship, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan (1999)
Honorary degrees
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Oslo, Norway (1961)
Doctor Honoris Causa, USSR Academy of Science (1980)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of San Martin, Lima, Peru, (1991)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Havana, Cuba (1992)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Kyiv, Ukraine (1993)
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Maine, Orono (1998)
Publications
På Jakt efter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise), 1938; Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature (changed title in English in 1974).
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen, also known as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft), 1948.
American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952), 821 pages.
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island, 1957.
Sea Routes to Polynesia: American Indians and Early Asiatics in the Pacific (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), 232 pages.
The Ra Expeditions .
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemote vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
See also
M/S Thor Heyerdahl – a ferry named after him
List of notable brain tumor patients
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Pre-Columbian rafts
Vital Alsar
Kitín Muñoz
The Viracocha expedition
References
Further reading
Heyerdahl, Thor. Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island. Rand McNally. 1958.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Kon-Tiki. Rand McNally & Company. 1950.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Fatu Hiva. Penguin. 1976.
Heyerdahl, Thor. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations, February 1979.
Heyerdahl, Thor. In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir, translated by Ingrid Christophersen, 2001 (English)
External links
a scientific critique of his Odin project, in English
Thor Heyerdahl in Baku Azerbaijan International, Vol. 7:3 (Autumn 1999), pp. 96–97.
Thor Heyerdahl Biography and Bibliography
Thor Heyerdahl expeditions
The 'Tigris' expedition, with Heyerdahl's war protest Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 20–21.
Bjornar Storfjell's account: A reference to his last project Jakten på Odin Azerbaijan International, Vol. 10:2 (Summer 2002).
Biography on National Geographic
Forskning.no Biography from the official Norwegian scientific webportal (in Norwegian)
Thor Heyerdahl on Maldives Royal Family website
Biography of Thor Heyerdahl
Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl
The home of Thor Heyerdahl Useful information on Thor Heyerdahl and his hometown, Larvik
Thor Heyerdahl – Daily Telegraph obituary
1914 births
2002 deaths
People from Larvik
Norwegian Army personnel of World War II
Norwegian documentary filmmakers
Norwegian explorers
Norwegian historians
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Reed boats
Replications of ancient voyages
Deaths from brain tumor
Deaths from cancer in Liguria
Neurological disease deaths in Liguria
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian ethnographers
Norwegian atheists
Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
Recipients of the Order of Merit (Egypt)
Knights of the Order of St John
University of Oslo alumni
20th-century historians
20th-century Norwegian scientists
20th-century Norwegian writers
Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology | true | [
"\"Why I Am\" is a song by Dave Matthews Band from their album Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King\n\nWhy I Am and Why I Am Not may refer to:\n\nWhy I Am\nWhy I Am an Atheist, an essay by Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh, published in 1930.\nWhy I Am Still a Christian is a book by Catholic theologian Hans Küng, published in 1987.\nWhy I Am a Christian, is a 2003 book by English author John Stott.\n Why I Am an Atheist is an essay by Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh, published in 1930.\n\nWhy I Am Not\n Why I Am Not a Conservative, an essay by Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek, published in 1960.\n Why I Am Not a Christian, by historian and philosopher Richard Carrier\n Why I Am Not a Communist, by Karel Čapek, a 1924 essay in Přítomnost magazine.\n Why I Am Not a Conservative is an essay by Austrian School economist Friedrich Hayek, published in 1960.\n Why I Am Not a Hindu, a 1996 book in a similar vein by Kancha Ilaiah, an activist opposed to the Indian caste system.\n Why I Am Not a Muslim, by Ibn Warraq, is a 1995 book also critical of the religion in which the author was brought up — in this case, Islam. The author mentions Why I Am Not a Christian towards the end of the first chapter, stating that many of its arguments also apply to Islam.\n Why I Am Not a Property Dualist, an essay by John Searle in which he criticises the philosophical position of property dualism.\n Why I Am Not a Scientist (2009) , by biological anthropologist Jonathan M. Marks\n\nSimilar titles\n How I Stopped Being a Jew, is a 2014 book by Israeli historian Shlomo Sand.",
"This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things may refer to:\n\nMusic\n This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, an album by Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band, 2003\n This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, an album by Alter Der Ruine, 2010\n \"I Don't Care (This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things)\", a song by The Blackout from the album The Best in Town\n \"This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things\", a song by Taylor Swift from the album Reputation, 2017\n\nOther\nThis is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, a book by David Carol (2011)"
]
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[
"Alejandro Jodorowsky",
"Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)"
]
| C_2012252ab01a4525a8a314305156922d_1 | is santa sangre the name of a movie? | 1 | is santa sangre the name of a movie? | Alejandro Jodorowsky | In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife. In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's "The Hands of Orlac". It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors. He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Dominguez D., wrote the screenplay). That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France. In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where once again he met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again. CANNOTANSWER | Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film | Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and artist. Since 1948, he has worked as a novelist, screenwriter, a poet, a playwright, an essayist, a film and theater director and producer, an actor, a film editor, a comics writer, a musician and composer, a philosopher, a puppeteer, a mime, a lay psychologist, a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, and a spiritual guru.
Best known for his avant-garde films El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Overview
Born to Jewish-Galician parents (Chodorowski) in Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, while in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016). During the same period, he wrote a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1980–1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, and also The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.
Early life and education
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of Tocopilla, Chile, to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) and other cities of the Russian Empire (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Partition, now Ukraine). His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann (Jakub Chodorowski), was a merchant, who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, and at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it at the age of nine years old, something for which he blamed his father. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, he began attending college, studying psychology and philosophy, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment as a clown in a circus and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris.
It was while in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to filmmaking, creating Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but he was disillusioned in that he felt Breton had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content, and subsequently it was banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.
Career
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune but does make extraordinary claims as to the influence this unmade film had on other actual science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)
In 1982, Jodorowsky divorced his wife.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.
In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".
In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation. This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.
The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.
On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life. The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain. By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made". On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes. coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".
In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production. The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life. The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others. Jodorowsky's son, Adan Jodorowsky, plays him as an adult and Brontis Jodorowsky, plays as his father Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager. Pamela Flores plays Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poetess and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."
During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.
Other work
Jodorowsky is a weekly contributor of "good news" to the nightly "author news report" of his friend, Fernando Sánchez Dragó in Telemadrid.
He also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence; other artistic influences included George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud, and Luis Buñuel. He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, and Kanye West.
Comics
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons (trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron), and The Technopriests and also an RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (which he would have been loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.
His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.
Personal life
Jodorowsky's first wife was the actress Valérie Tremblay. He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.
He has five children: Brontis Jodorowsky, an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry; Teo, who played in Santa Sangre; Cristóbal, a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men); Eugenia Jodorowsky; and the youngest, Adan Jodorowsky, a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky. The fashion model Alma Jodorowsky is the granddaughter of Alejandro.
On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".
He does not drink or smoke, and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.
Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun). Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.
Jodorowsky was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck for the Franco-German television show Durch die Nacht mit … on the TV station Arte, in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations such as a park and a hotel.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller, Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.
Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.
Criticism and controversy
When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content. Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.
In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:
In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:
As a result of these alleged statements, Jodorowsky has been criticised. Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzio while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own". Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".
On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:
Filmography
As director
As actor
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of comics, novels and non-fiction writings:
Graphic novels and comics
Anibal 5 {Original Mexican edition with Manuel Moro} (1966)
Los Insoportables Borbolla (with Manuel Moro) (1966)
The Panic Fables (; 1967–1970), comic strip published in El Heraldo de México.
The Eyes of the Cat (1978)
The Jealous God (1984)
The Magical Twins (1987)
Anibal 5 {French edition with Mœbius} (1990)
Diosamente (1992)
Moonface (1992)
Angel Claws (1994)
Son of the Gun (1995)
Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (1998)
The Shadow's Treasure (1999)
Bouncer (2001)
The White Lama (2004)
Borgia (2004)
Screaming Planet (2006)
Royal Blood (2010)
Showman Killer (2010)
Pietrolino (2013)
The Son of El Topo (2016- ongoing)
Knights of Heliopolis (2017)
Metabarons Universe
Beginning with The Incal in 1981, Jodorowsky has co-written and produced a series of linked comics series and graphic novels () for the French-language market known colloquially as the Jodoverse. The series was initially developed with Jean Giraud using concepts and designs created for Jodorowky's unfinished Dune project. Many of the comics and novels have been translated into Spanish, English, and German under Jodorowsky supervision.
The Incal (1981–1988)
Before the Incal (1988–1995)
The Metabarons (1992–2003)
The Technopriests (1998–2006)
Megalex (1999–2007)
After the Incal (2000), incomplete series.
Metabarons Genesis: Castaka (2007–2013)
Weapons of the Metabaron (2008)
Final Incal (2008–2014), revised version of the After the Incal series with new art and text.
The Metabaron (2015–2018)
Simak (2019)
Fiction
Jodorowsky's Spanish-language novels translated into English include:
Where the Bird Sings Best (1992)
Albina and the Dog Men (1999)
The Son of Black Thursday (1999)
Non-fiction
Psychomagic (1995)
The Dance of Reality (2001)
The Way of Tarot (2004), with Marianne Costa
The Manual of Psychomagic (2009)
Metageneaology (2012), with Marianne Costa
pascALEjandro: Alchemical Androgynous (2017), with Pascale Montandon
Autobiography
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2005)
The Dance of Reality: A Psychomagical Autobiography (2014)
Sacred Trickery and the Way of Kindness: The Radical Wisdom of Jodo (2016)
The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans (2016)
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Cobb, Ben (2007). Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Persistence of Vision 6), ed. Louise Brealey, pref. Alan Jones, int. Stephen Barber. London, April 2007 / New York, August 2007, Creation Books.
Coillard, Jean-Paul (2009), De la cage au grand écran. Entretiens avec Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paris. K-Inite Editions.
Chignoli, Andrea (2009), Zoom back, Camera! El cine de Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago de Chile, Uqbar Editores.
Dominguez Aragones, Edmundo (1980). Tres extraordinarios: Luis Spota, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emilio "Indio" Fernández; Mexicali, Mexico DF, Juan Pablos Editor. P. 109–146.
Gonzalez, Házael (2011), Alejandro Jodorowsky: Danzando con la realidad, Palma de Mallorca, Dolmen Editorial.
Larouche, Michel (1985). Alexandre Jodorowsky, cinéaste panique, París, ça cinéma, Albatros.
Moldes, Diego, (2012). Alejandro Jodorowsky, Madrid, Col. Signo e Imagen / Cineastas, Ediciones Cátedra. Prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Monteleone, Massimo (1993). La Talpa e la Fenice. Il cinema di Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bologna, Granata Press.
External links
Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant. BDoubliées
Jodorowsky albums. Bedetheque
Jodorowsky publications in English. Europeancomics.net
1929 births
Living people
20th-century alchemists
20th-century atheists
21st-century alchemists
21st-century atheists
Chilean comics writers
Chilean emigrants to France
Chilean expatriates in Mexico
Chilean film directors
Chilean experimental filmmakers
Esotericists
French-language film directors
French comics writers
French film directors
Chilean mimes
Chilean surrealist artists
Chilean surrealist writers
French surrealist artists
French surrealist writers
Surrealist filmmakers
Horror film directors
Anarchist writers
Chilean speculative fiction writers
Chilean autobiographers
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish anarchists
Jewish atheists
Jewish feminists
Jewish mimes
Mystics
Naturalized citizens of France
Chilean occultists
People from Tocopilla
Chilean performance artists
Psychedelic drug advocates
Psychotherapists
Tarot readers
Polish Ashkenazi Jews | true | [
"Santa Fe Baldy is a prominent summit in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, United States, located 15 mi (24 km) northeast of Santa Fe. There are no higher mountains in New Mexico south of Santa Fe Baldy. It is prominent as seen from Los Alamos and communities along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico, but is relatively inconspicuous from Santa Fe, as its north-south trending main ridge line is seen nearly end-on, disguising the size of the mountain. Tree line in the Sangre de Cristos is unusually high (exceeding in places) and only the top of the mountain is perpetually free of trees, but several severe forest fires have created bare spots extending to lower elevations. An extensive region of aspen trees on its flanks produces spectacular orange-yellow coloration during the fall that is the subject of many photographic studies.\n\nSanta Fe Baldy rises in the Pecos Wilderness within the Santa Fe National Forest, on the water divide between the Rio Grande and the Pecos River. The western slopes are drained by the Rio Capulin and the Rio Nambe, both flowing to the Rio Grande. The eastern side of the mountain consists of two small cirques, one containing Lake Katherine, one of the highest lakes in New Mexico at elevation . Contrary to popular belief, Lake Katherine was not given its name by theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, in reference to his wife Katherine \"Kitty\" Oppenheimer. This naming convention predates their meeting by at least a decade, and the lake is instead named after Katherine Chaves Page Kavanaugh, owner of the Los Pinos Guest Ranch on the Pecos River. The attribution of the name to J. Robert Oppenheimer may be influenced by his known connection to Katherine Chaves Page Kavanaugh, as he was a frequent guest at the Ranch.\n\nThe peak is accessed by Trail 251, the Skyline Trail, which climbs to a saddle about below the summit; the remaining distance is covered by a steep unofficial trail along the ridgeline. Under good conditions the summit is a simple \"walk-up\" climb, but the Sangre de Cristos are unusually prone to lightning, and during the summer months, the wise hiker is off Santa Fe Baldy and other high summits in the range by noon, to avoid afternoon thunderstorms.\n\nNearby peaks include Lake Peak, and Tesuque Peak, , both located about to the south of Santa Fe Baldy. Santa Fe Ski Basin is on the western slopes of Tesuque Peak.\n\nOn 11 June 2009, Santa Fe Baldy was the scene of a helicopter accident that claimed the lives of New Mexico State Police Sergeant Andrew Tingwall and University of New Mexico graduate student Megumi Yamamoto. The helicopter crashed after Tingwall rescued Yamamoto. Yamamoto had been hiking with her boyfriend, but had become lost.\n\nGallery\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n \n\nMountains of New Mexico\nSangre de Cristo Mountains\nBaldy\nSanta Fe National Forest\nMountains of Santa Fe County, New Mexico",
"Glorieta Pass (elevation 7500 ft.) is a mountain pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. The pass is at a strategic location near at the southern end of the Sangre de Cristos in east central Santa Fe County southeast of the city of Santa Fe.\n\nHistorically, the pass provided the most direct route through the mountains between the upper valley of the Pecos River to the east and the upper valley of the Rio Grande to the west. \nIn the 19th century, it furnished the route of the westernmost leg of the Santa Fe Trail between Santa Fe and the High Plains.\n\nThe Battle of Glorieta Pass, the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign of the American Civil War, was fought near the pass in March 1862. The victory by the Union Army (primarily in the form of the Colorado Militia) prevented the breakout of the Confederate Army forces onto the High Plains on the east side of Sangre de Cristo Mountains, halting the intended Confederate advance northward along the base of the Rocky Mountains. The battle is commemorated at Pecos National Historic Park on the east side of the pass. In the 20th century, the pass became used as the route of U.S. Highway 84 and later Interstate 25. The town of Glorieta is located on the eastern side of the pass.\n\nThe stairwells of the Colorado State Capitol Building display cannonballs from the battle as ornaments.\n\nIn 1879, the New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a railroad through the pass, which became part of the second North American transcontinental railroad in March 1881. The NM&SP was absorbed into its parent company, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1899, and the Santa Fe used the route for their Chicago to Los Angeles trains, including the famed El Capitan and Super Chief. Now part of the BNSF system, this remains the route of Amtrak's Southwest Chief, with one passenger train each direction daily, but little freight. It is one of the last places where semaphore signals are still in use on a major United States railroad.\n\nExternal links\n Glorieta and Raton Passes: Gateways to the Southwest, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan\n\nReferences\n\nMountain passes of New Mexico\nRail mountain passes of the United States\nSangre de Cristo Mountains\nTransportation in Santa Fe County, New Mexico\nSanta Fe Trail\nLandforms of Santa Fe County, New Mexico\nMountain passes of the Rockies"
]
|
[
"Alejandro Jodorowsky",
"Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)",
"is santa sangre the name of a movie?",
"Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film"
]
| C_2012252ab01a4525a8a314305156922d_1 | Did the film do well? | 2 | Did Santa Sangre do well? | Alejandro Jodorowsky | In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife. In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's "The Hands of Orlac". It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors. He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Dominguez D., wrote the screenplay). That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France. In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where once again he met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again. CANNOTANSWER | The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. | Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and artist. Since 1948, he has worked as a novelist, screenwriter, a poet, a playwright, an essayist, a film and theater director and producer, an actor, a film editor, a comics writer, a musician and composer, a philosopher, a puppeteer, a mime, a lay psychologist, a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, and a spiritual guru.
Best known for his avant-garde films El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Overview
Born to Jewish-Galician parents (Chodorowski) in Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, while in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016). During the same period, he wrote a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1980–1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, and also The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.
Early life and education
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of Tocopilla, Chile, to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) and other cities of the Russian Empire (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Partition, now Ukraine). His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann (Jakub Chodorowski), was a merchant, who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, and at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it at the age of nine years old, something for which he blamed his father. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, he began attending college, studying psychology and philosophy, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment as a clown in a circus and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris.
It was while in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to filmmaking, creating Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but he was disillusioned in that he felt Breton had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content, and subsequently it was banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.
Career
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune but does make extraordinary claims as to the influence this unmade film had on other actual science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)
In 1982, Jodorowsky divorced his wife.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.
In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".
In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation. This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.
The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.
On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life. The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain. By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made". On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes. coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".
In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production. The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life. The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others. Jodorowsky's son, Adan Jodorowsky, plays him as an adult and Brontis Jodorowsky, plays as his father Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager. Pamela Flores plays Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poetess and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."
During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.
Other work
Jodorowsky is a weekly contributor of "good news" to the nightly "author news report" of his friend, Fernando Sánchez Dragó in Telemadrid.
He also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence; other artistic influences included George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud, and Luis Buñuel. He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, and Kanye West.
Comics
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons (trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron), and The Technopriests and also an RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (which he would have been loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.
His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.
Personal life
Jodorowsky's first wife was the actress Valérie Tremblay. He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.
He has five children: Brontis Jodorowsky, an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry; Teo, who played in Santa Sangre; Cristóbal, a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men); Eugenia Jodorowsky; and the youngest, Adan Jodorowsky, a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky. The fashion model Alma Jodorowsky is the granddaughter of Alejandro.
On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".
He does not drink or smoke, and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.
Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun). Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.
Jodorowsky was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck for the Franco-German television show Durch die Nacht mit … on the TV station Arte, in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations such as a park and a hotel.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller, Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.
Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.
Criticism and controversy
When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content. Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.
In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:
In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:
As a result of these alleged statements, Jodorowsky has been criticised. Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzio while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own". Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".
On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:
Filmography
As director
As actor
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of comics, novels and non-fiction writings:
Graphic novels and comics
Anibal 5 {Original Mexican edition with Manuel Moro} (1966)
Los Insoportables Borbolla (with Manuel Moro) (1966)
The Panic Fables (; 1967–1970), comic strip published in El Heraldo de México.
The Eyes of the Cat (1978)
The Jealous God (1984)
The Magical Twins (1987)
Anibal 5 {French edition with Mœbius} (1990)
Diosamente (1992)
Moonface (1992)
Angel Claws (1994)
Son of the Gun (1995)
Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (1998)
The Shadow's Treasure (1999)
Bouncer (2001)
The White Lama (2004)
Borgia (2004)
Screaming Planet (2006)
Royal Blood (2010)
Showman Killer (2010)
Pietrolino (2013)
The Son of El Topo (2016- ongoing)
Knights of Heliopolis (2017)
Metabarons Universe
Beginning with The Incal in 1981, Jodorowsky has co-written and produced a series of linked comics series and graphic novels () for the French-language market known colloquially as the Jodoverse. The series was initially developed with Jean Giraud using concepts and designs created for Jodorowky's unfinished Dune project. Many of the comics and novels have been translated into Spanish, English, and German under Jodorowsky supervision.
The Incal (1981–1988)
Before the Incal (1988–1995)
The Metabarons (1992–2003)
The Technopriests (1998–2006)
Megalex (1999–2007)
After the Incal (2000), incomplete series.
Metabarons Genesis: Castaka (2007–2013)
Weapons of the Metabaron (2008)
Final Incal (2008–2014), revised version of the After the Incal series with new art and text.
The Metabaron (2015–2018)
Simak (2019)
Fiction
Jodorowsky's Spanish-language novels translated into English include:
Where the Bird Sings Best (1992)
Albina and the Dog Men (1999)
The Son of Black Thursday (1999)
Non-fiction
Psychomagic (1995)
The Dance of Reality (2001)
The Way of Tarot (2004), with Marianne Costa
The Manual of Psychomagic (2009)
Metageneaology (2012), with Marianne Costa
pascALEjandro: Alchemical Androgynous (2017), with Pascale Montandon
Autobiography
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2005)
The Dance of Reality: A Psychomagical Autobiography (2014)
Sacred Trickery and the Way of Kindness: The Radical Wisdom of Jodo (2016)
The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans (2016)
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Cobb, Ben (2007). Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Persistence of Vision 6), ed. Louise Brealey, pref. Alan Jones, int. Stephen Barber. London, April 2007 / New York, August 2007, Creation Books.
Coillard, Jean-Paul (2009), De la cage au grand écran. Entretiens avec Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paris. K-Inite Editions.
Chignoli, Andrea (2009), Zoom back, Camera! El cine de Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago de Chile, Uqbar Editores.
Dominguez Aragones, Edmundo (1980). Tres extraordinarios: Luis Spota, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emilio "Indio" Fernández; Mexicali, Mexico DF, Juan Pablos Editor. P. 109–146.
Gonzalez, Házael (2011), Alejandro Jodorowsky: Danzando con la realidad, Palma de Mallorca, Dolmen Editorial.
Larouche, Michel (1985). Alexandre Jodorowsky, cinéaste panique, París, ça cinéma, Albatros.
Moldes, Diego, (2012). Alejandro Jodorowsky, Madrid, Col. Signo e Imagen / Cineastas, Ediciones Cátedra. Prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Monteleone, Massimo (1993). La Talpa e la Fenice. Il cinema di Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bologna, Granata Press.
External links
Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant. BDoubliées
Jodorowsky albums. Bedetheque
Jodorowsky publications in English. Europeancomics.net
1929 births
Living people
20th-century alchemists
20th-century atheists
21st-century alchemists
21st-century atheists
Chilean comics writers
Chilean emigrants to France
Chilean expatriates in Mexico
Chilean film directors
Chilean experimental filmmakers
Esotericists
French-language film directors
French comics writers
French film directors
Chilean mimes
Chilean surrealist artists
Chilean surrealist writers
French surrealist artists
French surrealist writers
Surrealist filmmakers
Horror film directors
Anarchist writers
Chilean speculative fiction writers
Chilean autobiographers
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish anarchists
Jewish atheists
Jewish feminists
Jewish mimes
Mystics
Naturalized citizens of France
Chilean occultists
People from Tocopilla
Chilean performance artists
Psychedelic drug advocates
Psychotherapists
Tarot readers
Polish Ashkenazi Jews | true | [
"A Ne'er-do-well is a good-for-nothing person.\n\nNe'er-do-well may also refer to:\n The Ne'er-do-Weel, an 1878 play by W. S. Gilbert, revived soon afterwards as The Vagabond\n The Ne'er-Do-Well, a 1911 novel by Rex Beach, adapted for film several times in the silent era\n The Ne'er-Do-Well (1916 film), a 1916 American silent adventure crime drama film\n\n The Ne'er-Do-Well, a 1923 silent film directed by Alfred E. Green\n\n Ne'er-Do-Well, a 1956 novel by Dornford Yates\n\n Ne'er Do Wells, a rock band",
"A list of films produced by the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai in 1937:\n\n1937\nSome of the notable films of 1937:\n\nVidyapati was a biopic directed by Nitin Bose for New Theatres. It starred Pahari Sanyal as the Maithili poet and Vaishnava saint Vidyapati. The bold songs of the film ensured crowds at the theatres making it a big success of 1937.\n\nDuniya Na Mane (Marathi:Kunku) was a social film from Prabhat Film Company directed by V. Shantaram. It dealt with the issue of arranged marriage. The film did well in the theatres and according to Baburao Patel of Filmindia it \"recorded better returns... than any other picture before\".\n\nPresident was produced by New Theatres and directed by Nitin Bose. A love triangle with a social content it highlighted the plight of mill workers. The music was popular with a classic from Saigal, Ik Bangla Bane Nyaara.\n\nKisan Kanya made by Ardeshir Irani of Alam Ara (1931) fame was the first colour film to be processed in India. The film however did not do well at the box office due to \"a weak story\".\n\nJeevan Prabhat was a successful social film from Bombay Talkies directed by Franz Osten. It starred Kishore Sahu in his debut film with Devika Rani and Mumtaz Ali.\n\nA-B\n\nC-D\n\nF-I\n\nJ-K\n\nL-M\n\nN-P\n\nQ-S\n\nT-Z\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Bollywood films of 1937 at the IMDb\n\n1937\nBollywood\nFilms, Bollywood"
]
|
[
"Alejandro Jodorowsky",
"Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)",
"is santa sangre the name of a movie?",
"Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film",
"Did the film do well?",
"The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews."
]
| C_2012252ab01a4525a8a314305156922d_1 | When was the rainbow thief produced? | 3 | When was the rainbow thief produced? | Alejandro Jodorowsky | In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife. In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's "The Hands of Orlac". It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors. He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Dominguez D., wrote the screenplay). That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France. In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where once again he met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again. CANNOTANSWER | He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. | Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and artist. Since 1948, he has worked as a novelist, screenwriter, a poet, a playwright, an essayist, a film and theater director and producer, an actor, a film editor, a comics writer, a musician and composer, a philosopher, a puppeteer, a mime, a lay psychologist, a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, and a spiritual guru.
Best known for his avant-garde films El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Overview
Born to Jewish-Galician parents (Chodorowski) in Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, while in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016). During the same period, he wrote a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1980–1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, and also The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.
Early life and education
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of Tocopilla, Chile, to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) and other cities of the Russian Empire (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Partition, now Ukraine). His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann (Jakub Chodorowski), was a merchant, who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, and at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it at the age of nine years old, something for which he blamed his father. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, he began attending college, studying psychology and philosophy, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment as a clown in a circus and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris.
It was while in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to filmmaking, creating Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but he was disillusioned in that he felt Breton had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content, and subsequently it was banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.
Career
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune but does make extraordinary claims as to the influence this unmade film had on other actual science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)
In 1982, Jodorowsky divorced his wife.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.
In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".
In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation. This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.
The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.
On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life. The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain. By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made". On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes. coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".
In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production. The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life. The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others. Jodorowsky's son, Adan Jodorowsky, plays him as an adult and Brontis Jodorowsky, plays as his father Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager. Pamela Flores plays Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poetess and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."
During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.
Other work
Jodorowsky is a weekly contributor of "good news" to the nightly "author news report" of his friend, Fernando Sánchez Dragó in Telemadrid.
He also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence; other artistic influences included George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud, and Luis Buñuel. He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, and Kanye West.
Comics
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons (trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron), and The Technopriests and also an RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (which he would have been loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.
His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.
Personal life
Jodorowsky's first wife was the actress Valérie Tremblay. He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.
He has five children: Brontis Jodorowsky, an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry; Teo, who played in Santa Sangre; Cristóbal, a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men); Eugenia Jodorowsky; and the youngest, Adan Jodorowsky, a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky. The fashion model Alma Jodorowsky is the granddaughter of Alejandro.
On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".
He does not drink or smoke, and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.
Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun). Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.
Jodorowsky was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck for the Franco-German television show Durch die Nacht mit … on the TV station Arte, in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations such as a park and a hotel.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller, Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.
Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.
Criticism and controversy
When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content. Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.
In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:
In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:
As a result of these alleged statements, Jodorowsky has been criticised. Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzio while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own". Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".
On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:
Filmography
As director
As actor
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of comics, novels and non-fiction writings:
Graphic novels and comics
Anibal 5 {Original Mexican edition with Manuel Moro} (1966)
Los Insoportables Borbolla (with Manuel Moro) (1966)
The Panic Fables (; 1967–1970), comic strip published in El Heraldo de México.
The Eyes of the Cat (1978)
The Jealous God (1984)
The Magical Twins (1987)
Anibal 5 {French edition with Mœbius} (1990)
Diosamente (1992)
Moonface (1992)
Angel Claws (1994)
Son of the Gun (1995)
Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (1998)
The Shadow's Treasure (1999)
Bouncer (2001)
The White Lama (2004)
Borgia (2004)
Screaming Planet (2006)
Royal Blood (2010)
Showman Killer (2010)
Pietrolino (2013)
The Son of El Topo (2016- ongoing)
Knights of Heliopolis (2017)
Metabarons Universe
Beginning with The Incal in 1981, Jodorowsky has co-written and produced a series of linked comics series and graphic novels () for the French-language market known colloquially as the Jodoverse. The series was initially developed with Jean Giraud using concepts and designs created for Jodorowky's unfinished Dune project. Many of the comics and novels have been translated into Spanish, English, and German under Jodorowsky supervision.
The Incal (1981–1988)
Before the Incal (1988–1995)
The Metabarons (1992–2003)
The Technopriests (1998–2006)
Megalex (1999–2007)
After the Incal (2000), incomplete series.
Metabarons Genesis: Castaka (2007–2013)
Weapons of the Metabaron (2008)
Final Incal (2008–2014), revised version of the After the Incal series with new art and text.
The Metabaron (2015–2018)
Simak (2019)
Fiction
Jodorowsky's Spanish-language novels translated into English include:
Where the Bird Sings Best (1992)
Albina and the Dog Men (1999)
The Son of Black Thursday (1999)
Non-fiction
Psychomagic (1995)
The Dance of Reality (2001)
The Way of Tarot (2004), with Marianne Costa
The Manual of Psychomagic (2009)
Metageneaology (2012), with Marianne Costa
pascALEjandro: Alchemical Androgynous (2017), with Pascale Montandon
Autobiography
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2005)
The Dance of Reality: A Psychomagical Autobiography (2014)
Sacred Trickery and the Way of Kindness: The Radical Wisdom of Jodo (2016)
The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans (2016)
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Cobb, Ben (2007). Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Persistence of Vision 6), ed. Louise Brealey, pref. Alan Jones, int. Stephen Barber. London, April 2007 / New York, August 2007, Creation Books.
Coillard, Jean-Paul (2009), De la cage au grand écran. Entretiens avec Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paris. K-Inite Editions.
Chignoli, Andrea (2009), Zoom back, Camera! El cine de Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago de Chile, Uqbar Editores.
Dominguez Aragones, Edmundo (1980). Tres extraordinarios: Luis Spota, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emilio "Indio" Fernández; Mexicali, Mexico DF, Juan Pablos Editor. P. 109–146.
Gonzalez, Házael (2011), Alejandro Jodorowsky: Danzando con la realidad, Palma de Mallorca, Dolmen Editorial.
Larouche, Michel (1985). Alexandre Jodorowsky, cinéaste panique, París, ça cinéma, Albatros.
Moldes, Diego, (2012). Alejandro Jodorowsky, Madrid, Col. Signo e Imagen / Cineastas, Ediciones Cátedra. Prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Monteleone, Massimo (1993). La Talpa e la Fenice. Il cinema di Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bologna, Granata Press.
External links
Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant. BDoubliées
Jodorowsky albums. Bedetheque
Jodorowsky publications in English. Europeancomics.net
1929 births
Living people
20th-century alchemists
20th-century atheists
21st-century alchemists
21st-century atheists
Chilean comics writers
Chilean emigrants to France
Chilean expatriates in Mexico
Chilean film directors
Chilean experimental filmmakers
Esotericists
French-language film directors
French comics writers
French film directors
Chilean mimes
Chilean surrealist artists
Chilean surrealist writers
French surrealist artists
French surrealist writers
Surrealist filmmakers
Horror film directors
Anarchist writers
Chilean speculative fiction writers
Chilean autobiographers
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish anarchists
Jewish atheists
Jewish feminists
Jewish mimes
Mystics
Naturalized citizens of France
Chilean occultists
People from Tocopilla
Chilean performance artists
Psychedelic drug advocates
Psychotherapists
Tarot readers
Polish Ashkenazi Jews | true | [
"Kamilla and the Thief (Kamilla og Tyven) is a Norwegian family movie from 1988 directed by Grete Salomonsen and produced by her husband Odd Hynnekleiv. The movie is an adaption from a Norwegian children's novel by Kari Vinje, and is the first feature film of renowned Norwegian actor Dennis Storhøi and also stars 1980s pop idol Morten Harket in a minor role. Kamilla and the Thief was a huge success in Norway, selling half a million tickets (in a country of about 4 million people). It was so popular that a sequel was made, Kamilla and the Thief II, which was released the year after. In 2005 both movies were digitally restored and released on DVD.\n\nCast\n Veronika Flåt as Kamilla\n Dennis Storhøi as Sebastian\n Agnete Haaland as Sofie\n Morten Harket as Christoffer\n\nProduction\nKamilla and the Thief was the first feature film to be produced in Kristiansand, and was financed privately, in a time when it was common (and still is) for Norwegian films to receive support from the government to get produced. Producer Odd Hynnekleiv used three years to find investors to the project. After the film's success it took only three weeks to secure investors for the sequel, Kamilla and the Thief II.\n\nHynnkleiv and his wife, director Grete Salomonsen produced the film with their own company, Penelope Film. The crew were mixed with local talent and international craftsmen.\n\nExternal links \n\n1988 films\nFilms directed by Grete Salomonsen\nNorwegian films\nNorwegian-language films",
"Laska Winter (August 28, 1905 – August 8, 1980) was an American film actress active during the silent and early sound era. She was also known as Winter Blossom.\n\nFilmography\n\n What Ho, the Cook (1921)\n The Thief of Bagdad (1924)\n The Marriage Cheat (1924)\n Justice of the Far North (1925)\n Tides of Passion (1925)\n Shipwrecked (1926)\n Rocking Moon (1926)\n The Tender Hour (1927)\n The Night of Love (1927)\n The Satin Woman (1927)\n Fashion Madness (1928)\n The Rescue (1929)\n Seven Footprints to Satan (1929)\n The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929)\n Frozen Justice (1929)\n Chinatown After Dark (1931)\n The Rainbow Trail (1932)\n The Painted Woman (1932)\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n Munden, Kenneth White. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. University of California Press, 1997.\n\nExternal links\n\n1905 births\n1980 deaths\nAmerican film actresses\nAmerican silent film actresses\n20th-century American actresses\nActresses from St. Louis"
]
|
[
"Alejandro Jodorowsky",
"Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)",
"is santa sangre the name of a movie?",
"Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film",
"Did the film do well?",
"The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews.",
"When was the rainbow thief produced?",
"He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief."
]
| C_2012252ab01a4525a8a314305156922d_1 | Was that film profitable? | 4 | Was The Rainbow Thief profitable? | Alejandro Jodorowsky | In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife. In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's "The Hands of Orlac". It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors. He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Dominguez D., wrote the screenplay). That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France. In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where once again he met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and artist. Since 1948, he has worked as a novelist, screenwriter, a poet, a playwright, an essayist, a film and theater director and producer, an actor, a film editor, a comics writer, a musician and composer, a philosopher, a puppeteer, a mime, a lay psychologist, a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, and a spiritual guru.
Best known for his avant-garde films El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Overview
Born to Jewish-Galician parents (Chodorowski) in Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, while in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016). During the same period, he wrote a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1980–1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, and also The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.
Early life and education
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of Tocopilla, Chile, to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) and other cities of the Russian Empire (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Partition, now Ukraine). His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann (Jakub Chodorowski), was a merchant, who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, and at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it at the age of nine years old, something for which he blamed his father. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, he began attending college, studying psychology and philosophy, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment as a clown in a circus and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris.
It was while in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to filmmaking, creating Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but he was disillusioned in that he felt Breton had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content, and subsequently it was banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.
Career
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune but does make extraordinary claims as to the influence this unmade film had on other actual science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)
In 1982, Jodorowsky divorced his wife.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.
In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".
In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation. This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.
The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.
On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life. The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain. By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made". On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes. coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".
In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production. The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life. The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others. Jodorowsky's son, Adan Jodorowsky, plays him as an adult and Brontis Jodorowsky, plays as his father Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager. Pamela Flores plays Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poetess and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."
During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.
Other work
Jodorowsky is a weekly contributor of "good news" to the nightly "author news report" of his friend, Fernando Sánchez Dragó in Telemadrid.
He also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence; other artistic influences included George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud, and Luis Buñuel. He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, and Kanye West.
Comics
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons (trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron), and The Technopriests and also an RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (which he would have been loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.
His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.
Personal life
Jodorowsky's first wife was the actress Valérie Tremblay. He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.
He has five children: Brontis Jodorowsky, an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry; Teo, who played in Santa Sangre; Cristóbal, a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men); Eugenia Jodorowsky; and the youngest, Adan Jodorowsky, a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky. The fashion model Alma Jodorowsky is the granddaughter of Alejandro.
On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".
He does not drink or smoke, and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.
Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun). Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.
Jodorowsky was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck for the Franco-German television show Durch die Nacht mit … on the TV station Arte, in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations such as a park and a hotel.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller, Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.
Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.
Criticism and controversy
When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content. Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.
In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:
In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:
As a result of these alleged statements, Jodorowsky has been criticised. Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzio while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own". Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".
On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:
Filmography
As director
As actor
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of comics, novels and non-fiction writings:
Graphic novels and comics
Anibal 5 {Original Mexican edition with Manuel Moro} (1966)
Los Insoportables Borbolla (with Manuel Moro) (1966)
The Panic Fables (; 1967–1970), comic strip published in El Heraldo de México.
The Eyes of the Cat (1978)
The Jealous God (1984)
The Magical Twins (1987)
Anibal 5 {French edition with Mœbius} (1990)
Diosamente (1992)
Moonface (1992)
Angel Claws (1994)
Son of the Gun (1995)
Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (1998)
The Shadow's Treasure (1999)
Bouncer (2001)
The White Lama (2004)
Borgia (2004)
Screaming Planet (2006)
Royal Blood (2010)
Showman Killer (2010)
Pietrolino (2013)
The Son of El Topo (2016- ongoing)
Knights of Heliopolis (2017)
Metabarons Universe
Beginning with The Incal in 1981, Jodorowsky has co-written and produced a series of linked comics series and graphic novels () for the French-language market known colloquially as the Jodoverse. The series was initially developed with Jean Giraud using concepts and designs created for Jodorowky's unfinished Dune project. Many of the comics and novels have been translated into Spanish, English, and German under Jodorowsky supervision.
The Incal (1981–1988)
Before the Incal (1988–1995)
The Metabarons (1992–2003)
The Technopriests (1998–2006)
Megalex (1999–2007)
After the Incal (2000), incomplete series.
Metabarons Genesis: Castaka (2007–2013)
Weapons of the Metabaron (2008)
Final Incal (2008–2014), revised version of the After the Incal series with new art and text.
The Metabaron (2015–2018)
Simak (2019)
Fiction
Jodorowsky's Spanish-language novels translated into English include:
Where the Bird Sings Best (1992)
Albina and the Dog Men (1999)
The Son of Black Thursday (1999)
Non-fiction
Psychomagic (1995)
The Dance of Reality (2001)
The Way of Tarot (2004), with Marianne Costa
The Manual of Psychomagic (2009)
Metageneaology (2012), with Marianne Costa
pascALEjandro: Alchemical Androgynous (2017), with Pascale Montandon
Autobiography
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2005)
The Dance of Reality: A Psychomagical Autobiography (2014)
Sacred Trickery and the Way of Kindness: The Radical Wisdom of Jodo (2016)
The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans (2016)
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Cobb, Ben (2007). Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Persistence of Vision 6), ed. Louise Brealey, pref. Alan Jones, int. Stephen Barber. London, April 2007 / New York, August 2007, Creation Books.
Coillard, Jean-Paul (2009), De la cage au grand écran. Entretiens avec Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paris. K-Inite Editions.
Chignoli, Andrea (2009), Zoom back, Camera! El cine de Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago de Chile, Uqbar Editores.
Dominguez Aragones, Edmundo (1980). Tres extraordinarios: Luis Spota, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emilio "Indio" Fernández; Mexicali, Mexico DF, Juan Pablos Editor. P. 109–146.
Gonzalez, Házael (2011), Alejandro Jodorowsky: Danzando con la realidad, Palma de Mallorca, Dolmen Editorial.
Larouche, Michel (1985). Alexandre Jodorowsky, cinéaste panique, París, ça cinéma, Albatros.
Moldes, Diego, (2012). Alejandro Jodorowsky, Madrid, Col. Signo e Imagen / Cineastas, Ediciones Cátedra. Prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Monteleone, Massimo (1993). La Talpa e la Fenice. Il cinema di Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bologna, Granata Press.
External links
Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant. BDoubliées
Jodorowsky albums. Bedetheque
Jodorowsky publications in English. Europeancomics.net
1929 births
Living people
20th-century alchemists
20th-century atheists
21st-century alchemists
21st-century atheists
Chilean comics writers
Chilean emigrants to France
Chilean expatriates in Mexico
Chilean film directors
Chilean experimental filmmakers
Esotericists
French-language film directors
French comics writers
French film directors
Chilean mimes
Chilean surrealist artists
Chilean surrealist writers
French surrealist artists
French surrealist writers
Surrealist filmmakers
Horror film directors
Anarchist writers
Chilean speculative fiction writers
Chilean autobiographers
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish anarchists
Jewish atheists
Jewish feminists
Jewish mimes
Mystics
Naturalized citizens of France
Chilean occultists
People from Tocopilla
Chilean performance artists
Psychedelic drug advocates
Psychotherapists
Tarot readers
Polish Ashkenazi Jews | false | [
"The ETC Bollywood Business Awards are presented annually by ETC Bollywood Business to award Bollywood films. This is the only award in India which judges films based on their box-office performances. The ETC Bollywood Business Awards were launched in 2010.\n\nCategories\nThe awards are given in the following categories:\n Top Grossing Film of the Year\n Most Profitable Actor (Male)\n Most Profitable Actor (Female)\n Highest Grossing Director\n Highest Grossing Actor\n Highest Grossing Actress\n Most Profitable Male Debut\n Most Profitable Female Debut\n Most Profitable Actor Overseas\n Most Profitable Banner\n Most Profitable Producer\n Most Successful Music Director\n Box Office Surprise Hit of the Year\n Most Successful Small Budget Film\n Best Marketed Film of the Year\n Most popular song of 2012\n Best Cinema Chain\n Most Popular Trailer\n Best Music Company\n\nWinners\n\n2010\n\n2011 \nThe 2011 action drama Bodyguard was awarded Top Grosser of the Year. Actor Salman Khan garnered the Most Profitable Actor (Male) award, while Shah Rukh Khan won for Most Profitable Actor (Overseas). The actress who won the Most Profitable Actor (Female) was Kareena Kapoor. The superhero film Ra.One was declared Best Marketed Film Of The Year. The film also won the Best Marketed Movie of the Year and the Highest Single-Day Collections awards. Eros International earned the award for Excellence in International Distribution.\n\n2012 \nSalman Khan won his third consecutive award for Most Profitable Actor (Male) while Katrina Kaif garnered the Most Profitable Actor (Female) honour. The film Ek Tha Tiger was declared as Top Grossing Film of the Year. Akshay Kumar went on to win for Highest Grossing Actor. Sonakshi Sinha won the Highest Grossing Actress award. Shah Rukh Khan won his second consecutive award for Most Profitable Actor (Overseas).\n\n2013 \nActor Aamir Khan won Highest Grossing Actor (Male) for his 2013 released film Dhoom 3. Deepika Padukone took the award for Highest Grossing Actor (Female) for her films released in 2013.\n\n2014 \nAamir Khan won his 2nd consecutive Highest Grossing Actor (Male) award for the film PK, while Anushka Sharma won Highest Grossing Actor (Female) award for the same film.\n\n2015 \nSalman Khan won Highest grossing Actor (Male) award for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Kareena Kapoor won Highest Grossing Actress (Female) award for Bajrangi Bhaijaan.\n\n2018 \nRanveer Singh took Highest Grossing Actor (Male) award for his two highly successful films Padmaavat and Simmba. Sonam Kapoor took Highest Grossing Actor (Female) award for Veere Di Wedding, Pad Man and Sanju.\n\n2019 \nAction Blockbuster War won highest grossing Film of the Year. Akshay Kumar received highest grossing Actor award for Kesari, Mission Mangal, Housefull 4 and Good Newwz while Kiara Advani took highest grossing Actress award for Kabir Singh and Good Newwz.\nPrabhas won the Highest Grossing Debut Actor Award for Saaho\n\nFootnotes\n\nReferences \n\nBollywood film awards",
"Carl-Anders Dymling (1898-1961) was a Swedish film producer and director.\n\nBiography\nDymling became a Candidate of Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg in 1921 and a Philosophy Licentiate in literary history in 1925.\nIn 1931 he became head of Radioteatern in Stockholm.\nBetween 1942 and his death in 1961, he was President of Svensk Filmindustri, heading the county's largest film company. He initiated an policy of making prestigious, artistic productions that was less than successful. Although he was resistant to the making of the melodrama Sunshine Follows Rain, based on Margit Söderholm's novel, the 1946 release turned out to be the company's most profitable film of the sound era.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography \n Gunnar Iverson, Astrid Soderbergh Widding & Tytti Soila. Nordic National Cinemas. Routledge, 2005.\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1898 births\n1961 deaths\nPeople from Gothenburg\nUniversity of Gothenburg alumni\nSwedish film producers\nBurials at Norra begravningsplatsen"
]
|
[
"Alejandro Jodorowsky",
"Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)",
"is santa sangre the name of a movie?",
"Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film",
"Did the film do well?",
"The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews.",
"When was the rainbow thief produced?",
"He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief.",
"Was that film profitable?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_2012252ab01a4525a8a314305156922d_1 | did either film receive any awards? | 5 | did either The Rainbow Thief or Santa Sangre receive any awards? | Alejandro Jodorowsky | In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife. In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's "The Hands of Orlac". It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors. He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Dominguez D., wrote the screenplay). That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France. In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where once again he met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and artist. Since 1948, he has worked as a novelist, screenwriter, a poet, a playwright, an essayist, a film and theater director and producer, an actor, a film editor, a comics writer, a musician and composer, a philosopher, a puppeteer, a mime, a lay psychologist, a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, and a spiritual guru.
Best known for his avant-garde films El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Overview
Born to Jewish-Galician parents (Chodorowski) in Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, while in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016). During the same period, he wrote a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1980–1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, and also The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.
Early life and education
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of Tocopilla, Chile, to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) and other cities of the Russian Empire (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Partition, now Ukraine). His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann (Jakub Chodorowski), was a merchant, who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, and at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it at the age of nine years old, something for which he blamed his father. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, he began attending college, studying psychology and philosophy, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment as a clown in a circus and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris.
It was while in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to filmmaking, creating Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but he was disillusioned in that he felt Breton had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content, and subsequently it was banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.
Career
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune but does make extraordinary claims as to the influence this unmade film had on other actual science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)
In 1982, Jodorowsky divorced his wife.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.
In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".
In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation. This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.
The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.
On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life. The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain. By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made". On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes. coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".
In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production. The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life. The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others. Jodorowsky's son, Adan Jodorowsky, plays him as an adult and Brontis Jodorowsky, plays as his father Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager. Pamela Flores plays Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poetess and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."
During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.
Other work
Jodorowsky is a weekly contributor of "good news" to the nightly "author news report" of his friend, Fernando Sánchez Dragó in Telemadrid.
He also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence; other artistic influences included George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud, and Luis Buñuel. He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, and Kanye West.
Comics
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons (trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron), and The Technopriests and also an RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (which he would have been loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.
His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.
Personal life
Jodorowsky's first wife was the actress Valérie Tremblay. He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.
He has five children: Brontis Jodorowsky, an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry; Teo, who played in Santa Sangre; Cristóbal, a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men); Eugenia Jodorowsky; and the youngest, Adan Jodorowsky, a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky. The fashion model Alma Jodorowsky is the granddaughter of Alejandro.
On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".
He does not drink or smoke, and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.
Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun). Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.
Jodorowsky was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck for the Franco-German television show Durch die Nacht mit … on the TV station Arte, in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations such as a park and a hotel.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller, Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.
Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.
Criticism and controversy
When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content. Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.
In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:
In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:
As a result of these alleged statements, Jodorowsky has been criticised. Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzio while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own". Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".
On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:
Filmography
As director
As actor
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of comics, novels and non-fiction writings:
Graphic novels and comics
Anibal 5 {Original Mexican edition with Manuel Moro} (1966)
Los Insoportables Borbolla (with Manuel Moro) (1966)
The Panic Fables (; 1967–1970), comic strip published in El Heraldo de México.
The Eyes of the Cat (1978)
The Jealous God (1984)
The Magical Twins (1987)
Anibal 5 {French edition with Mœbius} (1990)
Diosamente (1992)
Moonface (1992)
Angel Claws (1994)
Son of the Gun (1995)
Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (1998)
The Shadow's Treasure (1999)
Bouncer (2001)
The White Lama (2004)
Borgia (2004)
Screaming Planet (2006)
Royal Blood (2010)
Showman Killer (2010)
Pietrolino (2013)
The Son of El Topo (2016- ongoing)
Knights of Heliopolis (2017)
Metabarons Universe
Beginning with The Incal in 1981, Jodorowsky has co-written and produced a series of linked comics series and graphic novels () for the French-language market known colloquially as the Jodoverse. The series was initially developed with Jean Giraud using concepts and designs created for Jodorowky's unfinished Dune project. Many of the comics and novels have been translated into Spanish, English, and German under Jodorowsky supervision.
The Incal (1981–1988)
Before the Incal (1988–1995)
The Metabarons (1992–2003)
The Technopriests (1998–2006)
Megalex (1999–2007)
After the Incal (2000), incomplete series.
Metabarons Genesis: Castaka (2007–2013)
Weapons of the Metabaron (2008)
Final Incal (2008–2014), revised version of the After the Incal series with new art and text.
The Metabaron (2015–2018)
Simak (2019)
Fiction
Jodorowsky's Spanish-language novels translated into English include:
Where the Bird Sings Best (1992)
Albina and the Dog Men (1999)
The Son of Black Thursday (1999)
Non-fiction
Psychomagic (1995)
The Dance of Reality (2001)
The Way of Tarot (2004), with Marianne Costa
The Manual of Psychomagic (2009)
Metageneaology (2012), with Marianne Costa
pascALEjandro: Alchemical Androgynous (2017), with Pascale Montandon
Autobiography
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2005)
The Dance of Reality: A Psychomagical Autobiography (2014)
Sacred Trickery and the Way of Kindness: The Radical Wisdom of Jodo (2016)
The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans (2016)
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Cobb, Ben (2007). Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Persistence of Vision 6), ed. Louise Brealey, pref. Alan Jones, int. Stephen Barber. London, April 2007 / New York, August 2007, Creation Books.
Coillard, Jean-Paul (2009), De la cage au grand écran. Entretiens avec Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paris. K-Inite Editions.
Chignoli, Andrea (2009), Zoom back, Camera! El cine de Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago de Chile, Uqbar Editores.
Dominguez Aragones, Edmundo (1980). Tres extraordinarios: Luis Spota, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emilio "Indio" Fernández; Mexicali, Mexico DF, Juan Pablos Editor. P. 109–146.
Gonzalez, Házael (2011), Alejandro Jodorowsky: Danzando con la realidad, Palma de Mallorca, Dolmen Editorial.
Larouche, Michel (1985). Alexandre Jodorowsky, cinéaste panique, París, ça cinéma, Albatros.
Moldes, Diego, (2012). Alejandro Jodorowsky, Madrid, Col. Signo e Imagen / Cineastas, Ediciones Cátedra. Prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Monteleone, Massimo (1993). La Talpa e la Fenice. Il cinema di Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bologna, Granata Press.
External links
Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant. BDoubliées
Jodorowsky albums. Bedetheque
Jodorowsky publications in English. Europeancomics.net
1929 births
Living people
20th-century alchemists
20th-century atheists
21st-century alchemists
21st-century atheists
Chilean comics writers
Chilean emigrants to France
Chilean expatriates in Mexico
Chilean film directors
Chilean experimental filmmakers
Esotericists
French-language film directors
French comics writers
French film directors
Chilean mimes
Chilean surrealist artists
Chilean surrealist writers
French surrealist artists
French surrealist writers
Surrealist filmmakers
Horror film directors
Anarchist writers
Chilean speculative fiction writers
Chilean autobiographers
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish anarchists
Jewish atheists
Jewish feminists
Jewish mimes
Mystics
Naturalized citizens of France
Chilean occultists
People from Tocopilla
Chilean performance artists
Psychedelic drug advocates
Psychotherapists
Tarot readers
Polish Ashkenazi Jews | false | [
"Mame Bineta Sane (born 3 February 2000), also known as Mama Sané, is a Senegalese actress. She is best known for the role as 'Ada' in the supernatural romantic drama film Atlantics.\n\nPersonal life\nShe grew up in Thiaroye, a suburb of Dakar, Senegal. She did not receive a regular education from school. She started to work as an apprentice tailor in Thiaroye.\n\nCareer\nShe has not acted in any kind of drama before when she was selected for the lead role in 2019 film Atlantics directed by Mati Diop as her first feature film. Sane didn't really attend school either when Diop invite her to play the role. In the film, Sane played the lead role 'Ada', who is haunted by her lover, Souleiman, along with a boatload of other young men, is lost at sea.\n\nThe film had its premier in the capital of Dakar before its release in Senegal. The film had mainly positive reviews from critics and screened at several film festivals. The film later won the Grand Prix Award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. For her role, Sane later received a César nomination for Most Promising Actress in the 2020 César awards and was also nominated for the Lumières Award for Most Promising Actress in the 2020 Lumières awards and for the Black Reel Award for Female Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in the Black Reel Awards of 2020.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\nPeople from Dakar Region\n2000 births\nSenegalese actresses",
"From the Edge of the City () is a 1998 Greek film directed by Constantinos Giannaris. It was Greece's official Best Foreign Language Film submission at the 72nd Academy Awards, but did not manage to receive a nomination.\n\nPlot\nA company of young Pontic Greeks refugees from Russia live in Menidi, a suburb in the edge of Athens. Sasha, the main character, quits his job and collides with his father. His situation spurs him to chase the easy money, ending up in the dark world of prostitution and drugs.\n\nCast\nStathis Papadopoulos as Sasha\nTheodora Tzimou as Natasha\nCostas Kotsianisis as Kotzian\nPanagiotis Hartomatzidis as Panagiotis\n\nReception\n\nAwards\nwinner:\n1998: Greek State Film Awards: for Best Director (Constantinos Giannaris)\n1998: Greek State Film Awards: for Best Film (2nd place)\n1998: Greek Film Critics Association Awards\n\nnominated:\n1998: Thessaloniki International Film Festival: for Golden Alexander\n\nIn 1999, the film was Greece's official Best Foreign Language Film submission at the 72nd Academy Awards, but did not manage to receive a nomination.\n\nSee also\n List of submissions to the 72nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film\n List of Greek submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nGreek films\nGreek-language films\nGreek LGBT-related films\nRussian-language films\nFilms about prostitution in Greece\n1998 films\n1990s thriller drama films\nGreek thriller drama films\n1998 drama films"
]
|
[
"Alejandro Jodorowsky",
"Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)",
"is santa sangre the name of a movie?",
"Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film",
"Did the film do well?",
"The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews.",
"When was the rainbow thief produced?",
"He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief.",
"Was that film profitable?",
"I don't know.",
"did either film receive any awards?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_2012252ab01a4525a8a314305156922d_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 6 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article besides The Rainbow Thief and Santa Sangre ? | Alejandro Jodorowsky | In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife. In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's "The Hands of Orlac". It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors. He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Dominguez D., wrote the screenplay). That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France. In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where once again he met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again. CANNOTANSWER | In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City | Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker and artist. Since 1948, he has worked as a novelist, screenwriter, a poet, a playwright, an essayist, a film and theater director and producer, an actor, a film editor, a comics writer, a musician and composer, a philosopher, a puppeteer, a mime, a lay psychologist, a draughtsman, a painter, a sculptor, and a spiritual guru.
Best known for his avant-garde films El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Overview
Born to Jewish-Galician parents (Chodorowski) in Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, while in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a huge scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016). During the same period, he wrote a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal (1980–1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, and also The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.
Early life and education
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of Tocopilla, Chile, to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) and other cities of the Russian Empire (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Partition, now Ukraine). His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann (Jakub Chodorowski), was a merchant, who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, and at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it at the age of nine years old, something for which he blamed his father. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, he began attending college, studying psychology and philosophy, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment as a clown in a circus and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris.
It was while in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to filmmaking, creating Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but he was disillusioned in that he felt Breton had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content, and subsequently it was banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.
Career
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune but does make extraordinary claims as to the influence this unmade film had on other actual science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)
In 1982, Jodorowsky divorced his wife.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.
In 1995, Alejandro's son, Teo, died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".
In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation. This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.
The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.
On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life. The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain. By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made". On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes. coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".
In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production. The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life. The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others. Jodorowsky's son, Adan Jodorowsky, plays him as an adult and Brontis Jodorowsky, plays as his father Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager. Pamela Flores plays Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poetess and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn. The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016. Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."
During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.
Other work
Jodorowsky is a weekly contributor of "good news" to the nightly "author news report" of his friend, Fernando Sánchez Dragó in Telemadrid.
He also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence; other artistic influences included George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud, and Luis Buñuel. He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson, David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, and Kanye West.
Comics
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons (trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron), and The Technopriests and also an RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (which he would have been loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.
His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.
Personal life
Jodorowsky's first wife was the actress Valérie Tremblay. He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.
He has five children: Brontis Jodorowsky, an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry; Teo, who played in Santa Sangre; Cristóbal, a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men); Eugenia Jodorowsky; and the youngest, Adan Jodorowsky, a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky. The fashion model Alma Jodorowsky is the granddaughter of Alejandro.
On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".
He does not drink or smoke, and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.
Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta, Brann Dailor of Mastodon, Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun). Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.
Jodorowsky was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck for the Franco-German television show Durch die Nacht mit … on the TV station Arte, in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations such as a park and a hotel.
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller, Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.
Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.
Criticism and controversy
When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content. Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.
In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:
In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:
As a result of these alleged statements, Jodorowsky has been criticised. Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzio while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!" Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own". Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".
On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:
Filmography
As director
As actor
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of comics, novels and non-fiction writings:
Graphic novels and comics
Anibal 5 {Original Mexican edition with Manuel Moro} (1966)
Los Insoportables Borbolla (with Manuel Moro) (1966)
The Panic Fables (; 1967–1970), comic strip published in El Heraldo de México.
The Eyes of the Cat (1978)
The Jealous God (1984)
The Magical Twins (1987)
Anibal 5 {French edition with Mœbius} (1990)
Diosamente (1992)
Moonface (1992)
Angel Claws (1994)
Son of the Gun (1995)
Madwoman of the Sacred Heart (1998)
The Shadow's Treasure (1999)
Bouncer (2001)
The White Lama (2004)
Borgia (2004)
Screaming Planet (2006)
Royal Blood (2010)
Showman Killer (2010)
Pietrolino (2013)
The Son of El Topo (2016- ongoing)
Knights of Heliopolis (2017)
Metabarons Universe
Beginning with The Incal in 1981, Jodorowsky has co-written and produced a series of linked comics series and graphic novels () for the French-language market known colloquially as the Jodoverse. The series was initially developed with Jean Giraud using concepts and designs created for Jodorowky's unfinished Dune project. Many of the comics and novels have been translated into Spanish, English, and German under Jodorowsky supervision.
The Incal (1981–1988)
Before the Incal (1988–1995)
The Metabarons (1992–2003)
The Technopriests (1998–2006)
Megalex (1999–2007)
After the Incal (2000), incomplete series.
Metabarons Genesis: Castaka (2007–2013)
Weapons of the Metabaron (2008)
Final Incal (2008–2014), revised version of the After the Incal series with new art and text.
The Metabaron (2015–2018)
Simak (2019)
Fiction
Jodorowsky's Spanish-language novels translated into English include:
Where the Bird Sings Best (1992)
Albina and the Dog Men (1999)
The Son of Black Thursday (1999)
Non-fiction
Psychomagic (1995)
The Dance of Reality (2001)
The Way of Tarot (2004), with Marianne Costa
The Manual of Psychomagic (2009)
Metageneaology (2012), with Marianne Costa
pascALEjandro: Alchemical Androgynous (2017), with Pascale Montandon
Autobiography
The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky (2005)
The Dance of Reality: A Psychomagical Autobiography (2014)
Sacred Trickery and the Way of Kindness: The Radical Wisdom of Jodo (2016)
The Finger and the Moon: Zen Teachings and Koans (2016)
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
Cobb, Ben (2007). Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Persistence of Vision 6), ed. Louise Brealey, pref. Alan Jones, int. Stephen Barber. London, April 2007 / New York, August 2007, Creation Books.
Coillard, Jean-Paul (2009), De la cage au grand écran. Entretiens avec Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paris. K-Inite Editions.
Chignoli, Andrea (2009), Zoom back, Camera! El cine de Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago de Chile, Uqbar Editores.
Dominguez Aragones, Edmundo (1980). Tres extraordinarios: Luis Spota, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emilio "Indio" Fernández; Mexicali, Mexico DF, Juan Pablos Editor. P. 109–146.
Gonzalez, Házael (2011), Alejandro Jodorowsky: Danzando con la realidad, Palma de Mallorca, Dolmen Editorial.
Larouche, Michel (1985). Alexandre Jodorowsky, cinéaste panique, París, ça cinéma, Albatros.
Moldes, Diego, (2012). Alejandro Jodorowsky, Madrid, Col. Signo e Imagen / Cineastas, Ediciones Cátedra. Prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Monteleone, Massimo (1993). La Talpa e la Fenice. Il cinema di Alejandro Jodorowsky, Bologna, Granata Press.
External links
Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant. BDoubliées
Jodorowsky albums. Bedetheque
Jodorowsky publications in English. Europeancomics.net
1929 births
Living people
20th-century alchemists
20th-century atheists
21st-century alchemists
21st-century atheists
Chilean comics writers
Chilean emigrants to France
Chilean expatriates in Mexico
Chilean film directors
Chilean experimental filmmakers
Esotericists
French-language film directors
French comics writers
French film directors
Chilean mimes
Chilean surrealist artists
Chilean surrealist writers
French surrealist artists
French surrealist writers
Surrealist filmmakers
Horror film directors
Anarchist writers
Chilean speculative fiction writers
Chilean autobiographers
Chilean Jews
Chilean people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish anarchists
Jewish atheists
Jewish feminists
Jewish mimes
Mystics
Naturalized citizens of France
Chilean occultists
People from Tocopilla
Chilean performance artists
Psychedelic drug advocates
Psychotherapists
Tarot readers
Polish Ashkenazi Jews | 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"
]
|
[
"Scott Weiland",
"Artistry"
]
| C_913ccd6664e14e519974b23965d6d539_1 | What was the artistry? | 1 | What was the artistry regarding Scott Weiland? | Scott Weiland | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album. Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop." With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate." Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova. CANNOTANSWER | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. | Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. Weiland established himself as a solo artist as well and collaborated with several other musicians throughout his career.
Weiland was known for his flamboyant and chaotic onstage persona; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, for his use of a megaphone in concerts for vocal effect, and for his battles with substance abuse. Now widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist, Weiland has been ranked No. 57 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader.
In 2012, Weiland formed the backing band the Wildabouts. The band received mixed reviews, and some critics and fans noted Weiland's failing health. In December 2015, Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Minnesota at the age of 48. Upon his death, many critics and peers offered re-evaluations of Weiland's life and career; those critics included David Fricke of Rolling Stone and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who identified Weiland as one of the "voices of the generation" alongside Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Early life and education
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California, the son of Sharon (née Williams) and Kent Kline. From his father's side, he was of German descent. At age five, his stepfather David Weiland legally adopted him and Scott took his surname. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Before devoting himself to music full-time, he worked as a paste up artist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper.
At the age of 12, Weiland was allegedly raped by an older male who had invited him to his house. He wrote in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale that he repressed the memory until it returned to him in therapy decades later.
Career
Stone Temple Pilots
In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized they were both dating the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots because of their fondness for the initials "STP". In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".)
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than six million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band the Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by the Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s and resulted in prison time.
In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl", promoted by a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup the Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track. On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band's break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.
The band expressed interest in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "...they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland."
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.
Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". Weiland was more positive when he was sent the second disc, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free". Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them, despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates. They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz, a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money", for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively. Weiland joined the band soon after, and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart without any radio promotion or a record label. It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name. After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios, Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings: the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door, which suited the band, as well as the name of a Beatles album. When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver, announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Bodies", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe", along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys. On July 2, 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles. The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively. Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own, outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland" and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."
In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys for Contraband, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single "Slither", which earned them their first and only Grammy.
Velvet Revolver reunited for a one-off performance with Weiland at a benefit concert for the late John O'Brien, on January 12, 2012.
After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews, on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be a member of Velvet Revolver.
Art of Anarchy
The project started in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album in between touring with Guns N' Roses. Weiland wrote and recorded the vocals after sharing the song files back and forth with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. Weiland also took part in promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014.
Their debut album, which is self-titled, was tentatively scheduled for Spring 2015 and was released in June. On January 21, 2015, they released a 2:06 teaser of the new album. Bumblefoot is the producer and engineer on the album. The first single to be released from the album was "'Til the Dust Is Gone". The album contains 11 tracks. However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. ... I'm not in the band." Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else. ... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of." In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, both Weiland and the Votta brothers from Anarchy stated it was a studio project that Weiland was never meant to tour with and that Anarchy would have to find a lead singer outside of the tracks Weiland had already contributed. Following Weiland's death, the lead vocalist position in Art of Anarchy was filled by former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp.
Solo career and the Wildabouts
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music ..., Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Weiland's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[It] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's ... it's sort of my Pin Ups, I guess you'd say."
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts' Purple at the Core tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.
In an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT in June 2014, Weiland stated that his debut album with the Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November that year. However, it was pushed back and eventually released on March 31, 2015. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died the day before the album's release. The cause of death was determined to be multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly being significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced Brown in April 2015.
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records, with his songwriting partner Doug Grean. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008, Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects. On January 21, 2009, Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Artistry
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was frequently compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 12 Bar Blues (1998), represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop". With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They had two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007.
In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
Weiland was a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". In a 2007 interview with Blender magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.
Mary Forsberg Weiland's autobiography Fall to Pieces was co-written with Larkin Warren and released in 2009. Scott Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.
In late 2020, Scott's son Noah Weiland debuted his new band Suspect208, which also features Slash's son London Hudson on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo on bass. Their debut song "Long Awaited' was described by Wall of Sound as being reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots.
Substance abuse and health problems
In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.
Weiland revealed in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.
In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into a rehabilitation facility and left in early March.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Forsberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.
In April 2015, online footage from a show raised questions about the health of Weiland, who appeared to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A representative for Weiland asserted that lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's frontman Richard Patrick, who claimed Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.
After Weiland's death, the tour manager for the Wildabouts, Aaron Mohler, said, "A lot of times I've seen Scott do coke so he could drink more."
Shortly after his death, Jamie Weiland, Scott's third wife, acknowledged that her husband was drinking heavily before he left on his band's last tour, but that he promised her that he would "get it together". She accompanied him on the tour for a week in November and said that Scott was "just killing it" onstage, "every night taking it up a notch".
It has also been revealed that Weiland had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use.
Death and impact
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills on the tour bus. Additionally, two bags of cocaine were found and a bag of a green leafy substance. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police for speeding and running red lights while driving the tour bus, on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped.
Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.
News of Weiland's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his musical peers, including his former band members, along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledging his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse."
Weiland's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband and his addictions. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."
A quiet funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Weiland's body was cremated. Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in honor of Weiland.
Legacy
In the wake of Weiland's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.
On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying: "It was STP's third album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."
In 2018, Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff, honored Weiland during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour by covering the Velvet Revolver hit song "Slither".
Discography
Solo albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (with The Wildabouts) (2015)
Cover albums
A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs (2011)
with Stone Temple Pilots
with Velvet Revolver
with Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Accidental deaths in Minnesota
Alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota
Alternative metal musicians
Alternative rock singers
American adoptees
American alternative rock musicians
American baritones
American hard rock musicians
American heavy metal singers
American lyricists
American male singer-songwriters
Record producers from California
American rock songwriters
American people of German descent
American people of English descent
Cocaine-related deaths in Minnesota
Drug-related deaths in Minnesota
Grunge musicians
Musicians from San Diego
Musicians from San Jose, California
People with bipolar disorder
People from Geauga County, Ohio
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Stone Temple Pilots members
Velvet Revolver members
Art of Anarchy members
Camp Freddy members
Catholics from Ohio
The Wondergirls members | true | [
"Artistry is a brand of skin care and cosmetic products, owned by Amway headquartered in Ada, Michigan, and sold through Amway Business Owners in more than 50 countries and territories worldwide.\n\nBackground\nEdith Rehnborg, wife of Nutrilite founder Carl Rehnborg, founded Edith Rehnborg Cosmetics in 1968, which later became Artistry. In 1972, Nutrilite merged with Amway thereby giving Amway the controlling interest of the Artistry brand. The brand expanded internationally to Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and West Germany. \n\nIn 1980, Artistry products were manufactured at Nutrilite in California and by 1995 they were also produced at the Amway China facility. Over the years, Artistry expanded their product portfolio. As of 2000, the Artistry range included over 400 products.\n\nPartnerships\nIn May 2007, Artistry Cosmetics were the official skin care and cosmetics sponsor for Skate Canada events and the Skate Canada national team. In 2008, the brand partnered with actress Sandra Bullock as the face of Artistry Creme LuXury. In 2010, Artistry and Amway were the sponsors of the Miss America competition. The brand has also partnered with events including the Oscars, New York Fashion Week, Busan International Film Festival, and individuals namely Teresa Palmer and Rick DiCecca.\n\nAwards and recognition\nThe Artistry Essentials skincare line won AmeriStar’s 2007 Package Competition in the category of Health & Beauty Aids Artistry Créme Luxury (also known Créme L/X) won the Skin Care Prestige category in the International Package Design Awards (IPDA) in 2008 and was nominated as a finalist in the Best New Skincare Product of the Year category for the 2009 UK Beauty Awards.\n\nReferences \n\nAmway brands",
"Jeremy Shawn Vanderloop (born April 28, 1988) is an American Christian musician, who primarily plays indie rock music. He has released three studio album, The Rescue (2010), All Creation Sings (2012), and No Death (2016). Vanderloop released an extended play, Love Is in the Air, in 2011.\n\nEarly and background\nJeremy Shawn Vanderloop was born on April 28, 1988, and he was raised in Clearwater, Florida.\n\nMusic history\nHis music career began in 2010, with the studio album, The Rescue, on May 4, 2010. The subsequent release, an extended play, Love Is in the Air, was released in 2011. He released, All Creation Sings, on October 2, 2012, with Mosaic Artistry Group.\n\nDiscography\nStudio albums\n The Rescue (May 4, 2010)\n All Creation Sings (October 2, 2012, Mosaic Artistry)\n No Death (April 29, 2016)\nEPs\n Love Is in the Air'' (April 12, 2011)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1988 births\nAmerican performers of Christian music\nLiving people\nPeople from Clearwater, Florida\nSingers from Florida\nSongwriters from Florida\n21st-century American singers\n21st-century American male singers\nAmerican male songwriters"
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"Scott Weiland",
"Artistry",
"What was the artistry?",
"Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career."
]
| C_913ccd6664e14e519974b23965d6d539_1 | how did it evolve? | 2 | how did Weiland's vocal and musical style evolve? | Scott Weiland | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album. Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop." With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate." Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova. CANNOTANSWER | as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. | Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. Weiland established himself as a solo artist as well and collaborated with several other musicians throughout his career.
Weiland was known for his flamboyant and chaotic onstage persona; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, for his use of a megaphone in concerts for vocal effect, and for his battles with substance abuse. Now widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist, Weiland has been ranked No. 57 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader.
In 2012, Weiland formed the backing band the Wildabouts. The band received mixed reviews, and some critics and fans noted Weiland's failing health. In December 2015, Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Minnesota at the age of 48. Upon his death, many critics and peers offered re-evaluations of Weiland's life and career; those critics included David Fricke of Rolling Stone and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who identified Weiland as one of the "voices of the generation" alongside Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Early life and education
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California, the son of Sharon (née Williams) and Kent Kline. From his father's side, he was of German descent. At age five, his stepfather David Weiland legally adopted him and Scott took his surname. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Before devoting himself to music full-time, he worked as a paste up artist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper.
At the age of 12, Weiland was allegedly raped by an older male who had invited him to his house. He wrote in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale that he repressed the memory until it returned to him in therapy decades later.
Career
Stone Temple Pilots
In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized they were both dating the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots because of their fondness for the initials "STP". In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".)
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than six million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band the Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by the Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s and resulted in prison time.
In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl", promoted by a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup the Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track. On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band's break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.
The band expressed interest in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "...they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland."
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.
Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". Weiland was more positive when he was sent the second disc, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free". Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them, despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates. They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz, a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money", for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively. Weiland joined the band soon after, and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart without any radio promotion or a record label. It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name. After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios, Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings: the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door, which suited the band, as well as the name of a Beatles album. When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver, announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Bodies", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe", along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys. On July 2, 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles. The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively. Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own, outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland" and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."
In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys for Contraband, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single "Slither", which earned them their first and only Grammy.
Velvet Revolver reunited for a one-off performance with Weiland at a benefit concert for the late John O'Brien, on January 12, 2012.
After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews, on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be a member of Velvet Revolver.
Art of Anarchy
The project started in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album in between touring with Guns N' Roses. Weiland wrote and recorded the vocals after sharing the song files back and forth with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. Weiland also took part in promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014.
Their debut album, which is self-titled, was tentatively scheduled for Spring 2015 and was released in June. On January 21, 2015, they released a 2:06 teaser of the new album. Bumblefoot is the producer and engineer on the album. The first single to be released from the album was "'Til the Dust Is Gone". The album contains 11 tracks. However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. ... I'm not in the band." Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else. ... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of." In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, both Weiland and the Votta brothers from Anarchy stated it was a studio project that Weiland was never meant to tour with and that Anarchy would have to find a lead singer outside of the tracks Weiland had already contributed. Following Weiland's death, the lead vocalist position in Art of Anarchy was filled by former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp.
Solo career and the Wildabouts
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music ..., Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Weiland's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[It] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's ... it's sort of my Pin Ups, I guess you'd say."
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts' Purple at the Core tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.
In an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT in June 2014, Weiland stated that his debut album with the Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November that year. However, it was pushed back and eventually released on March 31, 2015. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died the day before the album's release. The cause of death was determined to be multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly being significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced Brown in April 2015.
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records, with his songwriting partner Doug Grean. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008, Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects. On January 21, 2009, Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Artistry
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was frequently compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 12 Bar Blues (1998), represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop". With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They had two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007.
In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
Weiland was a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". In a 2007 interview with Blender magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.
Mary Forsberg Weiland's autobiography Fall to Pieces was co-written with Larkin Warren and released in 2009. Scott Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.
In late 2020, Scott's son Noah Weiland debuted his new band Suspect208, which also features Slash's son London Hudson on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo on bass. Their debut song "Long Awaited' was described by Wall of Sound as being reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots.
Substance abuse and health problems
In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.
Weiland revealed in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.
In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into a rehabilitation facility and left in early March.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Forsberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.
In April 2015, online footage from a show raised questions about the health of Weiland, who appeared to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A representative for Weiland asserted that lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's frontman Richard Patrick, who claimed Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.
After Weiland's death, the tour manager for the Wildabouts, Aaron Mohler, said, "A lot of times I've seen Scott do coke so he could drink more."
Shortly after his death, Jamie Weiland, Scott's third wife, acknowledged that her husband was drinking heavily before he left on his band's last tour, but that he promised her that he would "get it together". She accompanied him on the tour for a week in November and said that Scott was "just killing it" onstage, "every night taking it up a notch".
It has also been revealed that Weiland had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use.
Death and impact
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills on the tour bus. Additionally, two bags of cocaine were found and a bag of a green leafy substance. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police for speeding and running red lights while driving the tour bus, on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped.
Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.
News of Weiland's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his musical peers, including his former band members, along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledging his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse."
Weiland's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband and his addictions. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."
A quiet funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Weiland's body was cremated. Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in honor of Weiland.
Legacy
In the wake of Weiland's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.
On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying: "It was STP's third album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."
In 2018, Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff, honored Weiland during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour by covering the Velvet Revolver hit song "Slither".
Discography
Solo albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (with The Wildabouts) (2015)
Cover albums
A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs (2011)
with Stone Temple Pilots
with Velvet Revolver
with Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Accidental deaths in Minnesota
Alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota
Alternative metal musicians
Alternative rock singers
American adoptees
American alternative rock musicians
American baritones
American hard rock musicians
American heavy metal singers
American lyricists
American male singer-songwriters
Record producers from California
American rock songwriters
American people of German descent
American people of English descent
Cocaine-related deaths in Minnesota
Drug-related deaths in Minnesota
Grunge musicians
Musicians from San Diego
Musicians from San Jose, California
People with bipolar disorder
People from Geauga County, Ohio
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Stone Temple Pilots members
Velvet Revolver members
Art of Anarchy members
Camp Freddy members
Catholics from Ohio
The Wondergirls members | true | [
"Evolutionary epidemiology consists in simultaneously analysing how parasites spread and evolve.\n\nReferences\n\nEpidemiology",
"Evolve Wrestling was an American professional wrestling promotion which was founded in 2010 by former Ring of Honor booker and Dragon Gate USA vice president, Gabe Sapolsky. Over the course of its history, it held 146 events.\n\nEvolve 1: Richards vs. Ibushi\n\nThe inaugural Evolve show, Evolve 1: Richards vs. Ibushi, was held in Rahway, New Jersey at the Rahway Rec Center. Lenny Leonard and Leonard F. Chikarason served as the commentators. In the main event, Davey Richards, accompanied by Kyle O'Reilly and Tony Kozina, faced against Kota Ibushi, who was accompanied by Michael Nakazawa.\n\nEvolve 2: Hero vs. Hidaka\n\nElimination match\n\nEvolve 3: Rise Or Fall\n\nEvolve 4: Danielson vs. Fish\n\nEvolve 5: Danielson vs. Sawa\n\nEvolve 6: Aries vs. Taylor\n\nEvolve 7: Aries Vs. Moxley\n\nEvolve 8: Style Battle\n\nEvolve 8: Style Battle, was held in Union City, New Jersey at The ACE Arena. The show featured the Style Battle, a one night tournament between eight wrestlers that representing different wrestling style, who was won by AR Fox.\n\nTournament participants\n\nStyle Battle tournament\n\nEight-way fray match\n\nEvolve 9: Gargano vs. Taylor\n\nEvolve 10: A Tribute To The Arena\n\nEvolve 11: Finlay vs. Callihan\n\nEvolve 12: Fox vs. Callihan\n\nEvolve 13: Gargano vs. Fox\n\nEvolve 14: Generico vs. del Sol\n\nEvolve 15: Generico vs. del Sol II\n\nEvolve 16: Davis vs. Fish\n\nEvolve 17: Generico vs. del Sol III\n\nEvolve 18: Gargano vs. Callihan\n\nEvolve 19: Crowning the Champion\n\nEvolve 20: Fox vs. Jackson\n\nSix-way fray match\n\nEvolve 21: USA vs. The World\n\nEvolve 22: Gargano vs. del Sol\n\nEvolve 23: Fox vs. Nese\n\nEvolve 24: Fox vs. Ricochet\n\nEvolve 25: Fox vs. Richards\n\nEvolve 26: Hero vs. Nese\n\nEvolve 27: Gargano vs. Nation\n\nEvolve 28: Hero vs. Barreta\n\nEvolve 29: Fox/Nation vs. Nese/Barreta\n\nEvolve 30: Barreta Vs. Nation\n\nEvolve 31: Hero vs. Galloway\n\nEvolve 32: Sydal vs. Ricochet\n\nEvolve 33: Gargano vs. Swann - Evolution's End\n\nEvolve 34: Galloway vs. Swann\n\nEvolve 35\n\nElimination match\n\nEvolve 36\n\nEvolve 37\n\nEvolve 38\n\nEvolve 39\n\nEvolve 40\n\nEvolve 41\n\nEvolve 42\n\nEvolve 43\n\nEvolve 44\n\nEvolve 45\n\nEvolve 46\n\nEvolve 47\n\nEvolve 48\n\nEvolve 49\n\nEvolve 50\n\nEvolve 51\n\nEvolve 52\n\nEvolve 53\n\nEvolve 54\n\nEvolve 55\n\nEvolve 56\n\nEvolve 57\n\nEvolve 58\n\nEvolve 59\n\nEvolve 60\n\nEvolve 61\n\nEvolve 62\n\nEvolve 63\n\nCruiserweight Classic Flashpoint match\n\nEvolve 64\n\nEvolve 65\n\nEvolve 66\n\nEvolve 67\n\nEvolve 68\n\nEvolve 69: A Farewell To An Icon\n\nEvolve 70\n\nEvolve 71\n\nEvolve 72\n\nEvolve 73\n\nElimination match\n\nEvolve 74\n\nEvolve 75\n\nEvolve 76: A Hero's Exit - Part 1\n\nEvolve 77: A Hero's Exit - Part 2\n\nEvolve 78\n\nEvolve 79\n\nEvolve 80\n\nEvolve 81\n\nEvolve 82\n\nEvolve 83\n\nEvolve 84\n\nEvolve 85\n\nEvolve 86\n\nEvolve 87\n\nEvolve 88\n\nEvolve 89\n\nEvolve 90\n\nEvolve 91\n\nEvolve 92\n\nEvolve 93\n\nEvolve 94\n\nEvolve 95\n\nElimination match\n\nEvolve 96\n\nEvolve 97\n\nEvolve 98\n\nEvolve 99\n\nEvolve 100\n\nEvolve 101\n\nFour-way elimination match\n\nEvolve 102\n\nEvolve 103\n\nEvolve 104\n\nEvolve 105\n\nEvolve 106\n\nEvolve 107\n\nEvolve 108\n\nEvolve 109\n\nEvolve 110\n\nEvolve 111\n\nEvolve 112\n\nEvolve 113\n\nEvolve 114\n\nEvolve 115\n\nEvolve 116\n\nEvolve 117\n\nEvolve 118\n\nEvolve 119\n\nEvolve 120\n\nEvolve 121\n\nEvolve 122\n\nEvolve 123\n\nEvolve 124\n\nEvolve 125\n\nEvolve 126\n\nEvolve 127\n\nEvolve 128\n\nEvolve 129\n\nEvolve 130\n\nEvolve's 10th Anniversary Celebration\n\nEvolve 132\n\nEvolve 133\n\nEvolve 134\n\nEvolve 135\n\nEvolve 136\n\nEvolve 137\n\nEvolve 138\n\nEvolve 139\n\nEvolve 140\n\nEvolve 141\n\nEvolve 142\n\nEvolve 143\n\nEvolve 144\n\nEvolve 145\n\nEvolve 146\n\nReferences\n\nProfessional wrestling-related lists\nProfessional wrestling shows\nEvolve (professional wrestling)"
]
|
[
"Scott Weiland",
"Artistry",
"What was the artistry?",
"Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career.",
"how did it evolve?",
"as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style."
]
| C_913ccd6664e14e519974b23965d6d539_1 | what was STP? | 3 | what was STP in regards to Scott Weiland? | Scott Weiland | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album. Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop." With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate." Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova. CANNOTANSWER | Stone Temple Pilots | Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. Weiland established himself as a solo artist as well and collaborated with several other musicians throughout his career.
Weiland was known for his flamboyant and chaotic onstage persona; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, for his use of a megaphone in concerts for vocal effect, and for his battles with substance abuse. Now widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist, Weiland has been ranked No. 57 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader.
In 2012, Weiland formed the backing band the Wildabouts. The band received mixed reviews, and some critics and fans noted Weiland's failing health. In December 2015, Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Minnesota at the age of 48. Upon his death, many critics and peers offered re-evaluations of Weiland's life and career; those critics included David Fricke of Rolling Stone and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who identified Weiland as one of the "voices of the generation" alongside Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Early life and education
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California, the son of Sharon (née Williams) and Kent Kline. From his father's side, he was of German descent. At age five, his stepfather David Weiland legally adopted him and Scott took his surname. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Before devoting himself to music full-time, he worked as a paste up artist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper.
At the age of 12, Weiland was allegedly raped by an older male who had invited him to his house. He wrote in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale that he repressed the memory until it returned to him in therapy decades later.
Career
Stone Temple Pilots
In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized they were both dating the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots because of their fondness for the initials "STP". In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".)
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than six million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band the Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by the Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s and resulted in prison time.
In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl", promoted by a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup the Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track. On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band's break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.
The band expressed interest in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "...they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland."
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.
Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". Weiland was more positive when he was sent the second disc, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free". Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them, despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates. They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz, a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money", for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively. Weiland joined the band soon after, and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart without any radio promotion or a record label. It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name. After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios, Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings: the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door, which suited the band, as well as the name of a Beatles album. When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver, announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Bodies", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe", along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys. On July 2, 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles. The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively. Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own, outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland" and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."
In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys for Contraband, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single "Slither", which earned them their first and only Grammy.
Velvet Revolver reunited for a one-off performance with Weiland at a benefit concert for the late John O'Brien, on January 12, 2012.
After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews, on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be a member of Velvet Revolver.
Art of Anarchy
The project started in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album in between touring with Guns N' Roses. Weiland wrote and recorded the vocals after sharing the song files back and forth with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. Weiland also took part in promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014.
Their debut album, which is self-titled, was tentatively scheduled for Spring 2015 and was released in June. On January 21, 2015, they released a 2:06 teaser of the new album. Bumblefoot is the producer and engineer on the album. The first single to be released from the album was "'Til the Dust Is Gone". The album contains 11 tracks. However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. ... I'm not in the band." Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else. ... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of." In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, both Weiland and the Votta brothers from Anarchy stated it was a studio project that Weiland was never meant to tour with and that Anarchy would have to find a lead singer outside of the tracks Weiland had already contributed. Following Weiland's death, the lead vocalist position in Art of Anarchy was filled by former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp.
Solo career and the Wildabouts
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music ..., Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Weiland's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[It] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's ... it's sort of my Pin Ups, I guess you'd say."
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts' Purple at the Core tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.
In an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT in June 2014, Weiland stated that his debut album with the Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November that year. However, it was pushed back and eventually released on March 31, 2015. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died the day before the album's release. The cause of death was determined to be multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly being significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced Brown in April 2015.
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records, with his songwriting partner Doug Grean. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008, Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects. On January 21, 2009, Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Artistry
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was frequently compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 12 Bar Blues (1998), represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop". With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They had two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007.
In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
Weiland was a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". In a 2007 interview with Blender magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.
Mary Forsberg Weiland's autobiography Fall to Pieces was co-written with Larkin Warren and released in 2009. Scott Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.
In late 2020, Scott's son Noah Weiland debuted his new band Suspect208, which also features Slash's son London Hudson on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo on bass. Their debut song "Long Awaited' was described by Wall of Sound as being reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots.
Substance abuse and health problems
In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.
Weiland revealed in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.
In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into a rehabilitation facility and left in early March.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Forsberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.
In April 2015, online footage from a show raised questions about the health of Weiland, who appeared to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A representative for Weiland asserted that lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's frontman Richard Patrick, who claimed Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.
After Weiland's death, the tour manager for the Wildabouts, Aaron Mohler, said, "A lot of times I've seen Scott do coke so he could drink more."
Shortly after his death, Jamie Weiland, Scott's third wife, acknowledged that her husband was drinking heavily before he left on his band's last tour, but that he promised her that he would "get it together". She accompanied him on the tour for a week in November and said that Scott was "just killing it" onstage, "every night taking it up a notch".
It has also been revealed that Weiland had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use.
Death and impact
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills on the tour bus. Additionally, two bags of cocaine were found and a bag of a green leafy substance. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police for speeding and running red lights while driving the tour bus, on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped.
Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.
News of Weiland's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his musical peers, including his former band members, along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledging his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse."
Weiland's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband and his addictions. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."
A quiet funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Weiland's body was cremated. Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in honor of Weiland.
Legacy
In the wake of Weiland's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.
On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying: "It was STP's third album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."
In 2018, Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff, honored Weiland during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour by covering the Velvet Revolver hit song "Slither".
Discography
Solo albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (with The Wildabouts) (2015)
Cover albums
A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs (2011)
with Stone Temple Pilots
with Velvet Revolver
with Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Accidental deaths in Minnesota
Alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota
Alternative metal musicians
Alternative rock singers
American adoptees
American alternative rock musicians
American baritones
American hard rock musicians
American heavy metal singers
American lyricists
American male singer-songwriters
Record producers from California
American rock songwriters
American people of German descent
American people of English descent
Cocaine-related deaths in Minnesota
Drug-related deaths in Minnesota
Grunge musicians
Musicians from San Diego
Musicians from San Jose, California
People with bipolar disorder
People from Geauga County, Ohio
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Stone Temple Pilots members
Velvet Revolver members
Art of Anarchy members
Camp Freddy members
Catholics from Ohio
The Wondergirls members | true | [
"STP is an American brand of automotive aftermarket products, especially lubricants such as motor oil and motor oil additives. The name began as an abbreviation of Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand has been owned by Energizer Holdings since November 2018.\n\nHistory\nChemical Compounds was founded in 1953 by three businessmen, Charles Dwight (Doc) Liggett, Jim Hill and Robert De Hart, with $3,000 in start-up capital in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Their sole product was STP Oil Treatment; the name was derived from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”. In 1961, the company was acquired by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.\n\nStudebaker briefly tied STP into its advertising as an abbreviation for “Studebaker Tested Products”. However, Studebaker-Packard CEO Sherwood Egbert felt that STP could one day outpace its parent company and recruited Andy Granatelli as the CEO of STP to help raise the product’s image. At the same time, Granatelli became the public face of STP, often wearing a white suit emblazoned with the red oval STP logo to races, distributing thousands of all-weather STP stickers. Granatelli ran two Novi specials at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Jim Hurtubise and Bobby Unser were the drivers. There was a film made of the race centering on the Novis.\n\nWhen Studebaker abandoned auto manufacturing in 1966 to become Studebaker-Worthington, STP sales continued to climb to the point where it was spun off into a publicly traded company in 1969. In 1976, it was acquired by Esmark which itself was purchased by Beatrice Foods in 1984. Beatrice sold STP to Union Carbide the next year. In 1986, Union Carbide's auto products, which included Prestone and Simoniz, were subject to a leveraged buyout. The resulting company, First Brands, was purchased by Clorox in 1998.\n\nIn the fall of 2006, STP fuel additives began being used in Marathon gasolines, likely to compete with Chevron's Techron additive.\n\nIn 2010, Clorox sold Armor All and STP to Avista Capital Partners. It named the business Armored AutoGroup. In April 2015, the Armored AutoGroup was acquired by Spectrum Brands. Energizer bought the Spectrum's auto care brands (including Armor All, A/C Pro and STP) for $1.25 billion in cash and stock.\n\nLegal issues\nIn 1976, STP faced a consumer protection order that required it to have scientific backing for certain statements and prohibited making false claims. In 1978, it paid a $500,000 civil penalty over claims. In 1995, STP paid $888,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges of false advertising.\n\nOil treatment\nSTP Oil Treatment contains zinc dithiophosphate as an anti-wear additive.\n\nInvolvement in motor racing and sponsorships\n\nIn 1970, STP CEO Andy Granatelli founded the STP Formula One Team. Mario Andretti was hired to drive. The team competed in a total of five races running a March Engineering chassis, their best result being a third place at the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix. In 1972 Granatelli agreed to sponsor NASCAR champion Richard Petty, but their deal almost fell apart before their first race. Granatelli insisted the car be STP day-glo red. Petty held out for his iconic Petty blue, and neither would budge. The resulting two-tone red and blue scheme became more famous than either color alone.\n\nSTP sponsored Petty through the end of his driving career in 1992, then Bobby Hamilton, and John Andretti in Petty Enterprises' famous #43. That partnership ended shortly after its acquisition by Clorox. STP and the Petty family hold the second-longest relationship in automobile racing history (1972–2000) (Kenny Bernstein and his son Brandon were sponsored by Budweiser for two years longer (1979–2009)).\n\nIn August 2012, STP announced that it would be the title sponsor of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in 2013.\n\nOn February 21, 2013, STP announced a return to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sponsorship in a multi-year deal for the STP Gas Booster 500 starting April 7, 2013 at Martinsville Speedway along with a return as primary sponsor of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 for the 2013 STP Gas Booster 500. STP also sponsored the Xfinity Series race STP 300 from 2011 to 2013 at Chicagoland Speedway.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nOil companies of the United States\nAutomotive companies of the United States\nChemical companies of the United States\nCompanies based in Missouri\nEnergizer Holdings\nAmerican companies established in 1953\nEnergy companies established in 1953\nNon-renewable resource companies established in 1953\nMotor oils\nRichard Petty\nSt. Joseph, Missouri",
"Socialist Workers' Party (, ) was a political party in Finland. The STP was founded in 1973 as split from Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders (TPSL). STP emerged from a group that did not approve of the return of TPSL to the Social Democratic Party.\n\nSTP had electoral alliances with Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL), the mass front dominated by the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) but with little success. When SKP (and SKDL) split in 1985-1986 STP cooperated with Democratic Alternative which was founded by Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (SKPy).\n\nIn February 1990, STP chairman Pentti Waltzer said the party would join the new Left Alliance if Democratic Alternative decided to merge with it, which later happened.\n\nElections\n\nSee also \n List of Social Democratic Party (Finland) breakaway parties\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSTP party program (1973) (in Finnish)\n\nPolitical parties established in 1973\nDefunct political parties in Finland\nSocialist parties in Finland\n1973 establishments in Finland\nPolitical schisms"
]
|
[
"Scott Weiland",
"Artistry",
"What was the artistry?",
"Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career.",
"how did it evolve?",
"as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style.",
"what was STP?",
"Stone Temple Pilots"
]
| C_913ccd6664e14e519974b23965d6d539_1 | When did he join STP? | 4 | When did Scott Weiland join STP? | Scott Weiland | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album. Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop." With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate." Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. Weiland established himself as a solo artist as well and collaborated with several other musicians throughout his career.
Weiland was known for his flamboyant and chaotic onstage persona; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, for his use of a megaphone in concerts for vocal effect, and for his battles with substance abuse. Now widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist, Weiland has been ranked No. 57 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader.
In 2012, Weiland formed the backing band the Wildabouts. The band received mixed reviews, and some critics and fans noted Weiland's failing health. In December 2015, Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Minnesota at the age of 48. Upon his death, many critics and peers offered re-evaluations of Weiland's life and career; those critics included David Fricke of Rolling Stone and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who identified Weiland as one of the "voices of the generation" alongside Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Early life and education
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California, the son of Sharon (née Williams) and Kent Kline. From his father's side, he was of German descent. At age five, his stepfather David Weiland legally adopted him and Scott took his surname. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Before devoting himself to music full-time, he worked as a paste up artist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper.
At the age of 12, Weiland was allegedly raped by an older male who had invited him to his house. He wrote in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale that he repressed the memory until it returned to him in therapy decades later.
Career
Stone Temple Pilots
In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized they were both dating the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots because of their fondness for the initials "STP". In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".)
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than six million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band the Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by the Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s and resulted in prison time.
In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl", promoted by a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup the Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track. On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band's break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.
The band expressed interest in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "...they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland."
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.
Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". Weiland was more positive when he was sent the second disc, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free". Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them, despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates. They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz, a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money", for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively. Weiland joined the band soon after, and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart without any radio promotion or a record label. It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name. After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios, Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings: the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door, which suited the band, as well as the name of a Beatles album. When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver, announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Bodies", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe", along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys. On July 2, 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles. The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively. Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own, outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland" and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."
In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys for Contraband, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single "Slither", which earned them their first and only Grammy.
Velvet Revolver reunited for a one-off performance with Weiland at a benefit concert for the late John O'Brien, on January 12, 2012.
After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews, on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be a member of Velvet Revolver.
Art of Anarchy
The project started in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album in between touring with Guns N' Roses. Weiland wrote and recorded the vocals after sharing the song files back and forth with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. Weiland also took part in promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014.
Their debut album, which is self-titled, was tentatively scheduled for Spring 2015 and was released in June. On January 21, 2015, they released a 2:06 teaser of the new album. Bumblefoot is the producer and engineer on the album. The first single to be released from the album was "'Til the Dust Is Gone". The album contains 11 tracks. However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. ... I'm not in the band." Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else. ... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of." In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, both Weiland and the Votta brothers from Anarchy stated it was a studio project that Weiland was never meant to tour with and that Anarchy would have to find a lead singer outside of the tracks Weiland had already contributed. Following Weiland's death, the lead vocalist position in Art of Anarchy was filled by former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp.
Solo career and the Wildabouts
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music ..., Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Weiland's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[It] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's ... it's sort of my Pin Ups, I guess you'd say."
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts' Purple at the Core tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.
In an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT in June 2014, Weiland stated that his debut album with the Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November that year. However, it was pushed back and eventually released on March 31, 2015. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died the day before the album's release. The cause of death was determined to be multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly being significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced Brown in April 2015.
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records, with his songwriting partner Doug Grean. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008, Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects. On January 21, 2009, Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Artistry
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was frequently compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 12 Bar Blues (1998), represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop". With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They had two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007.
In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
Weiland was a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". In a 2007 interview with Blender magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.
Mary Forsberg Weiland's autobiography Fall to Pieces was co-written with Larkin Warren and released in 2009. Scott Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.
In late 2020, Scott's son Noah Weiland debuted his new band Suspect208, which also features Slash's son London Hudson on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo on bass. Their debut song "Long Awaited' was described by Wall of Sound as being reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots.
Substance abuse and health problems
In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.
Weiland revealed in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.
In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into a rehabilitation facility and left in early March.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Forsberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.
In April 2015, online footage from a show raised questions about the health of Weiland, who appeared to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A representative for Weiland asserted that lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's frontman Richard Patrick, who claimed Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.
After Weiland's death, the tour manager for the Wildabouts, Aaron Mohler, said, "A lot of times I've seen Scott do coke so he could drink more."
Shortly after his death, Jamie Weiland, Scott's third wife, acknowledged that her husband was drinking heavily before he left on his band's last tour, but that he promised her that he would "get it together". She accompanied him on the tour for a week in November and said that Scott was "just killing it" onstage, "every night taking it up a notch".
It has also been revealed that Weiland had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use.
Death and impact
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills on the tour bus. Additionally, two bags of cocaine were found and a bag of a green leafy substance. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police for speeding and running red lights while driving the tour bus, on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped.
Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.
News of Weiland's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his musical peers, including his former band members, along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledging his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse."
Weiland's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband and his addictions. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."
A quiet funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Weiland's body was cremated. Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in honor of Weiland.
Legacy
In the wake of Weiland's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.
On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying: "It was STP's third album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."
In 2018, Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff, honored Weiland during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour by covering the Velvet Revolver hit song "Slither".
Discography
Solo albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (with The Wildabouts) (2015)
Cover albums
A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs (2011)
with Stone Temple Pilots
with Velvet Revolver
with Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Accidental deaths in Minnesota
Alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota
Alternative metal musicians
Alternative rock singers
American adoptees
American alternative rock musicians
American baritones
American hard rock musicians
American heavy metal singers
American lyricists
American male singer-songwriters
Record producers from California
American rock songwriters
American people of German descent
American people of English descent
Cocaine-related deaths in Minnesota
Drug-related deaths in Minnesota
Grunge musicians
Musicians from San Diego
Musicians from San Jose, California
People with bipolar disorder
People from Geauga County, Ohio
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Stone Temple Pilots members
Velvet Revolver members
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The Wondergirls members | false | [
"Socialist Workers' Party (, ) was a political party in Finland. The STP was founded in 1973 as split from Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders (TPSL). STP emerged from a group that did not approve of the return of TPSL to the Social Democratic Party.\n\nSTP had electoral alliances with Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL), the mass front dominated by the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) but with little success. When SKP (and SKDL) split in 1985-1986 STP cooperated with Democratic Alternative which was founded by Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (SKPy).\n\nIn February 1990, STP chairman Pentti Waltzer said the party would join the new Left Alliance if Democratic Alternative decided to merge with it, which later happened.\n\nElections\n\nSee also \n List of Social Democratic Party (Finland) breakaway parties\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSTP party program (1973) (in Finnish)\n\nPolitical parties established in 1973\nDefunct political parties in Finland\nSocialist parties in Finland\n1973 establishments in Finland\nPolitical schisms",
"STP is an American brand of automotive aftermarket products, especially lubricants such as motor oil and motor oil additives. The name began as an abbreviation of Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand has been owned by Energizer Holdings since November 2018.\n\nHistory\nChemical Compounds was founded in 1953 by three businessmen, Charles Dwight (Doc) Liggett, Jim Hill and Robert De Hart, with $3,000 in start-up capital in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Their sole product was STP Oil Treatment; the name was derived from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”. In 1961, the company was acquired by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.\n\nStudebaker briefly tied STP into its advertising as an abbreviation for “Studebaker Tested Products”. However, Studebaker-Packard CEO Sherwood Egbert felt that STP could one day outpace its parent company and recruited Andy Granatelli as the CEO of STP to help raise the product’s image. At the same time, Granatelli became the public face of STP, often wearing a white suit emblazoned with the red oval STP logo to races, distributing thousands of all-weather STP stickers. Granatelli ran two Novi specials at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Jim Hurtubise and Bobby Unser were the drivers. There was a film made of the race centering on the Novis.\n\nWhen Studebaker abandoned auto manufacturing in 1966 to become Studebaker-Worthington, STP sales continued to climb to the point where it was spun off into a publicly traded company in 1969. In 1976, it was acquired by Esmark which itself was purchased by Beatrice Foods in 1984. Beatrice sold STP to Union Carbide the next year. In 1986, Union Carbide's auto products, which included Prestone and Simoniz, were subject to a leveraged buyout. The resulting company, First Brands, was purchased by Clorox in 1998.\n\nIn the fall of 2006, STP fuel additives began being used in Marathon gasolines, likely to compete with Chevron's Techron additive.\n\nIn 2010, Clorox sold Armor All and STP to Avista Capital Partners. It named the business Armored AutoGroup. In April 2015, the Armored AutoGroup was acquired by Spectrum Brands. Energizer bought the Spectrum's auto care brands (including Armor All, A/C Pro and STP) for $1.25 billion in cash and stock.\n\nLegal issues\nIn 1976, STP faced a consumer protection order that required it to have scientific backing for certain statements and prohibited making false claims. In 1978, it paid a $500,000 civil penalty over claims. In 1995, STP paid $888,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges of false advertising.\n\nOil treatment\nSTP Oil Treatment contains zinc dithiophosphate as an anti-wear additive.\n\nInvolvement in motor racing and sponsorships\n\nIn 1970, STP CEO Andy Granatelli founded the STP Formula One Team. Mario Andretti was hired to drive. The team competed in a total of five races running a March Engineering chassis, their best result being a third place at the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix. In 1972 Granatelli agreed to sponsor NASCAR champion Richard Petty, but their deal almost fell apart before their first race. Granatelli insisted the car be STP day-glo red. Petty held out for his iconic Petty blue, and neither would budge. The resulting two-tone red and blue scheme became more famous than either color alone.\n\nSTP sponsored Petty through the end of his driving career in 1992, then Bobby Hamilton, and John Andretti in Petty Enterprises' famous #43. That partnership ended shortly after its acquisition by Clorox. STP and the Petty family hold the second-longest relationship in automobile racing history (1972–2000) (Kenny Bernstein and his son Brandon were sponsored by Budweiser for two years longer (1979–2009)).\n\nIn August 2012, STP announced that it would be the title sponsor of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in 2013.\n\nOn February 21, 2013, STP announced a return to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sponsorship in a multi-year deal for the STP Gas Booster 500 starting April 7, 2013 at Martinsville Speedway along with a return as primary sponsor of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 for the 2013 STP Gas Booster 500. STP also sponsored the Xfinity Series race STP 300 from 2011 to 2013 at Chicagoland Speedway.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nOil companies of the United States\nAutomotive companies of the United States\nChemical companies of the United States\nCompanies based in Missouri\nEnergizer Holdings\nAmerican companies established in 1953\nEnergy companies established in 1953\nNon-renewable resource companies established in 1953\nMotor oils\nRichard Petty\nSt. Joseph, Missouri"
]
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"Scott Weiland",
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"What was the artistry?",
"Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career.",
"how did it evolve?",
"as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style.",
"what was STP?",
"Stone Temple Pilots",
"When did he join STP?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_913ccd6664e14e519974b23965d6d539_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 5 | Besides Weiland joining STP,Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Scott Weiland | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album. Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop." With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate." Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova. CANNOTANSWER | Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music | Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. Weiland established himself as a solo artist as well and collaborated with several other musicians throughout his career.
Weiland was known for his flamboyant and chaotic onstage persona; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, for his use of a megaphone in concerts for vocal effect, and for his battles with substance abuse. Now widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist, Weiland has been ranked No. 57 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader.
In 2012, Weiland formed the backing band the Wildabouts. The band received mixed reviews, and some critics and fans noted Weiland's failing health. In December 2015, Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Minnesota at the age of 48. Upon his death, many critics and peers offered re-evaluations of Weiland's life and career; those critics included David Fricke of Rolling Stone and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who identified Weiland as one of the "voices of the generation" alongside Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Early life and education
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California, the son of Sharon (née Williams) and Kent Kline. From his father's side, he was of German descent. At age five, his stepfather David Weiland legally adopted him and Scott took his surname. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Before devoting himself to music full-time, he worked as a paste up artist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper.
At the age of 12, Weiland was allegedly raped by an older male who had invited him to his house. He wrote in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale that he repressed the memory until it returned to him in therapy decades later.
Career
Stone Temple Pilots
In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized they were both dating the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots because of their fondness for the initials "STP". In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".)
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than six million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band the Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by the Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s and resulted in prison time.
In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl", promoted by a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup the Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track. On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band's break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.
The band expressed interest in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "...they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland."
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.
Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". Weiland was more positive when he was sent the second disc, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free". Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them, despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates. They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz, a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money", for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively. Weiland joined the band soon after, and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart without any radio promotion or a record label. It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name. After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios, Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings: the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door, which suited the band, as well as the name of a Beatles album. When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver, announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Bodies", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe", along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys. On July 2, 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles. The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively. Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own, outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland" and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."
In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys for Contraband, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single "Slither", which earned them their first and only Grammy.
Velvet Revolver reunited for a one-off performance with Weiland at a benefit concert for the late John O'Brien, on January 12, 2012.
After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews, on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be a member of Velvet Revolver.
Art of Anarchy
The project started in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album in between touring with Guns N' Roses. Weiland wrote and recorded the vocals after sharing the song files back and forth with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. Weiland also took part in promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014.
Their debut album, which is self-titled, was tentatively scheduled for Spring 2015 and was released in June. On January 21, 2015, they released a 2:06 teaser of the new album. Bumblefoot is the producer and engineer on the album. The first single to be released from the album was "'Til the Dust Is Gone". The album contains 11 tracks. However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. ... I'm not in the band." Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else. ... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of." In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, both Weiland and the Votta brothers from Anarchy stated it was a studio project that Weiland was never meant to tour with and that Anarchy would have to find a lead singer outside of the tracks Weiland had already contributed. Following Weiland's death, the lead vocalist position in Art of Anarchy was filled by former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp.
Solo career and the Wildabouts
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music ..., Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Weiland's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[It] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's ... it's sort of my Pin Ups, I guess you'd say."
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts' Purple at the Core tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.
In an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT in June 2014, Weiland stated that his debut album with the Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November that year. However, it was pushed back and eventually released on March 31, 2015. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died the day before the album's release. The cause of death was determined to be multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly being significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced Brown in April 2015.
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records, with his songwriting partner Doug Grean. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008, Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects. On January 21, 2009, Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Artistry
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was frequently compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 12 Bar Blues (1998), represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop". With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They had two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007.
In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
Weiland was a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". In a 2007 interview with Blender magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.
Mary Forsberg Weiland's autobiography Fall to Pieces was co-written with Larkin Warren and released in 2009. Scott Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.
In late 2020, Scott's son Noah Weiland debuted his new band Suspect208, which also features Slash's son London Hudson on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo on bass. Their debut song "Long Awaited' was described by Wall of Sound as being reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots.
Substance abuse and health problems
In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.
Weiland revealed in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.
In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into a rehabilitation facility and left in early March.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Forsberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.
In April 2015, online footage from a show raised questions about the health of Weiland, who appeared to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A representative for Weiland asserted that lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's frontman Richard Patrick, who claimed Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.
After Weiland's death, the tour manager for the Wildabouts, Aaron Mohler, said, "A lot of times I've seen Scott do coke so he could drink more."
Shortly after his death, Jamie Weiland, Scott's third wife, acknowledged that her husband was drinking heavily before he left on his band's last tour, but that he promised her that he would "get it together". She accompanied him on the tour for a week in November and said that Scott was "just killing it" onstage, "every night taking it up a notch".
It has also been revealed that Weiland had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use.
Death and impact
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills on the tour bus. Additionally, two bags of cocaine were found and a bag of a green leafy substance. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police for speeding and running red lights while driving the tour bus, on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped.
Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.
News of Weiland's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his musical peers, including his former band members, along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledging his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse."
Weiland's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband and his addictions. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."
A quiet funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Weiland's body was cremated. Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in honor of Weiland.
Legacy
In the wake of Weiland's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.
On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying: "It was STP's third album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."
In 2018, Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff, honored Weiland during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour by covering the Velvet Revolver hit song "Slither".
Discography
Solo albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (with The Wildabouts) (2015)
Cover albums
A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs (2011)
with Stone Temple Pilots
with Velvet Revolver
with Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Accidental deaths in Minnesota
Alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota
Alternative metal musicians
Alternative rock singers
American adoptees
American alternative rock musicians
American baritones
American hard rock musicians
American heavy metal singers
American lyricists
American male singer-songwriters
Record producers from California
American rock songwriters
American people of German descent
American people of English descent
Cocaine-related deaths in Minnesota
Drug-related deaths in Minnesota
Grunge musicians
Musicians from San Diego
Musicians from San Jose, California
People with bipolar disorder
People from Geauga County, Ohio
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Stone Temple Pilots members
Velvet Revolver members
Art of Anarchy members
Camp Freddy members
Catholics from Ohio
The Wondergirls members | 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"
]
|
[
"Scott Weiland",
"Artistry",
"What was the artistry?",
"Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career.",
"how did it evolve?",
"as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style.",
"what was STP?",
"Stone Temple Pilots",
"When did he join STP?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music"
]
| C_913ccd6664e14e519974b23965d6d539_1 | was the album successful? | 6 | was Weilands' album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year successful? | Scott Weiland | Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album. Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop." With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate." Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Scott Richard Weiland (; né Kline, October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer and songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer of the band Stone Temple Pilots from 1989 to 2002 and 2008 to 2013, making six records with them. He was also lead vocalist of supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, recording two albums, and recorded one album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy. Weiland established himself as a solo artist as well and collaborated with several other musicians throughout his career.
Weiland was known for his flamboyant and chaotic onstage persona; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, for his use of a megaphone in concerts for vocal effect, and for his battles with substance abuse. Now widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist, Weiland has been ranked No. 57 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader.
In 2012, Weiland formed the backing band the Wildabouts. The band received mixed reviews, and some critics and fans noted Weiland's failing health. In December 2015, Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose on his tour bus in Minnesota at the age of 48. Upon his death, many critics and peers offered re-evaluations of Weiland's life and career; those critics included David Fricke of Rolling Stone and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who identified Weiland as one of the "voices of the generation" alongside Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley.
Early life and education
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California, the son of Sharon (née Williams) and Kent Kline. From his father's side, he was of German descent. At age five, his stepfather David Weiland legally adopted him and Scott took his surname. Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College. Before devoting himself to music full-time, he worked as a paste up artist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper.
At the age of 12, Weiland was allegedly raped by an older male who had invited him to his house. He wrote in his autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale that he repressed the memory until it returned to him in therapy decades later.
Career
Stone Temple Pilots
In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized they were both dating the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots because of their fondness for the initials "STP". In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose guitarist Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".)
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than six million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band the Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by the Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack, and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s and resulted in prison time.
In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl", promoted by a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup the Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track. On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band's break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.
The band expressed interest in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "...they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland."
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.
Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym, was in rehab at the same time as Sorum and once played on the same bill as Kushner. Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". Weiland was more positive when he was sent the second disc, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots, though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free". Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them, despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates. They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz, a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money", for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively. Weiland joined the band soon after, and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart without any radio promotion or a record label. It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name. After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios, Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings: the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door, which suited the band, as well as the name of a Beatles album. When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver, announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Bodies", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe", along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys. On July 2, 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007, peaking at number five on the Billboard 200. The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles. The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively. Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own, outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland" and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."
In 2005, the band was nominated for three Grammys for Contraband, Rock Album of the Year, Rock Song, and Hard Rock Performance for their Contraband single "Slither", which earned them their first and only Grammy.
Velvet Revolver reunited for a one-off performance with Weiland at a benefit concert for the late John O'Brien, on January 12, 2012.
After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews, on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be a member of Velvet Revolver.
Art of Anarchy
The project started in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album in between touring with Guns N' Roses. Weiland wrote and recorded the vocals after sharing the song files back and forth with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. Weiland also took part in promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014.
Their debut album, which is self-titled, was tentatively scheduled for Spring 2015 and was released in June. On January 21, 2015, they released a 2:06 teaser of the new album. Bumblefoot is the producer and engineer on the album. The first single to be released from the album was "'Til the Dust Is Gone". The album contains 11 tracks. However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. ... I'm not in the band." Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else. ... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of." In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, both Weiland and the Votta brothers from Anarchy stated it was a studio project that Weiland was never meant to tour with and that Anarchy would have to find a lead singer outside of the tracks Weiland had already contributed. Following Weiland's death, the lead vocalist position in Art of Anarchy was filled by former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp.
Solo career and the Wildabouts
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music ..., Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Weiland's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[It] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's ... it's sort of my Pin Ups, I guess you'd say."
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts' Purple at the Core tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.
In an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT in June 2014, Weiland stated that his debut album with the Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November that year. However, it was pushed back and eventually released on March 31, 2015. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died the day before the album's release. The cause of death was determined to be multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly being significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced Brown in April 2015.
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records, with his songwriting partner Doug Grean. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008, Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects. On January 21, 2009, Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Artistry
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was frequently compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 12 Bar Blues (1998), represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop". With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.
Personal life
Relationships and family
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They had two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007.
In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
Weiland was a Notre Dame Fighting Irish football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". In a 2007 interview with Blender magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.
Mary Forsberg Weiland's autobiography Fall to Pieces was co-written with Larkin Warren and released in 2009. Scott Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.
In late 2020, Scott's son Noah Weiland debuted his new band Suspect208, which also features Slash's son London Hudson on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye Trujillo on bass. Their debut song "Long Awaited' was described by Wall of Sound as being reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots.
Substance abuse and health problems
In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.
Weiland revealed in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.
In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into a rehabilitation facility and left in early March.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Forsberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.
In April 2015, online footage from a show raised questions about the health of Weiland, who appeared to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A representative for Weiland asserted that lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's frontman Richard Patrick, who claimed Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.
After Weiland's death, the tour manager for the Wildabouts, Aaron Mohler, said, "A lot of times I've seen Scott do coke so he could drink more."
Shortly after his death, Jamie Weiland, Scott's third wife, acknowledged that her husband was drinking heavily before he left on his band's last tour, but that he promised her that he would "get it together". She accompanied him on the tour for a week in November and said that Scott was "just killing it" onstage, "every night taking it up a notch".
It has also been revealed that Weiland had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use.
Death and impact
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on December 3, 2015, in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with the Wildabouts. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota had been cancelled several days earlier. They were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Weiland's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills on the tour bus. Additionally, two bags of cocaine were found and a bag of a green leafy substance. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police for speeding and running red lights while driving the tour bus, on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped.
Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.
News of Weiland's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his musical peers, including his former band members, along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledging his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse."
Weiland's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband and his addictions. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."
A quiet funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Weiland's body was cremated. Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in honor of Weiland.
Legacy
In the wake of Weiland's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.
On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying: "It was STP's third album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."
In 2018, Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff, honored Weiland during the Not in This Lifetime... Tour by covering the Velvet Revolver hit song "Slither".
Discography
Solo albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (with The Wildabouts) (2015)
Cover albums
A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs (2011)
with Stone Temple Pilots
with Velvet Revolver
with Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
References
Further reading
External links
1967 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American singers
21st-century American singers
Accidental deaths in Minnesota
Alcohol-related deaths in Minnesota
Alternative metal musicians
Alternative rock singers
American adoptees
American alternative rock musicians
American baritones
American hard rock musicians
American heavy metal singers
American lyricists
American male singer-songwriters
Record producers from California
American rock songwriters
American people of German descent
American people of English descent
Cocaine-related deaths in Minnesota
Drug-related deaths in Minnesota
Grunge musicians
Musicians from San Diego
Musicians from San Jose, California
People with bipolar disorder
People from Geauga County, Ohio
Singer-songwriters from California
Singer-songwriters from Ohio
Stone Temple Pilots members
Velvet Revolver members
Art of Anarchy members
Camp Freddy members
Catholics from Ohio
The Wondergirls members | false | [
"Maria Arredondo is the first album by Norwegian singer Maria Arredondo, released in Norway on March 17, 2003, with a second edition released on June 30, 2003. The album was the most successful album by Arredondo either in critics or sales. It has 12 songs with the second edition and 5 singles were released. One of the singles, \"In Love With An Angel\", a duet with Christian Ingebrigtsen, was nominated for the 2003 Norwegian Grammy Awards as 'Song Of The Year'.\n\nHistory \nAfter two years recording the songs, Arredondo signed with Universal Music Norway. The album entered the Norwegian Top 40 and Norwegian Topp 30 Norsk at #2 and spent 23 weeks on the charts. It was recorded in Sweden and Norway, and was produced by several well-known Scandinavian producers such as Jonas von Der Burg, Espen Lind, Bluefish, Jonny Sjo, Harry Sommerdahl and Bjørn Erik Pedersen. Several successful songwriters also contributed, including Christian Ingebrigtsen, Jonas von Der Burg, Silje Nergaard, Espen Lind and Harry Sommerdahl. The first single released was \"Can Let Go\". The second single, \"Just A Little Heartache\" was very successful in the radio charts. \"In Love With An Angel\" was the third single and became the first and only #1 single for Arredondo.\n\nThe album was re-released with a new song, \"Hardly Hurts At All\", which was released as a single. The last single from the album was \"A Thousand Nights\". The album went platinum and sold more than 70,000 copies.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nAlbum\n\nSingles\n\nReferences \n\n2003 debut albums\nMaria Arredondo albums\nUniversal Music Norway albums",
"Black and White is the second studio album and major label debut by British hip hop recording artist Wretch 32. The album was released in the United Kingdom on 21 August 2011 through Ministry of Sound, debuting at number four on the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of nearly 25,000 copies. The album follows his independent debut album, Wretchrospective, which was released three years earlier, in 2008. The album spawned six singles over the course of eighteen months, all of which peaked inside the UK top 50, including three top five singles, and a number one single, \"Don't Go\". The album includes collaborations with Ed Sheeran, Daley, Etta Bond and Example.\n\nSingles\n \"Traktor\" was released as the first single released from the album on 16 January 2011. It peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the third most successful single from the album. The track features vocals from L Marshall and was produced by Yogi.\n \"Unorthodox\" was released as the second single from the album on 17 April 2011. It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the second most successful single from the album. The track features vocals from Example.\n \"Don't Go\" was released as the third single from the album on 14 August 2011. It peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the album's most successful single. The track features vocals from upcoming musician and songwriter Josh Kumra.\n \"Forgiveness\" was released as the fourth single from the album on 11 December 2011. It peaked at number 39 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the least successful single from the album. The track features vocals from Etta Bond, and was produced by Labrinth.\n \"Long Way Home\" was released as a single from the album on 14 February 2012, in promotion of the track's featuring artist, Daley. It was ineligible to chart on the UK Singles Chart, and was simply released in the form of a promotional music video.\n \"Hush Little Baby\" was released as the fifth and final single from the album on 27 May 2012. It peaked at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart, due to little promotion. The track features vocals from singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.\n\nTrack listing \n\nNotes\n \"Forgiveness\" features uncredited vocals from Labrinth.\n\nSample credits\n \"Black and White\" samples \"Different Strokes\" by Syl Johnson\n \"Unorthodox\" samples \"Fools Gold\" by The Stone Roses.\n \"Hush Little Baby\" adapts lyrics from the lullaby \"Hush, Little Baby\".\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2011 albums\nWretch 32 albums\nMinistry of Sound albums\nAlbums produced by Labrinth"
]
|
[
"Jessica Alba",
"1992-1999: Career beginnings"
]
| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | when did he career start | 1 | when did Jessica Alba's career start? | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | true | [
"Jonas Deumeland (born 9 February 1988) is a German footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Start.\n\nClub career\nDeumeland started his career with VfL Wolfsburg, but did not become a regular until his three seasons in Belgian outfit K.A.S. Eupen.\n\nFollowing retirement he made a comeback with SpVgg Greuther Fürth II in 2016–17. In 2018 he was signed by Norwegian club IK Start who was left with only one goalkeeper when first-choice Håkon Opdal was injured. In Deumeland's second match, he too sustained an injury.\n\nCareer statistics\n\nClub\n\nReferences\n\n1988 births\nLiving people\nGerman footballers\nGerman expatriate footballers\nExpatriate footballers in Belgium\nGerman expatriate sportspeople in Belgium\nExpatriate footballers in Norway\nGerman expatriate sportspeople in Norway\nAssociation football goalkeepers\nRot-Weiß Oberhausen players\nVfL Wolfsburg II players\nK.A.S. Eupen players\nSpVgg Greuther Fürth II players\nIK Start players\nRegionalliga players\nBelgian First Division B players\nEliteserien players\nNorwegian First Division players",
"Kenny Hendrick (born September 10, 1969) is an American stock car racing driver. He is a former competitor in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series. He is the twin brother of former USAC midget car driver Kara Hendrick, who lost her life in a racing accident in October 1991.\n\nBusch Series\nHendrick made his Busch Series debut in 2003, when he ran a hodgepodge of entries. He made his debut at Gateway, where he started 30th for the Stanton Barrett Racing operation. He ran a solid race and came home 21st. He did a start and park race for GIC-Mixon Motorsports at Nazareth, before doing another start and park at Dover for Rick Allen. Hendrick would return then to the Stanton Barrett Racing for two more 2003 races. He was 35th at Nashville and 27th at Kentucky.\n\nHendrick was tapped to drive the first Keller Racing vehicles in 2004, a team that ran a ten-race schedule. The new team struggled. Hendrick only qualified for six races and his best finish was an 18th at Kentucky. The Kentucky race was the only one that Hendrick finished. He was released, and he would only compete in one more series race. It, too, came in 2004, when he drove the Ware Racing Enterprises Dodge to a 42nd-place finish in the fall Dover race.\n\nHe returned in 2008 at Mexico driving a second Stanton Barrett Motorsports car in place of Stan Barrett who was originally meant to race for the team. He qualified and finished 38th after pulling in with handling issues. He then drove at Richmond replacing the injured Larry Gunselman at MSRP Motorsports qualifying 40th and finishing 43rd after parking the car on lap 6. He made a second start for Stanton Barrett at Darlington starting 34th and finishing 36th after parking on lap 30.\n\nIn 2009, Hendrick drove for Smith-Ganassi Racing, a team that had bought the assets of the shut-down No. 40 team.\n\nCraftsman Truck Series\nHendrick ran four Craftsman Truck Series races in 1996 to start his career off. He started his career with a top-10 start: a 9th in his debut at Phoenix. He finished 28th in that race. His best run of the year was a modest 23rd-place finish at Las Vegas.\n\nFour more races were in store for Hendrick. He had one top-20 finish. That was a 19th at Texas, racing for Rob Rizzo. He had started the year off with the team, but after finishes of 29th and 24th, they let him go.\n\nHendrick would not race in this series until 2003, when he did a start and park effort in a second Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 9 entry. Because of the nature of the effort, Hendrick did not complete any of the dozen starts he did and his best finish was a 31st at IRP, where he also recorded his second career top-10 start of 10th.\n\nHendrick returned to the Trucks when he ran at Kansas Speedway in the No. 16 Xpress Motorsports truck on April 28, 2007.\n\nMotorsports career results\n\nSCCA National Championship Runoffs\n\nNASCAR\n(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)\n\nNextel Cup Series\n\nBusch Series\n\nCraftsman Truck Series\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\n1969 births\nPeople from Chino, California\nRacing drivers from California\nNASCAR drivers\nTrans-Am Series drivers\nSCCA National Championship Runoffs winners"
]
|
[
"Jessica Alba",
"1992-1999: Career beginnings",
"when did he career start",
"Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail."
]
| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | how old was she | 2 | how old was Jessica Alba on her first appearance on film? | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | false | [
"See How She Runs is a 1978 American TV movie starring Joanne Woodward who won an Emmy for her performance.\n\nPlot\nA 40 year old divorced school teacher decides to enter the Boston Marathon.\n\nProduction\nAt one stage the film was going to be directed by Paul Newman.\n\nReception\nThe film was seen by 35 million.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSee How She Runs at IMDb\nSee How She Runs at TCMDB\nSee How She Runs at Letterbox DVD\n\n1978 television films\n1978 films\nFilms scored by Jimmie Haskell",
"Edith Mary Statham (13 April 1853 – 13 February 1951) was a notable New Zealand singer, nurse, secretary, war graves conservator and community worker.\n\nEarly life \nStatham was born in Bootle, Lancashire, England, on 13 April 1853. She was a daughter of a solicitor, William Statham, and his wife, Ellen Allen Statham. When she was 10 years old, she moved to New Zealand with her family.\n\nEducation \nIt is unknown how and where Statham got her education. She was trained as a singer and nurse at Dunedin Hospital.\n\nActivities \nStatham was a founding member of the \"Society for the Protection of Women and Children\" in Dunedin. She was a secretary of the \"Mimiro Ladies' Cycling Club\", which she established around 1895, when she moved to Dunedin. Statham directed a school for many years to teach women how to cycle. She was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935.\n\nReferences\n\n1853 births\n1951 deaths\n19th-century New Zealand women singers\nEnglish emigrants to New Zealand\nNew Zealand women nurses\nPeople from Bootle\nNew Zealand community activists"
]
|
[
"Jessica Alba",
"1992-1999: Career beginnings",
"when did he career start",
"Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail.",
"how old was she",
"I don't know."
]
| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | was he first album a hit | 3 | was Jessica Alba's first album a hit? | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | acting classes. | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | true | [
"Ben James Peters (born Greenville, Mississippi, June 20, 1933; died Nashville, Tennessee, May 25, 2005) was an American country music songwriter who wrote many #1 songs. Charley Pride recorded 68 of his songs and 6 of them went to #1 on the American country charts. Peters was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.\n\nPeters was briefly a recording artist himself; his only charting hit was his own composition \"San Francisco is a Lonely Town\", which hit #46 on the country charts in 1969.\n\nNumber One Compositions in America\n\n\"Turn the World Around\" (1967) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Eddy Arnold & top 5 Billboard chart AC single.\n\"That's A No, No\" was a 1969 #1 Cashbox chart country hit for Lynn Anderson.\n\"Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'\" was a 1971 #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride; it also went to #21 on the American pop charts. It won Ben Peters the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Country Song.\n\"It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer\" was a 1972 #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride.\n\"Before the Next Teardrop Falls\" (w/Vivian Keith); first recorded in 1967 by Duane Dee in a version which reached #44 on the Billboard country singles chart early in 1968, the 1975 version by Freddy Fender was a #1 Billboard chart country and a #1 Billboard chart pop hit; it won a Country Music Association Award for Single of the Year in 1975.\n\"Love Put a Song in My Heart\" (1975) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Johnny Rodriguez.\n\"A Whole Lotta Things to Sing About\" was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride in 1976.\n\"Daytime Friends\" (1977) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Kenny Rogers. Westlife covered this song for a special BBC performance with Tony Brown as producer.\n\"Burgers and Fries\" was a 1978 #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride.\n\"Before My Time\" was a 1979 #1 Record World chart country hit for John Conlee and also a #1 hit on Canada's RPM'S country chart.\n\"You're So Good When You're Bad\" (1982) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride.\n\nOther Number One Compositions\n I Want To Wake Up With You as recorded by Reggae singer, Boris Gardiner (1986-1987). This song was #1 in UK for 3 weeks. This song is one of the biggest hits in the history of reggae music.\n\"Living It Down\" went #1 in Canada's country music charts and it went to #2 as a Billboard chart country hit for Freddy Fender in 1976 in America.\n\nNotable Compositions\n\n\"If The Whole World Stopped Lovin'\" was a #3 pop hit in the UK in November 1967 for the Irish singer Val Doonican. It made #2 in Ireland.\n\"If The Whole World Stopped Lovin'\" was a #12 American Billboard chart hit in 1966 pop hit for Roy Drusky.\n\"Misty Memories\" was a Grammy Nominated country chart hit for Brenda Lee in 1971.\n\"I Need Somebody Bad\" was a #11 Billboard country chart hit for Jack Greene in 1973.\n\"Don't Give Up On Me\" was a #3 American Billboard country chart hit for Jerry Wallace in 1973.\n\"It's Time To Cross That Bridge\" was a #13 Billboard chart country hit for Jack Greene in 1973.\n\"I Can't Believe That It's All Over\" was a #13 Billboard chart country hit for Skeeter Davis in 1973.\n\"All Over Me\" was a 1975 #4 Billboard chart country hit in America for Charlie Rich.\n\"Lovin' On\" was a #20 American Billboard chart country hit for T.G. Sheppard in 1977.\n\"Before the Night is Over\" was recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis originally in 1977 and by Jerry Lee and BB King in 2006.\n\"Puttin' In Overtime At Home\" was a 1977 #8 Billboard chart country hit in America for Charlie Rich. It made #3 in Canada.\n\"Lovin' On\" was a #16 American Billboard chart country hit for Bellamy Brothers in 1978.\n\"Tell Me What It's Like\" (1979) was a #8 American Billboard chart Grammy Nominated country hit for Brenda Lee.\n\"Lost My Baby Blues\" was a 1982 top 5 Billboard chart country hit in America for David Frizzell. It made #5 in Canada.\n\"I'm Only a Woman\" recorded by Tammy Wynette.\n\nNotable History Making Albums\n\nPeters had 3 songs, \"The Little Town Square\", \"That's A No No\" and \"Satan Place\" on the million selling The Harper Valley P.T.A. album. This is a pop culture music album by Jeannie C. Riley released in 1968. This is Jeannie C. Riley's biggest album ever. The album was released by Plantation Records, and was very successful. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop album chart, and No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart.\nPeters had 2 songs, \"Mr. Mistletoe\" and \"Soon It Will Be Christmas Day\" on The Christmas Album. This is a holiday music album by country music singer Lynn Anderson released in 1971. This was Lynn Anderson's first Christmas music album. The album was released by Columbia Records, and was very successful. The album reached No. 13 on the \"Billboard 200\" in 1971 (her highest chart position on that chart).\nPeters had 1 song, \"Daytime Friends\" on the 4 million selling 10 Years of Gold album. This is a collection of 10 years of Kenny Rogers hits. The album was released by United Artist, and went No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart in 1977.\nPeters had 1 song, \"Daytime Friends\" on the 4 million selling Kenny Rogers 20 Greatest Hits album. This is a collection of his hits prior to this project released in 1983. The album was released by Liberty Records, and was successful.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican country songwriters\nAmerican male songwriters\nUniversity of Southern Mississippi alumni\n2005 deaths\n1933 births\nMusicians from Greenville, Mississippi\n20th-century American musicians\nSongwriters from Mississippi\n20th-century American male musicians",
"Peter Kops (born 1967), known professionally as Extince (also known as \"Exter-O-naldus\" or \"De Exter\"), is one of the first Dutch language rappers, or Dutch Hip-Hoppers to achieve a top-40 hit in the mainstream Dutch music charts. His hit song \"Spraakwater\" rose into the top-ten, and was a historic breakthrough for Dutch-language rap & hip-hop – even more than for the artist himself.\n\nExtince was born as Peter Kops in Oosterhout, Netherlands. One of his biggest musical influences as a child was Creedence Clearwater Revival.\n\nOverview\nHis first successful song, \"The Milkshake Rap\", was written completely in the English language. His first song in Dutch, \"Spraakwater\", was an immediate hit upon its release in 1995. It contains samples from the famous Dutch children's television series De Fabeltjeskrant. Another important Dutch hip-hop group, Osdorp Posse, recorded a parody of \"Spraakwater\" called \"Braakwater\".\n\nExtince's second hit was \"Kaal of Kammen\", released in 1996 as a response to \"Braakwater\". His first album, Binnenlandse Funk (\"Domestic Funk\"), came out in 1998. It was in the Dutch Top 40 for two months, and reached number 12 at its peak. One of the most popular songs on this album was \"Viervoeters\".\n\nExtince released a second album, Vitamine E, in 2001. Its most popular song was released \"Grootheidswaan\". In January 2004, he released a third album, 2e jeugd. In 2007 he released the album Toch?.\n\nAfter some years of relative silence, Extince released a new album in 2015.\n\nAlbums\nBinnenlandse Funk( (1998) (Domestic Funk)\nVitamine E (2001)\n2e Jeugd (2004) (Second Youth)\nDe avonturen van de Exter-O-naldus (2005) (The Adventures Of The Exter-O-Naldus)\nToch? (2007) (Right?)\nX (2015)\nKERMIS (2019) (FUNFAIR)\n\nReferences\n\n1967 births\nLiving people\nDutch rappers\nPeople from Oosterhout"
]
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[
"Jessica Alba",
"1992-1999: Career beginnings",
"when did he career start",
"Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail.",
"how old was she",
"I don't know.",
"was he first album a hit",
"acting classes."
]
| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | whats a song on her first album | 4 | whats a song on Jessica Alba's first album? | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | false | [
"Tim Steward is a musician, singer, and songwriter from Brisbane, Australia. \nSteward was born in the United Kingdom and moved to Townsville, Australia in 1983, and Brisbane in 1989. Steward is most well known for his work in band Screamfeeder which formed in 1991, of which he is the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter.\n\nHe is also currently performing in Brisbane band We All Want To, who have released three critically acclaimed albums.\n\nIn 2006, Steward released his first solo studio album under Reverberation entitled How Does It End. Other bands/projects he has been involved with include Psycho Skate Smurfs on Smack, Lethal Injections, The Madmen and The Whats. He also played a role in promoting other Brisbane indie artists in the 90s through his record label Stone Groove.\n\nDiscography\n\nTim Steward studio albums\n How Does it End (2006)\n\nScreamfeeder studio albums\n Flour (album) (1992)\n Burn Out Your Name (1993)\n Fill Yourself With Music (1995)\n Kitten Licks (1996)\n Rocks on the Soul (2000)\n Take You Apart (2003)\n Pop Guilt (2017)\n\nScreamfeeder EPs\n Felicitator (1994)\n Closing Alaska (1997)\n Home Age (1999)\n Delusions Of Grandchildren (2005)\n\nScreamfeeder singles\n Fingers and Toes (1993)\n Fill Yourself With Music (1995)\n Who's Counting?/Sweet Little Oranges (1995)\n Dart (1996)\n Static (1996)\n Gravity (1996)\n Triple Hook (1998)\n Hi Cs (1998)\n Above The Dove (2000)\n Stopless (2000)\n Mr Tuba (2001)\n Ice Patrol (2003)\n 12345 (2003)\n I Don't Know What To Do Any More (2003)\n Bunny (2004)\n Alone in a Crowd (2015)\n All Over It Again (2016)\n Karen Trust Me (2016)\n\nCompilations \n Seven Year Glitch (1996) A collection of live recordings, rarities, non-album tracks and pre-Screamfeeder songs.\n Introducing: Screamfeeder (2004) A collection of singles and almost singles.\n Cargo Embargo (B Sides & More) (2011) – digital release only, A collection of all the band's b sides and selected songs which appeared on non-Australian versions of albums.\n\nLive Releases \n Live at The Zoo, Brisbane, March 2013\n Live at Woodland, December 2011\n Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay, 13/1/98\n The Corner, Melbourne, 9/1/98\n Tim & Kellie Live in the Library, Singapore\n Tim and Kellie Live at The Zoo, 2001\n Tim Plays Solo 2002\n\nWe All Want To studio albums\n We All Want To (2010)\n Come Up Invisible (2012)\n The Haze (2015)\n\nWe All Want To EPs\n Back to the Car (2009)\n No Signs (2013)\n Sally Can't See (2013)(US promo EP)\n\nThe Whats\n All Mouth No Trousers LP\n A Bit Of Everything with The Whats EP\n\nThe Madmen\n Almost Past Caring Single\n Tower Single\n Cool Kinda Kid Single\n Thunder Egg EP''\n\nAwards\n Tim Steward's solo studio album How Does it End was cited as Best Album of 2006 on Fasterlouder.com.au. \n Tim also won the Skinny's/Rockinghorse Alternative Award and Ellaway's Song of the Year for the song \"Not the Same\" in the 2007 Q Song Awards. \n In 2012 Steward was recognised with a star on the Brunswick Street Mall ‘Walk of Fame’ honouring Queensland's finest and most accomplished musicians. \n The second We All Want To album (Come Up Invisible) was included in the AMP Long List and selected as a finalist for the Q Song Album of the Year in August 2013.\n Tim was awarded the Grant McLennan Fellowship in 2015, traveling to the UK in 2016 to spend a month songwriting. The songs written there appeared on Screamfeeder's Pop Guilt, and will appear on future WE ALL WANT TO releases.\n\nReferences\nScreamfeeder Website\nAbout Tim\nAbout THE WHATS\nWE ALL WANT TO Website\n\nAustralian male singers\nPeople from Brisbane\nLiving people\n1966 births\nLow Transit Industries artists",
"The discography of American rapper Jack Harlow consists of one studio album, six mixtapes, two extended plays, and 31 singles (including 5 as a featured artist). On March 13, 2020, his 23rd birthday, he released his second extended play, Sweet Action. The EP debuted and peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200. It produced the top-10 single, \"Whats Poppin\", which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. On December 11, 2020, Harlow released his debut studio album, Thats What They All Say. The album debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. It produced the top-40 single, \"Tyler Herro\", which debuted and peaked at number 34 on the Hot 100. \"Whats Poppin\" is also included on the album, as well as the remix, which features DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne. In 2021, Harlow released a collaboration with Lil Nas X, \"Industry Baby\", which became his first number-one single on the Hot 100. In 2022, he released the single \"Nail Tech\", which debuted and peaked at number 18 on the Hot 100.\n\nStudio albums\n\nMixtapes\n\nExtended plays\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nAs featured artist\n\nOther charted and certified songs\n\nGuest appearances\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n\nDiscographies of American artists\nHip hop discographies"
]
|
[
"Jessica Alba",
"1992-1999: Career beginnings",
"when did he career start",
"Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail.",
"how old was she",
"I don't know.",
"was he first album a hit",
"acting classes.",
"whats a song on her first album",
"I don't know."
]
| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | what was her second acting gig | 5 | what was Jessica Alba's second acting gig? | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | true | [
"Simple Kapadia (15 August 1958 – 10 November 2009) was a Hindi film actress and costume designer, who was active in her professional career from 1987 until her death in 2009.\n\nEarly and personal life\nSimple was born on 15 August 1958 to parents Chunnibhai and Betty Kapadia. She was raised alongside 3 siblings - elder sister Dimple Kapadia, younger sister Reem Kapadia (who died of drug overuse) and Suhail (Munna) Kapadia.\n\nShe had a son Karan Kapadia with Rajinder Singh Shetty and was the aunt of Twinkle Khanna and Rinke Khanna.\n\nCareer\n\nActing\nSimple Kapadia made her acting debut in 1977 at the age of 18 in the role of Sumitha Mathur in the film Anurodh, with her brother-in-law, actor Rajesh Khanna. She starred opposite Jeetendra in Shakka and Chakravyuha.\n\nShe played supporting roles in Lootmaar, Zamaane Ko Dikhana Hai, Jeevan Dhaara and Dulha Bikta Hai. In 1985 she starred in the art film Rehguzar opposite Shekhar Suman. Her last acting gig was an item song for Parakh in 1987.\n\nCostume design\nAfter her final acting gig, she became a costume designer, and designed for actors including Sunny Deol, Tabu, Amrita Singh, Sridevi and Priyanka Chopra.\n\nIn 1994 she won a National Award for her costume design in Rudaali. She later designed for Indian movies including Rok Sako To Rok Lo and Shaheed.\n\nFilmography\n\nAs an actress\n\nAs a costume designer\n\nAwards and nominations\n 1994 - National Film Award for Best Costume Design for Rudaali\n\nDeath\nSimple Kapadia was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, but continued working despite the pain. She died in a hospital in Andheri, Mumbai on 10 November 2009, aged 51.\n\nSee also\n List of Indian film actresses\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1958 births\n2009 deaths\nDeaths from cancer in India\nActresses in Hindi cinema\nGujarati people\nIndian film actresses\nIndian costume designers\nArtists from Mumbai\nActresses from Edinburgh\n20th-century Indian actresses\n20th-century Indian designers\n21st-century Indian designers\n21st-century Indian actresses\nActresses from Mumbai\nBest Costume Design National Film Award winners",
"Live at the 100 Club is the second EP from Welsh band The Automatic. The EP was recorded at London's 100 Club by Coca-Cola and iTunes and is available exclusively through iTunes. On the night the band also played a number of other songs including \"Gold Digger\" and \"Recover\".\n\nHistory\nThe initial 100 Club gig was pinned as the celebration gig for Coca-Cola's opening of their new website www.music.coca-cola.com, 300 fans were given the chance to go to the gig, through purchasing a ticket, and winning tickets through various competitions.\n\nThe iTunes EP originally contained 5 songs, however mysteriously That's what She Said disappeared from the EP sometime in early 2007.\n\niTunes and Coca-Cola launched a competition in conjunction with the 100 Club gig, for fans of The Automatic to win an iPod, signed posters, T-shirts, CDs and lanyards with free downloads for iTunes.\n\nFor a limited time Coca-Cola allowed iTunes users to download a single song from the EP for free by obtaining a code from Coca-Cola's music website.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCurrent\n \"On The Campaign Trail\" – 2:57\n \"Raoul\" – 3:46\n \"Team Drama\" – 3:29\n \"By My Side\" – 3:41\n\nOriginal listing\n \"On The Campaign Trail\" – 2:57\n \"Raoul\" – 3:46\n \"Team Drama\" – 3:29\n \"That's What She Said\" -3:13\n \"By My Side\" – 3:41\n\nReferences \n\nThe Automatic albums\n2006 live albums\nLive EPs\n2006 EPs"
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"Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films."
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| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | name one of her films | 6 | name one of Jessica Alba's films | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | false | [
"One Night in Rome is a 1924 American silent drama film starring Laurette Taylor. The film was directed by Clarence G. Badger and written by J. Hartley Manners, Ms. Taylor's husband, based upon his play of the same name. Laurette Taylor was a great name of the American theatre, who made only three films in a triumph-studded career, all of them derived from plays by her husband. This was the last of those three films (the previous two had been done by Metro Pictures). Ms. Taylor seems to have enjoyed making One Night in Rome as she kept a personal print of the movie to always show guests at her home, re-running it over and over again.\n\nPlot\nMadame L'Enigme (Laurette Taylor) is a fortune-teller whose client Mario (Warner Oland) recognises her as a woman who disappeared in a cloud of scandal after her husband's suicide.\n\nCast\n\nPreservation\nA print of One Night in Rome survives in the Gosfilmofond archive in Moscow.\n\nCitations\n\nExternal links\n\nStill with Laurette Taylor in costume visited by Ethel Barrymore, who was touring a play on the West Coast at the time of production\nOne Night in Rome at TheGreatStars.com; Lost Films Wanted (Wayback Machine)\nPortraits from the production:#1,..#2,..#3,..#4,..#5,..#6 (archived)\n\n1924 films\nAmerican black-and-white films\nAmerican films\nAmerican silent feature films\nMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer films\n1924 drama films\nFilms directed by Clarence G. Badger\nAmerican drama films\nFilms with screenplays by J. Hartley Manners",
"My Name Is Oona is a 1969 American avant-garde short film directed by Gunvor Nelson.\n\nSummary\nFootage of Gunvor's daughter Oona saying her name multiple times and days of the week edited into an expressive rythmical structure that accompanies the visual structure of the film that plunges into the experience of a child.\n\nProduction\nMy Name Is Oona began with footage of Oona that Gunvor optically printed. Inspiration for the film's soundtrack came when Nelson attended a Steve Reich concert. Gunvor recorded Oona saying her name in different ways, and after hearing about the project, Reich sent Gunvor a recording he had made of Oona saying the days of the week. Gunvor worked with Patrick Gleeson to create the audio track. Once that was complete, Nelson made a final cut of the film by editing the image track based on the audio.\n\nReception\nWhen My Name Is Oona screened at the Whitney Museum, Danny Weiss of Show Business Illustrated identified it as a standout, calling it a lyrical film that \"ends leaving the viewer a little high.\" In The Village Voice, Amos Vogel declared it \"one of the most perfect recent examples of poetic cinema.\"\n\nIn 2019, the film was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n My Name Is Oona at Canyon Cinema\n My Name Is Oona on MUBI\n\n1960s avant-garde and experimental films\n1969 short films\nAmerican black-and-white films\nAmerican short films\nAmerican films\nFilms directed by Gunvor Nelson\nNon-narrative films\nUnited States National Film Registry films"
]
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"1992-1999: Career beginnings",
"when did he career start",
"Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail.",
"how old was she",
"I don't know.",
"was he first album a hit",
"acting classes.",
"whats a song on her first album",
"I don't know.",
"what was her second acting gig",
"Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films.",
"name one of her films",
"1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed,"
]
| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | any other films | 7 | any other films besides Never Been Kissed | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | false | [
"Nightclub School Hospital, or Any Other Side, is a 2012 Chinese horror film.\n\nPlot\nAre the six people living in their dreaming stories? Or are they only characters in Dean's comic? Are there any boundaries between reality and fantasy? Who is the dominator of the stories?\n\nCast\nChrissie Chau\nVan Fan\nQi Yuwu\nDeng Jiajia\nYida Huang\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2012 directorial debut films\n2012 films\n2012 horror films\nChinese films\nChinese horror films",
"Any Rags? is a 1932 Pre-Code Fleischer Studios Talkartoon animated short film starring Bimbo, and Betty Boop, with a brief appearance by Koko the Clown.\n\nIt features the song \"Any Rags?\", a 1902 ragtime schottische by Thomas S. Allen.\n\nSynopsis\nBimbo the garbage man walks the streets asking townsfolk \"Any Rags?\" (during which he strips people's clothes off and takes other things that are not really garbage as trash). He comes across Betty Boop who throws her garbage to him from her window. Bimbo then auctions all the garbage he has collected from his cart to a crowd which includes Koko the Clown, who purchases a bowtie. When Bimbo opens Betty's garbage bag, Betty Boop leaps out and kisses Bimbo. The cart then rolls down the hill and turns into a home for Betty and Bimbo.\n\nMusic\nIn addition to \"Any Rags?\", the sound track includes the tunes “The New Call of the Freaks” by Luis Russell, \"99 Out of 100 Want to Be Loved\" by Al Sherman & Al Lewis, and \"Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?\" by Septimus Winner.\n\nSee also\nTalkartoon\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAny Rags? at the Cartoon Database\nAny Rags? at IMDB\n \n\n1932 films\nBetty Boop cartoons\n1930s American animated films\nAmerican black-and-white films\nAmerican films\nShort films directed by Dave Fleischer\nFleischer Studios short films\n1932 animated films\nParamount Pictures short films\nFilms based on songs"
]
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"how old was she",
"I don't know.",
"was he first album a hit",
"acting classes.",
"whats a song on her first album",
"I don't know.",
"what was her second acting gig",
"Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films.",
"name one of her films",
"1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed,",
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| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | did she receive any awards | 8 | did Jessica Alba receive any awards? | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | true | [
"Nayanthara is an Indian film actress, who primarily works in the South Indian film industries. She is recipient of five Filmfare Awards South. She received most of the awards for her performance in the film Sri Rama Rajyam and Aramm. She is the highest paid actress of South India. She is one of the few actresses to receive maximum awards in Tamil film industry, being a five-time Filmfare Award recipient. Nayanthara also received Nandi awards and a Kalaimamani from the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu respectively. All three are considered to be the highest honour given to any actor in South cinema. Nayanthara has won a number of awards apart from these. Nayanthara called by her fans and Tamil people as Nayan and Lady Superstar .\n\nInternational Indian Film Academy Awards\n\nKalaimamani Awards\n\nAnanda Vikatan Awards\n\nTamil Nadu State Film Awards\n\nEdison Awards (Tamil)\n\nFilmfare Awards South\n\nKerala Film Critics Association Awards\n\nNandi Awards\n\nCineMAA Awards\n\nBharatamuni Film Awards\n\nUgadi Puraskar Awards\n\nTSR-TV9 Film Awards\n\nAsianet Film Awards\n\nSantosham Film Awards\n\nSouth Indian International Movie Awards\n\nVijay Awards\n\nSunfeast Tamil Music Awards\n\nBehindwoods Gold Medal\n\nJFW Movie Awards\n\nThe Hindu World Of Women Awards\n\nSouth Scope Style Awards\n\nZee Cinema Awards - Tamil\n\nReferences \n\nNayanthara",
"Jenny Brasier (1936 - 2020) was a botanical artist and book illustrator.\n\nBrasier was born on 9 August 1936 in Alvechurch near Birmingham, UK. \n\nShe painted in watercolour and was known for painting on vellum. She did not receive any formal training. She was a neighbour of the art teacher and author Wilfrid Blunt who encouraged her painting.\n\nDuring her lifetime she exhibited in the UK and internationally, including at the Smithsonian Museum and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. She also illustrated some books. Some of her paintings were included in The Art of Botanical Illustration, the first survey published of European botanical artists. Her paintings are included in UK national collections including the Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Horticultural Society and Kew Gardens.\n\nAwards\nShe was awarded Gold Medals in 1982, 1988 1989, 1994 and 2000 by the Royal Horticultural Society. In 2002 she was given the Jill Smythies Award by the Linnean Society for accurate published botanical illustrations.\n\nReferences\n\n1936 births\n2020 deaths\nPeople from Alvechurch\nBritish women artists\nBotanical illustrators\nBritish illustrators"
]
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"1992-1999: Career beginnings",
"when did he career start",
"Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail.",
"how old was she",
"I don't know.",
"was he first album a hit",
"acting classes.",
"whats a song on her first album",
"I don't know.",
"what was her second acting gig",
"Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films.",
"name one of her films",
"1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed,",
"any other films",
"and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa.",
"did she receive any awards",
"11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes."
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| C_a0f73204a9714dcc8f6b15e30a4190f9_1 | what happened in 1998 | 9 | what happened to Jessica Alba in 1998 | Jessica Alba | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, the daughter of Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before settling back in Claremont, California, when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as being a "very conservative family – a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had identified herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. Alba became isolated from other children at school because she was in the hospital so often from her illnesses that no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. Alba graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of over one thousand candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons until 2002 and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max to be the "archetypal modern feminist hero —a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons as contributing to this status. In 2004, Max was ranked at number 17 in TV Guides list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her role in Dark Angel led to significant parts in films, she had her big screen breakthrough in 2003, when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film, nevertheless, made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, she earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, in which Alba portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after they come upon the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a billionaire man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion . In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2015, it was estimated that Alba owned 15 to 20 percent of the company.
In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Jessica Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. Alba was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared later in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. Alba has also been named as part of FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006 and appeared on the cover of the magazine that year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on "99 Most Desirable Women". In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar which featured photos of her posing. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised as a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at the age of 15 when she guest starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. The pair were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
1981 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Activists from California
Activists from Mississippi
Activists from Texas
Actresses from Los Angeles
Actresses from Mississippi
Actresses from Texas
American actresses of Mexican descent
American child actresses
American company founders
American feminists
American film actresses
American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American retail chief executives
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American voice actresses
American women activists
American women chief executives
American women company founders
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Mississippi
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in online retailing
Former Roman Catholics
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Hispanic and Latino American businesspeople
Hispanic and Latino American company founders
Hispanic and Latino American feminists
People from Biloxi, Mississippi
People from Claremont, California
People from Del Rio, Texas
People from Pomona, California
People of Maya descent | true | [
"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"
]
|
[
"Zico",
"Udinese (1983-1985)"
]
| C_98242f7e47974c2fbea9bd4fb772fb89_1 | when did he become involved with Udinese? | 1 | when did Zico become involved with Udinese? | Zico | After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table. Such amount of money made bigger clubs pressure the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) that blocked the transfer expecting financial guarantees. This caused a commotion in Udine as enraged Friulians flocked to the streets in protest against the Italian federation and the federal government. Historical reasons would make them shout "O Zico, o Austria!" ("Either Zico or Austria"). At the end of the controversy, the deal went through and though leaving Flamengo fans in sadness, Zico made the Friulians fans finally dream of better days. In the 1983-84 Serie A, his first in Italy, his partnership with Franco Causio promised to take Udinese to a higher level, gaining respect from giants Juventus and Roma. His free kicks caused such an impact that TV sports programs would debate how to stop them. Despite his excellent performance, the club's season ended in disappointment as Udinese, in spite of scoring almost twice as many goals as the previous year, only gathered 32 points and was ninth in the final standing, losing three places in comparison to 1982-83. His personal top scoring dispute against Juventus's Michel Platini was exciting - Zico scored 19 goals, one fewer than top scorer Platini, having played 4 fewer matches than the French footballer due to an injury. Plus, he was voted 1983 Player of the Year by World Soccer Magazine. His following season would be punctuated by injuries and suspensions for openly attacking referees. He also used to complain about the board's lack of ambition for not signing competitive players, which made the team too dependent on him. Furthermore, Italian tax officials pressed charges against him for tax evasion. Pressured, Zico delivered an amazing display against Diego Maradona's Napoli, his last match as a bianconero, and returned to Brazil and Flamengo, sponsored by a group of companies. He became a fan favorite with his spectacular goals and is still adored now by all Udinese fans. CANNOTANSWER | After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table. | Zico may refer to:
Zico (footballer) (born 1953), born Arthur Antunes Coimbra, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico Soccer, a video game
Zico Football Center, a sports complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Zico (footballer, born 1966), born Milton Antonio Nunes Niemet, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico (rapper) or Woo Ji-ho (born 1992), South Korean rapper
ZICO (beverage), a brand of coconut water
People with the given name
Zico Bailey (born 2000), American soccer player
Zico Doe (fl. from 1990), Liberian footballer
Zico Luzinho Ingles Casimiro or Luzinho (born 1985), East Timorese footballer
Zico Otieno (Zedekiah Otieno, born 1968), Kenyan footballer
Zico Phillips (born 1991), Barbadian footballer
Zico Rumkabu (born 1989), Indonesian footballer
Zico Senamuang or Kiatisuk Senamuang (born 1973), Thai footballer and coach
Zico Waeytens (born 1991), Belgian cyclist
See also
Zito (disambiguation)
Zico Chain, a British rock band
Zeiko Lewis (born 1994), Bermudian footballer | false | [
"Salvatore Masiello (born 31 January 1982) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left-back.\n\nClub career\n\nFrom Venezia to Palermo\nMasiello started his career at Venezia, he made one Serie B appearances before moved to Lumezzane (Lega Pro Prima Divisione). In January 2003, he was signed by U.S. Città di Palermo, rejoined chairman Maurizio Zamparini. In 2004–05 season, he became a surplus of newly promoted Palermo, and he was loaned to Piacenza along with Simone Pepe. In 2005–06 season, he returned to Palermo, made his Serie A debut on 6 November 2005, against Sampdoria.\n\nUdinese\nIn January 2006, he was involved in the transfer deal of David Di Michele, to join Udinese along with Pepe and Nicola Santoni in joint-ownership. Masiello's half registration rights was valued for €250,000 at that time. In the 2005–06 season, he played three Serie A games, two for Palermo and one for Udinese.\n\nIn 2006–07 season, he was loaned to Messina (Serie A) and 2007–08 for Vicenza (Serie B). In June 2008, Udinese acquired the whole rights for free.\n\nBari\nIn summer 2008, Masiello joined AS Bari from Udinese by joint-ownership bid, for €200,000. In June 2011 Bari acquired Masiello outright and sold Paulo Vitor Barreto back to Udinese.\n\nPress reports in August 2011 stated that he was involved in a plate-throwing incident at a Bari team dinner. Fellow Bari player Alessandro Crescenzi was reportedly struck by the plate and had to have 40 stitches in the resulting wound. The club announced its intention to refer Masiello's conduct to the Court of Sports Arbitration of Lega Serie B and to seek termination of Masiello's contract.\n\nTorino\nOn 31 January 2012, the last day of the transfer market, he moved to Torino, with whom he signed a contract until 2013. At the end of the season he was promoted to Serie A, playing only the last league game AlbinoLeffe - Torino (0–0).\n\nThe following season competed in the top division with the Granata, he totalled 24 appearances. He remained a free transfer at the end of the season, but on 8 July 2013 signed a new contract with the Granata. He followed the same fate the following year: left without a contract, he signed with Torino for another season.\n\nInternational career\nOn 14 January 2004, when he played for Palermo, he was summoned from Italy under-21 Serie B representative team for an internship at the Borghesiana, not playing any games.\n\nReferences\n\n1982 births\nLiving people\nItalian footballers\nAssociation football fullbacks\nVenezia F.C. players\nF.C. Lumezzane V.G.Z. A.S.D. players\nPalermo F.C. players\nPiacenza Calcio 1919 players\nUdinese Calcio players\nA.C.R. Messina players\nL.R. Vicenza players\nS.S.C. Bari players\nTorino F.C. players\nMantova 1911 players\nSerie A players\nSerie B players\nSerie C players",
"Damiano Ferronetti (born 1 November 1984) is an Italian footballer who plays as a left back. He can also play as a defensive midfielder.\n\nClub career\nFerronetti started his football career with A.S. Roma. He was loaned to Serie B team U.S. Triestina Calcio for the 2003–04 season.\n\nParma\nIn summer 2004, he was involved in Matteo Ferrari transfer, which half of the registration rights was sold to Parma F.C., for €750,000.\n\nIn June 2007, all of the rights was bought by Parma by a sum of €350,000.\n\nUdinese\nIn August 2007 Ferronetti was sold to Udinese Calcio for €2 million, with Damiano Zenoni moved to Parma for €3 million.\n\nIn 2008–09 season, he competed the right-back position with Marco Motta as the left back were occupied by Aleksandar Luković and Giovanni Pasquale. In 2009–11 seasons he never played for two anterior cruciate ligaments injury, in the same knee.\n\nGenoa\n He was signe by Genoa C.F.C. on 31 August in a one-year deal.\n\nTernana\nOn 8 August 2013 Ferronetti was signed by Ternana in a one-year contract. His contract was renewed on 1 August 2014.\n\nInternational career\nFerronetti was a member of the Italy under-21 squad that took part at the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, but did not play any matches during the tournament. He started his national career at 2001 UEFA European Under-16 Championship (now renamed to U17 event but with the same age limit)\n\nFootnotes\n\nExternal links\nFIGC \n \n\n1984 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Albano Laziale\nItalian footballers\nA.S. Roma players\nU.S. Triestina Calcio 1918 players\nParma Calcio 1913 players\nUdinese Calcio players\nTorino F.C. players\nGenoa C.F.C. players\nTernana Calcio players\nSerie A players\nSerie B players\nAssociation football midfielders\nItaly under-21 international footballers\nItaly youth international footballers"
]
|
[
"Zico",
"Udinese (1983-1985)",
"when did he become involved with Udinese?",
"After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table."
]
| C_98242f7e47974c2fbea9bd4fb772fb89_1 | what was his first rome with the team? | 2 | what was Zico's first rome with the team? | Zico | After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table. Such amount of money made bigger clubs pressure the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) that blocked the transfer expecting financial guarantees. This caused a commotion in Udine as enraged Friulians flocked to the streets in protest against the Italian federation and the federal government. Historical reasons would make them shout "O Zico, o Austria!" ("Either Zico or Austria"). At the end of the controversy, the deal went through and though leaving Flamengo fans in sadness, Zico made the Friulians fans finally dream of better days. In the 1983-84 Serie A, his first in Italy, his partnership with Franco Causio promised to take Udinese to a higher level, gaining respect from giants Juventus and Roma. His free kicks caused such an impact that TV sports programs would debate how to stop them. Despite his excellent performance, the club's season ended in disappointment as Udinese, in spite of scoring almost twice as many goals as the previous year, only gathered 32 points and was ninth in the final standing, losing three places in comparison to 1982-83. His personal top scoring dispute against Juventus's Michel Platini was exciting - Zico scored 19 goals, one fewer than top scorer Platini, having played 4 fewer matches than the French footballer due to an injury. Plus, he was voted 1983 Player of the Year by World Soccer Magazine. His following season would be punctuated by injuries and suspensions for openly attacking referees. He also used to complain about the board's lack of ambition for not signing competitive players, which made the team too dependent on him. Furthermore, Italian tax officials pressed charges against him for tax evasion. Pressured, Zico delivered an amazing display against Diego Maradona's Napoli, his last match as a bianconero, and returned to Brazil and Flamengo, sponsored by a group of companies. He became a fan favorite with his spectacular goals and is still adored now by all Udinese fans. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Zico may refer to:
Zico (footballer) (born 1953), born Arthur Antunes Coimbra, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico Soccer, a video game
Zico Football Center, a sports complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Zico (footballer, born 1966), born Milton Antonio Nunes Niemet, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico (rapper) or Woo Ji-ho (born 1992), South Korean rapper
ZICO (beverage), a brand of coconut water
People with the given name
Zico Bailey (born 2000), American soccer player
Zico Doe (fl. from 1990), Liberian footballer
Zico Luzinho Ingles Casimiro or Luzinho (born 1985), East Timorese footballer
Zico Otieno (Zedekiah Otieno, born 1968), Kenyan footballer
Zico Phillips (born 1991), Barbadian footballer
Zico Rumkabu (born 1989), Indonesian footballer
Zico Senamuang or Kiatisuk Senamuang (born 1973), Thai footballer and coach
Zico Waeytens (born 1991), Belgian cyclist
See also
Zito (disambiguation)
Zico Chain, a British rock band
Zeiko Lewis (born 1994), Bermudian footballer | false | [
"Aaron Rome (born September 27, 1983) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He is currently serving as a skills coach with the Brandon Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Rome was selected in the fourth round (104th overall) of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings.\n\nUnsigned by the Kings, he joined the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim organization in 2004, earning most of his playing time with their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliates. In 2007, he played one game with the Ducks during their Stanley Cup-winning playoff season. The following season, he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, playing two seasons in the organization between the NHL and AHL. Becoming an unrestricted free agent in July 2009, he signed with the Vancouver Canucks and established himself as a regular in the team's lineup.\n\nHe is perhaps best known during his minimal NHL experience for severely concussing Nathan Horton with a late hit in Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, sparking Boston's comeback and eventual championship. After three seasons with the Canucks he signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Stars as a free agent. After two seasons, playing in a combined 52 games, the Stars used a compliance buyout to terminate the final year of his contract.\n\nPlaying career\n\nJunior\nRome played junior hockey in the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 1999 to 2004. After debuting in one game for the Saskatoon Blades in 1998–99, he registered 6 assists over 47 games in the following season. During his rookie WHL season, he played alongside older brother Reagan Rome as defensive partners for a short span (Reagan played five games for Saskatoon in 1999–2000 before moving to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League). Three games into the 2000–01 season, Rome moved from Saskatoon to the Kootenay Ice and finished the season with 2 goals and 10 points. Rome began the 2001–02 season with another new WHL team, the Swift Current Broncos. Playing in his third major junior season, he improved to 7 goals and 31 points. In the off-season, Rome was selected by the Los Angeles Kings, 104th overall in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He was scouted as a stay-at-home defenceman with strong positioning and some offensive skills.\n\nReturning to Swift Current following his draft for the 2002–03 season, he recorded a junior career-high 12 goals and 56 points, ranking eighth among league defencemen in scoring. Late in the 2003–04 season, he was traded to his fourth WHL team, the Moose Jaw Warriors, where he joined his younger brother, Ashton Rome (also a defenceman). Between Swift Current and Moose Jaw, he scored a combined 10 goals and 52 points over 69 games. Ranking third among WHL defencemen in point-scoring, he was named to the WHL East Second All-Star Team.\n\nAnaheim Ducks\nUnsigned by the Kings two years after his NHL draft, he became a free agent in the 2004 off-season. On June 7, 2004, he was signed by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He began his professional career with Anaheim's minor league affiliate, the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2004–05. During that season, he had a second opportunity to play with his brother, Reagan Rome, as the latter was called up from Cincinnati's ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals, for two games. Playing 74 games in his rookie AHL season, he scored 2 goals and 16 points. He helped Cincinnati to the second round of the 2005 playoffs, adding 3 goals and 6 points over 12 post-season games.\n\nThe following season, Anaheim's AHL affiliate was changed to the Portland Pirates and Rome began a two-and-a-half season stint with his new club. He improved to 24 points over 64 games in his second AHL season. During the 2006-07 season, Rome was called up to Anaheim and appeared in his first NHL game on January 2, 2007, a 2–1 loss against the Detroit Red Wings. Registering 14 minutes of ice time, he had a -1 plus-minus rating and took one shot on goal. Completing the season with Portland, he tallied 25 points, including an AHL career-high 8 goals. He was recalled once more for the Ducks' 2007 playoff run, appearing in one post-season game. The Ducks went on to win the Stanley Cup that year. As Rome did not play in the Stanley Cup Finals, he did not qualify to have his name engraved on the trophy. Anaheim did, however, award him a Stanley Cup ring, as well as the customary day spent with the trophy in the off-season.\n\nColumbus Blue Jackets\n\nAfter beginning the 2007–08 season with the Pirates, Rome was traded from the Ducks to the Columbus Blue Jackets, along with Clay Wilson, for Geoff Platt, on November 15, 2007. Rome was assigned to the Blue Jackets' AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, immediately following the trade. After appearing in 41 games with Syracuse, scoring 3 goals and 24 points, he was called up to Columbus on February 26, 2008. He scored his first NHL goal late in the season against goaltender Dominik Hašek, in a 3–2 loss against the Red Wings on April 3, 2008. After his first Blue Jackets training camp in September 2008, Rome was placed on waivers. After clearing, he was assigned to start the season with Syracuse. He remained with the Crunch until February 2009, when he was recalled by the Blue Jackets for the remainder of the 2008–09 season. He played eight games with the Blue Jackets, registering one assist. Over 48 games in the AHL, he notched 7 goals and 28 points. Rome remained with the Blue Jackets for the franchise's first playoff season in 2009, competing in one game. Columbus was eliminated in the first round by Detroit.\n\nVancouver Canucks\n\nRome became an unrestricted free agent in the subsequent off-season and was signed by the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, 2009, to a one-way, one-year contract worth $550,000. He played the majority of the season with the Canucks, notching 4 assists in 49 games, while also appearing in 7 games with Vancouver's affiliate, the Manitoba Moose; he scored 6 goals and 7 points in the AHL. During a three-game stint with the Canucks that season, he played forward for the first time in his career. He appeared in one playoff game for the Canucks in 2010, missing nine games due to injury.\n\nIn the off-season, Rome re-signed with Vancouver to a two-year, $1.5 million contract. He scored for the first time as a Canuck on March 29, 2011, an empty netter in a 3–1 win against the Nashville Predators. It was his first goal in 109 games. Rome finished the 2010–11 season with an NHL career-high 56 games with a goal and four assists. In the 2011 playoffs, he scored his first NHL post-season goal against Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks in Game 2 of the third round – a 7–3 win. The following game, he was injured off a boarding hit from Sharks forward Jamie McGinn. Rome was sidelined from the rest of the game; McGinn received a five-minute penalty on the play, but did not receive further discipline from the league.\n\nIn game three of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, Rome checked Bruin forward Nathan Horton to the ice with a late hit to the head. Horton sustained a severe concussion and was taken off the ice on a stretcher. Rome was ejected from the game after being assessed a five-minute major penalty for interference and a game misconduct. After a disciplinary hearing the next morning, Rome was assessed a four-game suspension and missed the remainder of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. The NHL determined that Rome hit Horton over a second after Horton delivered a pass to a teammate. The NHL considered a hit to be late if it takes place more than half a second after a player loses possession. The Canucks were outscored 23-8 in the seven-game Stanley Cup Finals series loss to the Boston Bruins.\n\nRome began the 2011–12 season sidelined after suffering a broken hand during training camp. He returned to the Canucks lineup in early-November after missing the first 14 games of the season. In his first four games back, Rome registered three goals and two assists, matching his points output from entire previous season. Later in the month, he missed three games with a thumb injury.\n\nDallas Stars\nOn July 1, 2012, Rome signed a three-year deal with an annual average salary of $1.5 million with the Dallas Stars. He played 27 games with Dallas during the shortened 2012–13 NHL season, registering 5 assists and 18 penalty minutes.\n\nOn October 14, 2013, Rome was activated from injured reserve and was assigned to the Texas Stars of the AHL for conditioning. During the 2013–14 season, Rome played 7 games in the AHL with the Texas Stars, and 25 games with the Dallas Stars, scoring no goals and just one assist with the NHL club. On June 16, 2014, Rome was placed on unconditional waivers by the Dallas Stars, and the following day (after he cleared waivers) Dallas confirmed their use of a compliance buyout, allowing the team to save salary cap space by removing the final year of his three-year, $4.5 million contract, from the team's salary calculations.\n\nAs a free agent, Rome was unable to secure an NHL contract, and instead accepted an invitation to attend the Detroit Red Wings training camp on a try-out for the 2014–15 season. At the completion of the Red Wings pre-season, Rome was released and later signed to a professional try-out contract with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL on October 22, 2014. After two games with the Admirals, Rome was released from his try-out contract.\n\nPersonal life\nRome was born and raised in Nesbitt, Manitoba, a small community of fewer than 30 people. He was the third of four sons born to Dennis and Karen Rome. All four brothers played hockey and made it to the minor professional level; Rome is the only one to compete in the NHL. Ashton Rome is the only other brother to be drafted into the NHL, selected 143rd overall in 2006 by the San Jose Sharks, and has played in the ECHL and AHL. Eldest brother Ryan Rome competed in the United (UHL) and Central Hockey Leagues (CHL), while Reagan Rome has played in the ECHL, AHL and in Europe.\n\nRome and his wife Adrianne have a son, Grayson and a daughter Logan.They spend their off-seasons in Brandon, Manitoba.\n\nCareer statistics\n\nStatistics taken from Aaron Rome's NHL profile\n\nAwards\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1983 births\nAnaheim Ducks players\nCanadian ice hockey defencemen\nCincinnati Mighty Ducks players\nColumbus Blue Jackets players\nDallas Stars players\nIce hockey people from Manitoba\nKootenay Ice players\nLiving people\nLos Angeles Kings draft picks\nManitoba Moose players\nMoose Jaw Warriors players\nNorfolk Admirals players\nPortland Pirates players\nSaskatoon Blades players\nSwift Current Broncos players\nSyracuse Crunch players\nTexas Stars players\nVancouver Canucks players\nStanley Cup champions",
"Roman René Ramírez (born June 11, 1988), better known as Rome Ramirez or simply Rome, is an American singer and guitarist best known for playing with Eric Wilson from Sublime in the band Sublime with Rome.\n\nEarly life\nRamirez was born and raised in Fremont, California. Both of his parents are of Mexican heritage, his mother being from Guadalajara and his father's parents from Tijuana, but his father relocated the family to Oakland. He first started playing guitar at age 11, and one of the first songs he learned was a Sublime song.\n\nAt 18, Ramirez headed to Los Angeles to focus full-time on music. There, he was introduced to one of his idols, Eric Wilson, bassist for Sublime. They became friends and started jamming together at Eric's infamous holiday parties in Long Beach. Within the year, the plan to bring back Sublime had been set into motion.\n\nSublime With Rome \nIn 2008, Rome collaborated with Eric Wilson on a RAWsession video (also at 17th Street Recording Studio) where he played Sublime songs such as \"Saw Red\" and \"Boss DJ\", and eventually began to play with the band's two surviving members, Eric and Bud Gaugh.\n\nThe trio then went on tour together playing covers of original Sublime material. Sublime with Rome made its debut in 2009 at Cypress Hill's Smoke Out Festival in San Bernardino, California. Ramirez was soon touring steadily with Sublime with Rome, and the trio released their debut album Yours Truly on July 12, 2011. Shortly after, Gaugh left the band and Josh Freese stepped in to play drums. In 2015, they released another album, Sirens. Freese left in 2017 to tour with Sting, and Carlos Verdugo of Tribal Seeds joined the band. They then released a new album in 2019 with producer Rob Cavallo.\n\nSongwriting and Producing \nRome co-wrote the song \"Lay Me Down\" with The Dirty Heads and has collaborated with the band on several albums including Sounds of Change, Dirty Heads, Dessert EP and Swim Team.\nRome also worked extensively with Enrique Iglesias on his 10th studio album.\n\nRome has said in interviews that his influences are Sublime, Muse, Jimi Hendrix, Bad Brains, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys and Primus.\n\nRome's promotional solo single, \"Dedication,\" was premiered on the Rolling Stone website May 30, 2012. \"The song's about loving someone who is struggling with getting their life together and eventually having to move on,\" says Rome. \"It's probably some of the most personal stuff I've put in a song. Sometimes all you need is the right people to pull the best out of you, and that's what I feel happened with the three of us. The right individuals, at the right place and time.\" His debut solo EP was released on June 12, 2012.\n\nIn March 2015, Ramirez appeared on Blues Traveler's album Blow Up the Moon, co writing the song \"Castaway\" and \"Vagabond Blues\" with Dirty Heads.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\nInterview with Rome Ramirez of Sublime with Rome, NerdSociety.com, April 24, 2010.\nInterview with Sublime with Rome, Hearing The Voice, June 11, 2011.\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1988 births\nLiving people\nAmerican rock singers\nAmerican rock guitarists\nAmerican male guitarists\nAmerican musicians of Mexican descent\nSingers from California\nPeople from Fremont, California\nLead guitarists\n21st-century American singers\n21st-century American guitarists\nGuitarists from California\n21st-century American male singers\nHispanic and Latino American musicians\nSublime with Rome members"
]
|
[
"Zico",
"Udinese (1983-1985)",
"when did he become involved with Udinese?",
"After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table.",
"what was his first rome with the team?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_98242f7e47974c2fbea9bd4fb772fb89_1 | was he a player or a coach on the team? | 3 | was Zico a player or a coach on the Udinese team? | Zico | After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table. Such amount of money made bigger clubs pressure the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) that blocked the transfer expecting financial guarantees. This caused a commotion in Udine as enraged Friulians flocked to the streets in protest against the Italian federation and the federal government. Historical reasons would make them shout "O Zico, o Austria!" ("Either Zico or Austria"). At the end of the controversy, the deal went through and though leaving Flamengo fans in sadness, Zico made the Friulians fans finally dream of better days. In the 1983-84 Serie A, his first in Italy, his partnership with Franco Causio promised to take Udinese to a higher level, gaining respect from giants Juventus and Roma. His free kicks caused such an impact that TV sports programs would debate how to stop them. Despite his excellent performance, the club's season ended in disappointment as Udinese, in spite of scoring almost twice as many goals as the previous year, only gathered 32 points and was ninth in the final standing, losing three places in comparison to 1982-83. His personal top scoring dispute against Juventus's Michel Platini was exciting - Zico scored 19 goals, one fewer than top scorer Platini, having played 4 fewer matches than the French footballer due to an injury. Plus, he was voted 1983 Player of the Year by World Soccer Magazine. His following season would be punctuated by injuries and suspensions for openly attacking referees. He also used to complain about the board's lack of ambition for not signing competitive players, which made the team too dependent on him. Furthermore, Italian tax officials pressed charges against him for tax evasion. Pressured, Zico delivered an amazing display against Diego Maradona's Napoli, his last match as a bianconero, and returned to Brazil and Flamengo, sponsored by a group of companies. He became a fan favorite with his spectacular goals and is still adored now by all Udinese fans. CANNOTANSWER | He became a fan favorite with his spectacular goals | Zico may refer to:
Zico (footballer) (born 1953), born Arthur Antunes Coimbra, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico Soccer, a video game
Zico Football Center, a sports complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Zico (footballer, born 1966), born Milton Antonio Nunes Niemet, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico (rapper) or Woo Ji-ho (born 1992), South Korean rapper
ZICO (beverage), a brand of coconut water
People with the given name
Zico Bailey (born 2000), American soccer player
Zico Doe (fl. from 1990), Liberian footballer
Zico Luzinho Ingles Casimiro or Luzinho (born 1985), East Timorese footballer
Zico Otieno (Zedekiah Otieno, born 1968), Kenyan footballer
Zico Phillips (born 1991), Barbadian footballer
Zico Rumkabu (born 1989), Indonesian footballer
Zico Senamuang or Kiatisuk Senamuang (born 1973), Thai footballer and coach
Zico Waeytens (born 1991), Belgian cyclist
See also
Zito (disambiguation)
Zico Chain, a British rock band
Zeiko Lewis (born 1994), Bermudian footballer | false | [
"Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent her participation in the tournament before her team's first match, she can be replaced by another player. The squad list must be published no later than 10 days before the tournaments opening match.\n\nAge, caps, goals and clubs are correct as of 16 July 2017.\n\nGroup A\n\nBelgium\nThe squad was announced on 25 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Ives Serneels\n\nDenmark\nThe squad was announced on 19 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Nils Nielsen\n\nNetherlands\nThe squad was announced on 14 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Sarina Wiegman\n\nNorway\nThe squad was announced on 28 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Martin Sjögren\n\nGroup B\n\nGermany\nA 29-player squad was announced on 10 May 2017. The final squad was revealed on 30 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Steffi Jones\n\nItaly\nA 30-player squad was announced on 19 June 2017. The final squad was released on 5 July 2017.\n\nHead coach: Antonio Cabrini\n\nRussia\nThe squad was announced on 29 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Elena Fomina\n\nSweden\nThe squad was announced on 20 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Pia Sundhage\n\nGroup C\n\nAustria\nThe squad was announced on 1 July 2017.\n\nHead coach: Dominik Thalhammer\n\nFrance\nThe squad was announced on 30 May 2017.\n\nHead coach: Olivier Echouafni\n\nIceland\nThe squad was announced on 22 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Freyr Alexandersson\n\nSwitzerland\nThe squad was announced on 3 July 2017.\n\nHead coach: Martina Voss-Tecklenburg\n\nGroup D\n\nEngland\nThe squad was announced on 3 April 2017.\n\nHead coach: Mark Sampson\n\nPortugal\nThe squad was announced on 6 July 2017.\n\nHead coach: Francisco Neto\n\nScotland\nThe squad was announced on 27 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Anna Signeul\n\nSpain\nThe squad was announced on 20 June 2017.\n\nHead coach: Jorge Vilda\n\nStatistics\n\nPlayer representation by league system\n\nNote: One player is unattached.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nSquads\n2017",
"This article displays the squads for the 2019 World Men's Handball Championship. Each team consisted of 16 players.\n\nAge, club, appearances and goals correct as of 10 January 2019.\n\nGroup A\n\nBrazil\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 20-player squad was revealed on 16 December 2018. The final squad was announced on 3 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Washington Nunes\n\nFrance\nA 20-player squad was revealed on 10 December 2018. The final squad was revealed on 8 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Didier Dinart\n\nGermany\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 18-player squad was revealed on 21 December 2018. The final squad was revealed on 6 January, Tobias Reichmann and Tim Suton were excluded from the squad.\n\nHead coach: Christian Prokop\n\nKorea\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. The final team was announced on 18 December 2018, with sixteen players from South Korea and four North Korean players joined the team on 22 December 2018 and formed a single team with a total of 20 players.\n\nHead coach: Cho Young-shin\n\nRussia\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 21-player squad was revealed on 24 December 2018. On 3 January the squad was reduced to 19 players. The final sqad was announced on 9 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Eduard Koksharov\n\nSerbia\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 21-player squad was revealed on 31 December 2018. The final squad was revealed on 8 January 2019. Nemanja Zelenović and Vladimir Cupara were replaced by Milan Milić and Dejan Milosavljev on 14 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Nenad Peruničić\n\nGroup B\n\nBahrain\nA 18-player squad was announced on 27 December 2018. On 7 January, Ali Abdulqader was excluded from the squad due to an injury.\n\nHead coach: Aron Kristjánsson\n\nCroatia\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 19-player squad was revealed on 17 December 2018. On 1 January 2019, four players were excluded and five players were added. On 2 January, Josip Božić Pavletić was replaced by Ivan Vida due to an injury. On 5 January Damir Bičanić was added to the squad. On 6 January Filip Ivić and Luka Šebetić were excluded from the squad. The final squad wes announced on 8 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Lino Červar\n\nIceland\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 21-player squad was revealed on 20 December 2018. On 1 January the squad was reduced to 17 players. On 9 January the final squad was revealed, Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson was excluded from the squad due to injury and replaced with Bjarki Már Elísson.\n\nHead coach: Guðmundur Guðmundsson\n\nJapan\nA 21-player squad was revealed on 11 December 2018. The final squad was announced on 17 December 2019. Motoki Sakai was replaced by Ryosuke Sasaki on 26 December.\n\nHead coach: Dagur Sigurðsson\n\nMacedonia \nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 22-player team was revealed on 22 December 2018. On 30 December 2018 Tomislav Jagurinovski and Lasko Andonovski were excluded and the squad was reduced to 20 players. The final squad was announced on 9 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Raúl González\n\nSpain\nA 19-player squad was announced on 17 December 2018. On 29 December 2018, Abel Serdio and Sergey Hernández were discarded from the squad.\n\nHead coach: Jordi Ribera\n\nGroup C\n\nAustria\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 18-player squad was revealed on 27 December 2018. On 6 January, Alexander Hermann was excluded from the squad due to an injury.\n\nHead coach: Patrekur Jóhannesson\n\nChile\nThe final squad was announced on 31 December 2018.\n\nHead coach: Mateo Garralda\n\nDenmark\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. The final squad was announced on 19 December 2018. On 21 December 2018 Niclas Kirkeløkke was replaced by Martin Larsen because of an injury. On 2 January Hans Lindberg was replaced by Jóhan Hansen because of an injury. The same change was made on 12 January.\n\nHead coach: Nikolaj Jacobsen\n\nNorway\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. The squad was reduced to 18 players on 14 December 2018. On 4 January 2019, it was announced that Kent Robin Tønnesen had to withdraw from the squad due to an injury, and was replaced by Harald Reinkind. On 14 January, Henrik Jakobsen replaced Petter Øverby in the squad. On 21 January, Øverby was added back in the squad and replaced Kevin Gulliksen.\n\nHead coach: Christian Berge\n\nSaudi Arabia\nA 22-player squad was announced on 27 November 2018. The final squad was announced on 2 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Boris Denič\n\nTunisia\nA 18-player squad was revealed on 12 December 2018. A 17-player squad was revealed on 21 December 2018. The final squad was announced on 31 December 2018.\n\nHead coach: Antonio Gerona\n\nGroup D\n\nAngola\nA 19-player squad was announced on 20 November 2018. The final squad was announced on 28 December 2018.\n\nHead coach: Filipe Cruz\n\nArgentina\nThe final squad was announced on 28 December 2018.\n\nHead coach: Manolo Cadenas\n\nEgypt\nA 17-player squad was revealed on 28 November 2018. The final squad was announced on 7 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: David Davis\n\nHungary\nA 28-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. A 21-player squad was revealed on 18 December 2018. It was reduced to 18 players on 30 December 2018. The final squad was announced on 8 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: István Csoknyai\n\nQatar\nA 19-player squad was revealed on 18 December 2018. The final squad was announced on 5 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Valero Rivera\n\nSweden\nA 18-player squad was announced on 10 December 2018. On 27 December 2018 the squad was reduced to 17 players because Philip Henningsson was excluded from the squad due to injury. Hampus Wanne was included on 14 January 2019.\n\nHead coach: Kristján Andrésson\n\nCoaches representation by country\nCoaches in bold represented their own country.\n\nReferences\n\nWorld Men's Handball Championship squads\n2019 squads"
]
|
[
"Zico",
"Udinese (1983-1985)",
"when did he become involved with Udinese?",
"After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table.",
"what was his first rome with the team?",
"I don't know.",
"was he a player or a coach on the team?",
"He became a fan favorite with his spectacular goals"
]
| C_98242f7e47974c2fbea9bd4fb772fb89_1 | what types of victories did he have? | 4 | what types of victories did Zico have between 1983-1985? | Zico | After receiving offers from A.S. Roma and A.C. Milan, moving to Italy seemed right and a four-million dollar proposal from Udinese was on the table. Such amount of money made bigger clubs pressure the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) that blocked the transfer expecting financial guarantees. This caused a commotion in Udine as enraged Friulians flocked to the streets in protest against the Italian federation and the federal government. Historical reasons would make them shout "O Zico, o Austria!" ("Either Zico or Austria"). At the end of the controversy, the deal went through and though leaving Flamengo fans in sadness, Zico made the Friulians fans finally dream of better days. In the 1983-84 Serie A, his first in Italy, his partnership with Franco Causio promised to take Udinese to a higher level, gaining respect from giants Juventus and Roma. His free kicks caused such an impact that TV sports programs would debate how to stop them. Despite his excellent performance, the club's season ended in disappointment as Udinese, in spite of scoring almost twice as many goals as the previous year, only gathered 32 points and was ninth in the final standing, losing three places in comparison to 1982-83. His personal top scoring dispute against Juventus's Michel Platini was exciting - Zico scored 19 goals, one fewer than top scorer Platini, having played 4 fewer matches than the French footballer due to an injury. Plus, he was voted 1983 Player of the Year by World Soccer Magazine. His following season would be punctuated by injuries and suspensions for openly attacking referees. He also used to complain about the board's lack of ambition for not signing competitive players, which made the team too dependent on him. Furthermore, Italian tax officials pressed charges against him for tax evasion. Pressured, Zico delivered an amazing display against Diego Maradona's Napoli, his last match as a bianconero, and returned to Brazil and Flamengo, sponsored by a group of companies. He became a fan favorite with his spectacular goals and is still adored now by all Udinese fans. CANNOTANSWER | in spite of scoring almost twice as many goals as the previous year, only gathered 32 points and was ninth in the final | Zico may refer to:
Zico (footballer) (born 1953), born Arthur Antunes Coimbra, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico Soccer, a video game
Zico Football Center, a sports complex in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Zico (footballer, born 1966), born Milton Antonio Nunes Niemet, Brazilian footballer and coach
Zico (rapper) or Woo Ji-ho (born 1992), South Korean rapper
ZICO (beverage), a brand of coconut water
People with the given name
Zico Bailey (born 2000), American soccer player
Zico Doe (fl. from 1990), Liberian footballer
Zico Luzinho Ingles Casimiro or Luzinho (born 1985), East Timorese footballer
Zico Otieno (Zedekiah Otieno, born 1968), Kenyan footballer
Zico Phillips (born 1991), Barbadian footballer
Zico Rumkabu (born 1989), Indonesian footballer
Zico Senamuang or Kiatisuk Senamuang (born 1973), Thai footballer and coach
Zico Waeytens (born 1991), Belgian cyclist
See also
Zito (disambiguation)
Zico Chain, a British rock band
Zeiko Lewis (born 1994), Bermudian footballer | false | [
"This list includes of all the 96 fighter aces of World War II from Finland. For other countries see List of World War II aces by country\n\nFinnish fighter aces\n\nWith specific aircraft types\n\nFokker D.XXI\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Fokker D.XXI\n\nGloster Gladiator\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Gloster Gladiator.\n\nFiat G.50\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Fiat G.50 Freccia\n\nMorane-Saulnier MS.406\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Morane-Saulnier MS.406\n\nBrewster Buffalo\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Brewster Buffalo\n\nCurtiss Hawk 75\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Curtiss Hawk 75\n\nMesserschmitt Bf 109\n\nBelow are all the Finnish aces who have won victories with the Messerschmitt Bf 109\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nStenman, Kari and Keskinen, Kalevi: Aircraft of the Aces 23 - Finnish Aces of World War 2, Osprey Publishing, 1998, \nStenman, Kari, Keskinen, Kalevi, and Niska, Klaus: Hävittäjä-Ässät - Suomen Ilmavoimien Historia 11, Apali, 1994, \n\nFinland\nWorld War II flying aces",
"Karl-Heinz Bendert (9 September 191416 July 1983) was a German Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. Karl-Heinz Bendert claimed 55 victories in 610 missions. During his time with JG 27 in Africa he was involved in scandal with falsifying claims; his victories were mostly false because he would claim to have shot down enemy aircraft during missions in which other squadron members did shoot down aircraft to save face. Despite this, he was given credit to the victories. After a confrontation with his squadron leader, Gustav Roedel, who did not interfere with his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross nomination, he did not score any more victories.\n\nAwards\n Ehrenpokal der Luftwaffe (18 September 1942)\n Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe\n Iron Cross (1939)\n 2nd Class\n 1st Class\n German Cross in Gold on 15 October 1942 as Oberfeldwebel in the 4./Jagdgeschwader 27\n Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 December 1942 as Oberfeldwebel and pilot in the 5./Jagdgeschwader 27\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\nTracesOfWar.com\nAces of the Luftwaffe\nRitterkreuztrager 1939-1945\n\n1914 births\n1983 deaths\nLuftwaffe pilots\nGerman World War II flying aces\nRecipients of the Gold German Cross\nRecipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross\nPeople from Świebodzin\nPeople from the Province of Brandenburg"
]
|
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"You're Living All Over Me"
]
| C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_0 | When did they produce the album You're Living all Over Me. | 1 | When did Dinosaur Jr. produce the album You're Living all Over Me. | Dinosaur Jr. | Dinosaur recorded much of their second album You're Living All Over Me with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat...And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated. You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. While the previous record had featured different musical styles for each song, You're Living All Over Me found the band's various disparate influences merging into each individual song. Although the hardcore punk influences were noticeably more muted than on Dinosaur, the overall sound was much more powerful, with the instruments often recorded very loud and with considerable distortion. While Mascis's guitar, alternating between Black Sabbath-like riffs, squalling solos, dissonant noise-rock and occasional quiet passages, was the main attraction, Barlow's bass, melodic, highly distorted and often playing thick two-note chords, competed for attention. Meanwhile, Murph played the Mascis-composed drum parts in a very heavy and powerful fashion, resulting in a version of the power trio format. Mascis did most of the lead singing, in a detached drawl that presented a contrast with the extreme music. The songs were highly melodic, albeit with odd song structures that avoided the typical verse-chorus-verse patterns of most rock and pop songs. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh. Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, supergroup The Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued them over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr." CANNOTANSWER | 1987; | Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists | true | [
"Sit Down and Talk to Me is a 1980 album by American R&B singer Lou Rawls, released on the Philadelphia International Records label. All of PIR's major production names contributed to the album, resulting in a diverse set of tracks from dance to urban blues. Although Sit Down and Talk to Me did not produce any major hit singles, its commercial performance was adequate, peaking at #19 R&B and #81 pop.\n\nTrack listing \n \"One Day Soon You'll Need Me\" (Gene McFadden, John Whitehead, Jerry Cohen) – 4:38\n \"Heartache (Just When You Think You're Loved)\" (Thom Bell, LeRoy Bell, Anthony Bell) – 4:43\n \"Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)\" (Homer Banks, Allen Jones) – 4:39\n \"When You Get Home\" (Bunny Sigler, Ron Tyson) – 4:51\n \"Sit Down and Talk to Me\" (Gamble, Huff) – 4:53\n \"You're My Blessing\" (Gamble, Huff) – 4:22\n \"Old Times\" (Dexter Wansel, Cynthia Biggs) – 4:26\n \"You Are\" (Thom Bell, LeRoy Bell, Casey James, Jack Robinson) – 4:50\n\nSingles \n\"Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)\" (US R&B #57)\n\"Sit Down and Talk to Me\" (US R&B #26)\n\"You're My Blessing\" (US Pop #77)\n\nReferences \n\n1980 albums\nLou Rawls albums\nAlbums produced by Kenneth Gamble\nAlbums produced by Leon Huff\nAlbums produced by Thom Bell\nAlbums recorded at Sigma Sound Studios\nPhiladelphia International Records albums",
"Fortress Round My Heart is the debut album by Norwegian musician Ida Maria, released in the UK on July 28, 2008, and in the US on March 24, 2009. Six singles were released before the album's release: \"Oh My God\", \"Drive Away My Heart\", \"Stella\", \"Queen of the World\", \"I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked\" and the re-release of \"Oh My God\".\n\nTrack listing\nThe original version was released through SonyBMG, as they had signed a partnership deal with Norway's Waterfall Records, who signed Ida and her independent label, Nesna Records. All songs composed by Ida Maria Sivertsen.\n\nAll songs written by Ida Maria\n\n \"Oh My God\" – 3:18\n \"Drive Away My Heart\" – 3:21\n \"Louie\" – 2:27\n \"I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked\" – 3:14\n \"Keep Me Warm\" – 3:30\n \"Forgive Me\" – 3:14\n \"Stella\" – 3:03\n \"Morning Light\" – 2:25\n \"Queen of the World\" – 3:29\n \"See Me Through\" – 3:24\n\nDeluxe edition\nOn February 9, 2009 a deluxe edition of the album was released, after the re-release of \"Oh My God\". It features three new tracks, the removal of one song (\"See Me Through\"), a change in the order of the songs, new artwork and two bonus videos exclusive to iTunes. The album was released independently, through Nesna Records and Waterfall Records, as the deal with SonyBMG had been terminated.\nTrack listing\n \"Oh My God\"\n \"Morning Light\"\n \"Queen of the World\"\n \"Stella\"\n \"Forgive Me\"\n \"Leave Me, Let Me Go\" (New)\n \"I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked\"\n \"Louie\"\n \"Drive Away My Heart\"\n \"Keep Me Warm\"\n \"In the End\" (New)\n \"We're All Going to Hell\" (New)\n \"I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked\" Video (iTunes bonus track)\n \"Oh My God\" Video (iTunes bonus track)\n\nUS Edition\nMercury Records, an imprint of Island/Def Jam, released \"Fortress 'Round My Heart\" on digital download services on 24 March 2009. The album features 9 of the 10 tracks of the original release but with a completely rearranged track listing and new artwork again. It replaces the last song with 'In the End' from the deluxe edition.\nAll songs composed by Ida Maria Sivertsen.\n\n Oh My God\n Morning Light\n I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked\n Stella\n Keep Me Warm\n Forgive Me\n Queen Of The World\n Louie\n Drive Away My Heart\n In The End\n\nChart performance\nThe album debuted on the U.K. chart at #39, (which became its peak position). The following week, it fell out of the top 40, from #39 to #60.\n\nIn Norway, it debuted at #5 (which became its peak position). It remained in the top 20 for seven weeks.\n\nIn Ireland, it debuted at #38.\n\nThe NME rated it as the 48th best album of the year for 2008.\n\nSingles\n\nCharts\n\nStandard edition\n\nPersonnel\nIda Maria – vocals, rhythm guitar\nStefan Törnby – lead guitar\nJohannes Lindberg – bass guitar\nOlle Lundin – drums\n\nReferences\n\n2008 debut albums\nIda Maria albums"
]
|
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"You're Living All Over Me",
"When did they produce the album You're Living all Over Me.",
"1987;"
]
| C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_0 | Was it a bill board hit? | 2 | Was the album You're Living All Over Me a bill board hit? | Dinosaur Jr. | Dinosaur recorded much of their second album You're Living All Over Me with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat...And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated. You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. While the previous record had featured different musical styles for each song, You're Living All Over Me found the band's various disparate influences merging into each individual song. Although the hardcore punk influences were noticeably more muted than on Dinosaur, the overall sound was much more powerful, with the instruments often recorded very loud and with considerable distortion. While Mascis's guitar, alternating between Black Sabbath-like riffs, squalling solos, dissonant noise-rock and occasional quiet passages, was the main attraction, Barlow's bass, melodic, highly distorted and often playing thick two-note chords, competed for attention. Meanwhile, Murph played the Mascis-composed drum parts in a very heavy and powerful fashion, resulting in a version of the power trio format. Mascis did most of the lead singing, in a detached drawl that presented a contrast with the extreme music. The songs were highly melodic, albeit with odd song structures that avoided the typical verse-chorus-verse patterns of most rock and pop songs. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh. Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, supergroup The Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued them over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr." CANNOTANSWER | The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. | Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists | true | [
"\"Ninety-Nine\" is a song written and recorded by American country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson. It was released as a single in June 1959 via Decca Records and became a major hit.\n\nBackground and release\n\"Ninety-Nine\" was recorded in April 1959 at the Bradley Studio, located in Nashville, Tennessee. The sessions were produced by Owen Bradley, who would serve as Anderson's producer through most of years with Decca Records.\n\n\"Ninety-Nine\" was released as a single by Decca Records in June 1959. It spent a total of 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart before reaching number 13 in August 1959. It was Anderson's second chart hit and second major hit as a recording artist. It was not first released on a proper album. However, seven years later, it appeared on his compilation Bill Anderson Sings Country Heart Songs.\n\nTrack listings\n7\" vinyl single\n \"Ninety-Nine\" – 2:28\n \"Back Where I Started From\" – 2:35\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1959 singles\n1959 songs\nBill Anderson (singer) songs\nDecca Records singles\nSong recordings produced by Owen Bradley\nSongs written by Bill Anderson (singer)",
"\"Dead or Alive\" is a song written and recorded by American country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson. It was released as a single in October 1959 via Decca Records and became a major hit.\n\nBackground and release\n\"Dead or Alive\" was recorded in September 1959 at the Bradley Studio, located in Nashville, Tennessee. The sessions were produced by Owen Bradley, who would serve as Anderson's producer through most of years with Decca Records.\n\n\"Dead or Alive\" was released as a single by Decca Records in October 1959. It spent a total of eight weeks on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart before reaching number 19 in February 1960. It was Anderson's third chart hit and third major hit as a recording artist. The song was not issued on a proper album following its release.\n\nTrack listings\n7\" vinyl single\n \"Dead or Alive\" – 2:35\n \"It's Not the End of Everything\" – 2:37\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1959 singles\n1959 songs\nBill Anderson (singer) songs\nDecca Records singles\nSong recordings produced by Owen Bradley\nSongs written by Bill Anderson (singer)"
]
|
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"You're Living All Over Me",
"When did they produce the album You're Living all Over Me.",
"1987;",
"Was it a bill board hit?",
"The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut."
]
| C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_0 | Was this their first album? | 3 | Was You're Living All Over Me Dinosaur Jr.'s first album? | Dinosaur Jr. | Dinosaur recorded much of their second album You're Living All Over Me with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat...And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated. You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. While the previous record had featured different musical styles for each song, You're Living All Over Me found the band's various disparate influences merging into each individual song. Although the hardcore punk influences were noticeably more muted than on Dinosaur, the overall sound was much more powerful, with the instruments often recorded very loud and with considerable distortion. While Mascis's guitar, alternating between Black Sabbath-like riffs, squalling solos, dissonant noise-rock and occasional quiet passages, was the main attraction, Barlow's bass, melodic, highly distorted and often playing thick two-note chords, competed for attention. Meanwhile, Murph played the Mascis-composed drum parts in a very heavy and powerful fashion, resulting in a version of the power trio format. Mascis did most of the lead singing, in a detached drawl that presented a contrast with the extreme music. The songs were highly melodic, albeit with odd song structures that avoided the typical verse-chorus-verse patterns of most rock and pop songs. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh. Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, supergroup The Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued them over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists | false | [
"Parade is the seventeenth studio album by Japanese pop band Deen. It was released on 9 August 2017 under the Epic Records Japan label.\n\nBackground\nIt was released as \"25th debut anniversary's memorial album.\"\n\nThis album consist of two previously released singles, and . Both of these tracks and coupling song Shounen (from their single Love Forever, 1995) had received renewed album mixes and recordings with subtitles Album version and Parade Style.\n\nThe track Kizuna was released as digital single week before album release. Ex. member of Japanese pop band Garnet Crow, Hirohito Furui participated in recording production as an arranger (along with Kimi he no Parade) for first time since 2013.\n\nTheir only single which was released in 2016, Kioku no Kage didn't make it in this album, instead it was released in their compilation album DEEN The Best FOREVER Complete Singles++.\n\nShinji and Kouji in this album performs their own original songs Sensual Blues and Summer boy's tears.\n\nThis album was released in three formats: regular CD edition and limited A/B CD+DVD edition. The limited A edition includes BD footage of their live performance Deen Live Joy - Countdown Special- ~Maniac Night~ Vol.3. The limited B edition includes DVD with two music video clips from the album included singles and their making shoots.\n\nCharting\nThe album reached #22 in its first week and charted for 3 weeks.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\nSony Music albums\nJapanese-language albums\n2017 albums\nDeen (band) albums",
"Alli Mia Fora (Greek: Άλλη μια φορά; ) is the final album by Greek musical group Antique. The album was released in November 2002 by V2 Records and it became gold in Greece, their first album to do so. In 2003, many of the songs from this album were included in English on their Swedish release titled Blue Love.\n\nTrack listing\n\nSingles\n\"Alli Mia Fora\"\nThe first single from the album was \"Alli Mia Fora\". The music video was directed by Kostas Kapetanidis. It was released as an English version called \"Time to Say Goodbye\" on their follow-up album Blue Love\n\n\"Moro Mou\"\nThe second single from the album was \"Moro Mou\". A mixed Greek and English version was released from Blue Love called \"Moro Mou (My Baby)\".\n\nExternal links \ninfo-grece.com\nLyrics\n\nAntique (band) albums\n2003 albums\nGreek-language albums\nV2 Records albums"
]
|
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"You're Living All Over Me",
"When did they produce the album You're Living all Over Me.",
"1987;",
"Was it a bill board hit?",
"The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut.",
"Was this their first album?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_0 | Did they perform this on tour? | 4 | Did Dinosaur Jr. perform You're Living All Over Me on tour? | Dinosaur Jr. | Dinosaur recorded much of their second album You're Living All Over Me with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat...And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated. You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. While the previous record had featured different musical styles for each song, You're Living All Over Me found the band's various disparate influences merging into each individual song. Although the hardcore punk influences were noticeably more muted than on Dinosaur, the overall sound was much more powerful, with the instruments often recorded very loud and with considerable distortion. While Mascis's guitar, alternating between Black Sabbath-like riffs, squalling solos, dissonant noise-rock and occasional quiet passages, was the main attraction, Barlow's bass, melodic, highly distorted and often playing thick two-note chords, competed for attention. Meanwhile, Murph played the Mascis-composed drum parts in a very heavy and powerful fashion, resulting in a version of the power trio format. Mascis did most of the lead singing, in a detached drawl that presented a contrast with the extreme music. The songs were highly melodic, albeit with odd song structures that avoided the typical verse-chorus-verse patterns of most rock and pop songs. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh. Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, supergroup The Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued them over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists | false | [
"The No Sound Without Silence Tour is the third arena tour by Irish pop rock band The Script. Launched in support of their fourth studio album No Sound Without Silence (2014), the tour began in Tokyo on 16 January 2015 and visited Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The opening acts were American singer Phillip Phillips for the South African dates, and English singer Tinie Tempah for the European dates. Pharrell Williams served as a co-headliner for the Croke Park concert on 20 June 2015.\n\nOpening acts\nColton Avery (Europe, North America, Australia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia)\nMary Lambert (North America)\nPhillip Phillips (South Africa)\nSilent Sanctuary (Philippines)\nTinie Tempah (Europe)\nPharrell Williams (Dublin)\nThe Wailers (Dublin)\nThe Sam Willows (Singapore)\nKensington (Band) (Europe)\n\nSetlist\nThis setlist is based on previous performances of the tour.\n\n \"Paint the Town Green\"\n \"Hail Rain or Sunshine\"\n \"Breakeven\"\n \"Before the Worst\"\n \"Superheroes\"\n \"We Cry\"\n \"If You Could See Me Now\"\n \"Man on a Wire\"\n \"Nothing\"\n \"Good Ol' Days\"\n \"Never Seen Anything (Quite Like You)\"\n \"The Man Who Can't Be Moved\"\n \"You Won't Feel A Thing\"\n \"It's Not Right For You\"\n \"Six Degrees of Separation\"\n \"The Energy Never Dies\"\n \"For the First Time\"\n \"No Good in Goodbye\"\n \"Hall of Fame\"\n\nAdditional information\nDuring the performance in Sheffield, The Script didn't perform \"We Cry\" due to a fan collapsing. Danny called for Paramedic to check on her, she was fine and they carried on.\n\nDuring the performance in Barcelona, The Script didn't perform \"The End Where I Begin\" or \"Nothing\". They also did not perform \"Six Degrees Of Separation\" and \"It's Not Right For You\".\n\nDuring the performance in Oakland, The Script didn't perform \"The End Where I Begin\", \"We Cry\", or \"Six Degrees of Separation\".\n\nDuring the performance in Toronto, The Script did not perform \"The End Where I Begin\" and \"Six Degrees of Separation\".\n\nDuring the performance im Hamburg, The Script did not perform \"Nothing\" and \"Never Seen Anything (Quite Like You)\".\n\nTour dates\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n2015 concert tours\nThe Script concert tours",
"The Reptile World Tour (sometimes: The Reptile Tour) a worldwide concert tour by British Rock musician Eric Clapton in support of his album Reptile. The tour began on February 3, 2001 at London's Royal Albert Hall and ended on December 15, 2001 at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama. In 2001, Clapton said this was going to be his last major world tour. However, he did perform another world tour in 2011 to support his Clapton album.\n\nSet list\n \"Key to the Highway\"\n \"Reptile\"\n \"Got You on My Mind\"\n \"Tears in Heaven\"\n \"Bell Bottom Blues\"\n \"Change the World\"\n \"My Father's Eyes\"\n \"River of Tears\"\n \"Going Down Slow\"\n \"She's Gone\"\n \"I Want a Little Girl\"\n \"Badge\"\n \"(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man\"\n \"Have You Ever Loved a Woman\"\n \"Cocaine\"\n \"Wonderful Tonight\"\n \"Layla\"\n \"Sunshine of Your Love\"\n \"Over the Rainbow\"\n\nSometimes Clapton performed songs like \"It's Alright\", \"Finally Got Myself Together\" and \"I Ain't Gonna Stand for It\" just when The Impressions were included on concert dates. If the vocal group had not appeared on a gig with Clapton, he did not perform the song. For dates in the North American tour, Billy Preston sang Will It Go Round in Circles.\n\nTour Dates\n\nCancelled Shows\n\nReferences\n\n2001 concert tours\nEric Clapton"
]
|
[
"Dinosaur Jr.",
"You're Living All Over Me",
"When did they produce the album You're Living all Over Me.",
"1987;",
"Was it a bill board hit?",
"The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut.",
"Was this their first album?",
"I don't know.",
"Did they perform this on tour?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_0b78922b700d484ab0ed16af5a0f9e77_0 | Was this there only hit? | 5 | Was You're Living All Over Me Dinosaur Jr.'s only hit? | Dinosaur Jr. | Dinosaur recorded much of their second album You're Living All Over Me with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat...And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated. You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. While the previous record had featured different musical styles for each song, You're Living All Over Me found the band's various disparate influences merging into each individual song. Although the hardcore punk influences were noticeably more muted than on Dinosaur, the overall sound was much more powerful, with the instruments often recorded very loud and with considerable distortion. While Mascis's guitar, alternating between Black Sabbath-like riffs, squalling solos, dissonant noise-rock and occasional quiet passages, was the main attraction, Barlow's bass, melodic, highly distorted and often playing thick two-note chords, competed for attention. Meanwhile, Murph played the Mascis-composed drum parts in a very heavy and powerful fashion, resulting in a version of the power trio format. Mascis did most of the lead singing, in a detached drawl that presented a contrast with the extreme music. The songs were highly melodic, albeit with odd song structures that avoided the typical verse-chorus-verse patterns of most rock and pop songs. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh. Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, supergroup The Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued them over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Dinosaur Jr. is an American rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1984, originally simply called Dinosaur until legal issues forced a change in name.
The band was founded by J Mascis (guitar, vocals, primary songwriter), Lou Barlow (bass, vocals), and Murph (drums). After three albums on independent labels, the band earned a reputation as one of the formative influences on American alternative rock. Creative tension led to Mascis firing Barlow, who later formed Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. His replacement, Mike Johnson, came aboard for three major-label albums. Murph eventually quit, with Mascis taking over drum duties on the band's albums before the group disbanded in 1997. The original lineup reformed in 2005, releasing five albums thereafter.
Mascis's drawling vocals and distinct guitar sound, hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s classic rock and characterized by extensive use of feedback and distortion, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.
History
Formation
Mascis and Barlow played together, on drums and guitar respectively, in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal ... and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".
Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant ...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country".
The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. However, Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade. Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima. "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted. "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead-vocal duties.
Dinosaur
Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur, was released in 1985. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Vocals were done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl which was often compared to singer Neil Young. Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.
After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.
You're Living All Over Me
Dinosaur recorded much of their second album, You're Living All Over Me, with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat ... And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.
You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut. Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced "Lose" and an acoustic sonic collage entitled "Poledo" that anticipated his work with Sebadoh.
Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, a supergroup called the Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr."
Bug and Barlow's departure
Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene", in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album, Bug, followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".
Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"
Mascis has described Bug as his least favorite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, "Bug is my least favourite of all our records. I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don't like the vibe of it."
Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and feeling of being treated poorly in Dinosaur Jr.
Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, "The Wagon" on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short-lived lineup including guitarist Don Fleming and drummer Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.
Major label years
Despite the ongoing lineup turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990. They made their major-label debut Green Mind in 1991. The new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. Mascis, whose first instrument was a drum kit, recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.
For touring purposes, Mascis first added Van Conner, and then Mike Johnson to handle the bass parts and embarked on several tours to support Green Mind, with support acts that included Nirvana. In 1991, Sire records released an EP titled Whatever's Cool with Me that featured old B-sides coupled with one new track. In 1992, the band was part of the Rollercoaster Tour, a package tour based on the successful Lollapolooza festival, which featured The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Blur.
The band found their live shows well received in the changing musical climate of the early 1990s, and decided to record new material with the new lineup. This time, the recording sessions were with full participation from Murph and Johnson, with the former playing most of the drums and the latter playing all of the bass parts, singing harmony vocals and even contributing a few guitar solos. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single "Start Choppin'" reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, Where You Been, reaching the UK top 10 and the US top 50. The opening track, "Out There", had an accompanying video and was aired on MTV for a short time, as the show 120 Minutes was still popular as a late-night "alternative" video show. Although the new material was more accessible than the band's 1980s albums, in terms of playing it represented a partial return to the more unrestrained power-trio sound of the original lineup.
Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been and was replaced for the band's live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. However, the band's subsequent albums would be recorded mostly by J Mascis on his own, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. The commercial success continued with 1994's Without a Sound, which placed well in both the US and UK album charts. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. In 1999, Mascis released the first of two solo albums under the name J Mascis + The Fog.
2005 reunion and onward
The beginnings of a Mascis–Barlow détente started in the mid-'90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows. "I think he was kind of aware of how much shit I was talking about him," Barlow noted in a 2005 interview, "but I don't think he really ever pursued any of it. One of the things that really triggered this, for me to finally just go, 'Hey, you know, maybe this could work,' is when I realized that maybe J wasn't really holding any kind of grudge against me because he didn't like me. I was thinking, maybe he just didn't realize what he had done, or maybe he wasn't really aware of how much he'd actually hurt me. And when I started to realize that, he kind of became more human to me."
In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as "Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt".
Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004, and arranged for their reissue on Merge early 2005. Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.
Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe. While performing in New York City in 2006, much of the band's equipment was stolen while stored outside their hotel and has not yet been recovered. The band members were later among the curators of 2006's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released Beyond on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since Bug in 1988. It was met with critical acclaim, rating an 8.4 from Pitchfork Media and garnering positive reviews from the music press as a whole. It was considered somewhat of a sonic paradox in that even though it featured the original members who produced "two records so drenched in noise they still sound like aural assaults decades after their original release," sonically it resembled the major label releases of the 1990s in both production values and stylistic range. On the other hand, while the sound was not as extreme as the original lineup's 1980s albums, it did feature a much bigger, more unrestrained, and more live-sounding feel than their 1990s albums, though Barlow's bass was noticeably quieter than in the old days. Barlow did make his mark on the music in other ways: for the first time since You're Living All Over Me, he contributed to the songwriting. The album went on to good commercial success, debuting on the Billboard 200 at number 69 its opening week.
In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar. The band's first release on the new label was titled Farm and released on June 23, 2009. Murph said the album was recorded at Mascis's home and marks return to the heavier, Where You Been LP era. The album reached number 29 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US. To promote the album, the band played Farm's lead-off track, "Pieces", on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 25, 2009.
Dinosaur Jr. released their second album for Jagjaguwar, I Bet on Sky, in September 2012, to favourable reviews.
In December 2015, Murph confirmed the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow up to I Bet on Sky. The album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not was released on August 5, 2016, on Jagjaguwar.
In February 2019, the song "Over Your Shoulder" from the band's 1994 album Without a Sound reached number 18 on Japan's Billboard charts. The cause is suspected to be the song's use on the Japanese TV show called Gachinko Fight Club.
In February 2021, the band announced their 12th album Sweep It Into Space, which was released on April 23, 2021. The album was originally scheduled for release in mid-2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by the single "I Ran Away" on February 23, 2021, with a music video for the song being released on March 3, 2021. The second single, "Garden", was released with a music video on March 31, 2021. The band announced a 2021 North American tour to support the album was planned to begin in September 2021 and would conclude in February 2022.
Musical style and influences
Dinosaur Jr has been described as alternative rock, indie rock and noise rock, also noise pop, hardcore punk (first albums), and grunge (early nineties).
Dinosaur Jr. is considered to be an alternative rock band; however the band's musical style, compared to its underground contemporaries in the 1980s, differed in several ways. This included the influence of classic rock on the band's music, their use of feedback, extreme volume and the loud-quiet dynamic, and frontman Mascis's droning vocals. A characteristic of Mascis's vocal style is frequent use of vocal fry. Gerald Cosloy, head of Homestead Records, summarised the band's music: "It was its own bizarre hybrid. ... It wasn't exactly pop, it wasn't exactly punk rock—it was completely its own thing".
Mascis listened to classic rock artists such as the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, elements of which were incorporated into Dinosaur Jr.'s sound. In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence. Dinosaur Jr.'s members also combined elements of hardcore punk and noise rock in their songs, which often featured a large amount of feedback, distortion and extreme volume. When the master tape of You're Living All Over Me arrived at SST, the label's production manager noticed the level on the tape was so high it was distorting; however, Mascis confirmed it was the way he wanted the album to sound.
Similar to Mascis's guitar work, Barlow's bass lines, with their alternating heavily distorted, fast chords and pulverizing lows, draw heavily from both his hardcore past and musicians such as Lemmy from Motörhead and Johnny Ramone. "Johnny Ramone is my hero. I wanted to make that rhythmic chugging sound like he got playing guitar with the Ramones. And, I found that I got a bigger sound by strumming farther up the neck."
Mascis's vocals are another distinctive feature of Dinosaur Jr.'s music. He attributed his "whiny low-key drawl", the opposite of the hardcore punk "bark", to artists such as John Fogerty and Mick Jagger. His style also resembled Neil Young's, but Mascis disputed this, and later commented: "That got annoying, being compared all the time." His drawl epitomised the band's slacker ethos and relaxed attitude; author Michael Azerrad said "even Mascis seemed removed from the feelings he was conveying in the music".
Legacy
In a BBC review of their reissued albums You're Living All Over Me and Bug, Zoe Street called them "Frighteningly ahead of their time." The Seattle Times called them "one of post-punk’s most influential bands." According to Azerrad:Dinosaur Jr was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, the ones who took Black Flag and Minor Threat for granted, a generation for whom the Seventies, not the Sixties, was the nostalgic ideal. Their music continued a retrograde stylistic shift in the American underground that the Replacements and other bands had begun: renouncing the antihistorical tendencies of hardcore and fully embracing the music that everyone had grown up on. In particular, Dinosaur singer-guitarist J Mascis achieved the unthinkable in underground rock—he brought back the extended guitar solo.Dinosaur Jr's music has influenced many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Francis of Pixies, Radiohead, Graham Coxon of Blur, Doug Martsch of Built to Spill, Henry Rollins, Tad, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Aidan Moffat of Belle and Sebastian, Swervedriver, Uncle Tupelo, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182, Snow Patrol, Band of Horses, Polvo, and Kurt Vile.
Their album You're Living All Over Me has been called possibly "the first perfect indie rock album." Spin named it one of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)". Pitchfork placed the album at number 40 on its Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list.
Band membersCurrent membersJ Mascis – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards (1984–1997, 2005–present); drums (studio, 1991, 1994–1997)
Lou Barlow – bass, backing and lead vocals (1984–1989, 2005–present)
Murph – drums (1984–1993, 2005–present)Former members'''
Mike Johnson – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997)
George Berz – drums (live, 1993–1997)
Van Conner - bass, backing vocals (live, 1990–1991)
DiscographyDinosaur (1985)You're Living All Over Me (1987)Bug (1988)Green Mind (1991)Where You Been (1993)Without a Sound (1994)Hand It Over (1997)Beyond (2007)Farm (2009)I Bet on Sky (2012)Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (2016)Sweep It Into Space (2021)
Filmography
2020 Freakscene – The Story of Dinosaur Jr.'' Documentary. Dir.: Philipp Reichenheim
References
Sources
External links
Official Dinosaur Jr. site
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2005
American musical trios
Alternative rock groups from Massachusetts
Homestead Records artists
SST Records artists
Blast First artists
Sire Records artists
Fat Possum Records artists
PIAS Recordings artists
American noise rock music groups
Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts
Jagjaguwar artists
1984 establishments in Massachusetts
Merge Records artists | false | [
"NRJ Belgique is a private Belgian radio station broadcasting in Wallonia and Brussels, and is the Belgian version of the popular French radio station NRJ.\n\nA Flemish NRJ was launched on 3 September 2018. Airing in Dutch, it is owned by SBS Belgium and Mediahuis, which propose programming independently from the NRJ Group (unlike its French-language counterpart).\n\nHistory\nOn 24 June 1994, the Belgian version of NRJ is created by the NRJ Group.\n\nNRJ Hits TV \nNRJ Hits TV is Belgium's first and only television channel broadcasting non-stop video clips from French, Belgian and international artists 24/7. It was launched in 2014 as an internet channel, but went on cable/satellite in 29 March 2016. The promise is \"Hit Music Only\".\n\nIn fact, on the plan, Marco Leulier, the channel's program director, found that it was not necessary to broadcast all day, every day music videos only. Formerly, there was a plan of creating an MyNRJ-style block on NRJ Hits TV, but this was later removed.\n\nThe channel has three fundamentals:\n 100% Music: A strong promise of musical exclusively programming. This isn't the playlist on the NRJ radio station. The sequences of the clips are mixed to ensure viewers have the best listening experience.\n 100% Hits: A program schedule largely emphasizes on hit music with a focus on recently released songs.\n Big events: NRJ Hits TV covers every NRJ-produced musical events across the world.\n\nHere're programs broadcast on the channel until 24 August 2017:\n Morning Hit: Daily 7-9am.\n Teen Pop: Daily 4-5pm.\n Frenchits: Daily 5-6pm.\n Extravadance: Fridays and Saturdays 8pm-midnight.\n 4 extra programs each Wednesday and Sunday: Clip List (6-8pm), Live Hits (8-9pm), Cover Hit (9-10pm), Rap & RnB Non Stop (10pm-midnight).\n Le Hit NRJ: Saturdays 6-8pm.\n Hit des Clubs: Fridays 6-8pm.\n Hit Music Only: All other times.\n There may be a special broadcast from 8pm to midnight on Thursday.\n\nHere're programs broadcast on the channel since 25 August 2017:\n Hit Music Only: Daily 9am-4pm & 8pm-7am.\n Morning Hit: Daily 7-9am.\n Teen Pop: Daily 4-5pm.\n Frenchits: Daily 5-6pm.\n Programs from 6pm to 8pm: Eurohot 30 (Monday & Thursday), Hit NRJ (Tuesday & Saturday), Clip List (Wednesday & Sunday) and Hit des Clubs (Friday).\n\nFrequencies\n\nSee also\n NRJ Group, the Group which owns Chérie FM, NRJ, Nostalgie and Rire & Chansons.\n Nostalgie Wallonie, the Walloon oldies sister radio station.\n\nFrench-language radio stations in Belgium\nRadio stations established in 1994",
"Ben James Peters (born Greenville, Mississippi, June 20, 1933; died Nashville, Tennessee, May 25, 2005) was an American country music songwriter who wrote many #1 songs. Charley Pride recorded 68 of his songs and 6 of them went to #1 on the American country charts. Peters was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.\n\nPeters was briefly a recording artist himself; his only charting hit was his own composition \"San Francisco is a Lonely Town\", which hit #46 on the country charts in 1969.\n\nNumber One Compositions in America\n\n\"Turn the World Around\" (1967) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Eddy Arnold & top 5 Billboard chart AC single.\n\"That's A No, No\" was a 1969 #1 Cashbox chart country hit for Lynn Anderson.\n\"Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'\" was a 1971 #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride; it also went to #21 on the American pop charts. It won Ben Peters the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Country Song.\n\"It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer\" was a 1972 #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride.\n\"Before the Next Teardrop Falls\" (w/Vivian Keith); first recorded in 1967 by Duane Dee in a version which reached #44 on the Billboard country singles chart early in 1968, the 1975 version by Freddy Fender was a #1 Billboard chart country and a #1 Billboard chart pop hit; it won a Country Music Association Award for Single of the Year in 1975.\n\"Love Put a Song in My Heart\" (1975) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Johnny Rodriguez.\n\"A Whole Lotta Things to Sing About\" was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride in 1976.\n\"Daytime Friends\" (1977) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Kenny Rogers. Westlife covered this song for a special BBC performance with Tony Brown as producer.\n\"Burgers and Fries\" was a 1978 #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride.\n\"Before My Time\" was a 1979 #1 Record World chart country hit for John Conlee and also a #1 hit on Canada's RPM'S country chart.\n\"You're So Good When You're Bad\" (1982) was a #1 Billboard chart country hit for Charley Pride.\n\nOther Number One Compositions\n I Want To Wake Up With You as recorded by Reggae singer, Boris Gardiner (1986-1987). This song was #1 in UK for 3 weeks. This song is one of the biggest hits in the history of reggae music.\n\"Living It Down\" went #1 in Canada's country music charts and it went to #2 as a Billboard chart country hit for Freddy Fender in 1976 in America.\n\nNotable Compositions\n\n\"If The Whole World Stopped Lovin'\" was a #3 pop hit in the UK in November 1967 for the Irish singer Val Doonican. It made #2 in Ireland.\n\"If The Whole World Stopped Lovin'\" was a #12 American Billboard chart hit in 1966 pop hit for Roy Drusky.\n\"Misty Memories\" was a Grammy Nominated country chart hit for Brenda Lee in 1971.\n\"I Need Somebody Bad\" was a #11 Billboard country chart hit for Jack Greene in 1973.\n\"Don't Give Up On Me\" was a #3 American Billboard country chart hit for Jerry Wallace in 1973.\n\"It's Time To Cross That Bridge\" was a #13 Billboard chart country hit for Jack Greene in 1973.\n\"I Can't Believe That It's All Over\" was a #13 Billboard chart country hit for Skeeter Davis in 1973.\n\"All Over Me\" was a 1975 #4 Billboard chart country hit in America for Charlie Rich.\n\"Lovin' On\" was a #20 American Billboard chart country hit for T.G. Sheppard in 1977.\n\"Before the Night is Over\" was recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis originally in 1977 and by Jerry Lee and BB King in 2006.\n\"Puttin' In Overtime At Home\" was a 1977 #8 Billboard chart country hit in America for Charlie Rich. It made #3 in Canada.\n\"Lovin' On\" was a #16 American Billboard chart country hit for Bellamy Brothers in 1978.\n\"Tell Me What It's Like\" (1979) was a #8 American Billboard chart Grammy Nominated country hit for Brenda Lee.\n\"Lost My Baby Blues\" was a 1982 top 5 Billboard chart country hit in America for David Frizzell. It made #5 in Canada.\n\"I'm Only a Woman\" recorded by Tammy Wynette.\n\nNotable History Making Albums\n\nPeters had 3 songs, \"The Little Town Square\", \"That's A No No\" and \"Satan Place\" on the million selling The Harper Valley P.T.A. album. This is a pop culture music album by Jeannie C. Riley released in 1968. This is Jeannie C. Riley's biggest album ever. The album was released by Plantation Records, and was very successful. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop album chart, and No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart.\nPeters had 2 songs, \"Mr. Mistletoe\" and \"Soon It Will Be Christmas Day\" on The Christmas Album. This is a holiday music album by country music singer Lynn Anderson released in 1971. This was Lynn Anderson's first Christmas music album. The album was released by Columbia Records, and was very successful. The album reached No. 13 on the \"Billboard 200\" in 1971 (her highest chart position on that chart).\nPeters had 1 song, \"Daytime Friends\" on the 4 million selling 10 Years of Gold album. This is a collection of 10 years of Kenny Rogers hits. The album was released by United Artist, and went No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart in 1977.\nPeters had 1 song, \"Daytime Friends\" on the 4 million selling Kenny Rogers 20 Greatest Hits album. This is a collection of his hits prior to this project released in 1983. The album was released by Liberty Records, and was successful.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican country songwriters\nAmerican male songwriters\nUniversity of Southern Mississippi alumni\n2005 deaths\n1933 births\nMusicians from Greenville, Mississippi\n20th-century American musicians\nSongwriters from Mississippi\n20th-century American male musicians"
]
|
[
"Robert Mitchum",
"Acting"
]
| C_1b646414938c45e983367b2ad6a17667_1 | When did he start acting? | 1 | When did Robert Mitchum start acting? | Robert Mitchum | Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California in 1936, staying again with his sister Annette, now going by the name of Julie. She had migrated to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies. Soon, the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they returned to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh. They had two more children: Chris and Petrine. Mitchum got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. In 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. CANNOTANSWER | 1942 and 1943. | Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. He rose to prominence
with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Early life
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Scots-Irish/Norwegian Methodist family. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.
Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.
Acting
Getting established
In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.
In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.
He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.
After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.
Film noir
Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, Undercurrent, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Ryan and Robert Young, earned five Academy Award nominations.
Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.
On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.
Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.
Mainstream stardom in the 1950s and 1960s
In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama The Racket (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.
Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.
Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.
On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day.
Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".
Mitchum returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.
Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films, including the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959) (in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne's character), and another WWII epic, Anzio (1968). He teamed with Martin again for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.
Later work
Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.
The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a re-make of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.
In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.
At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".
That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.
Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.
In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.
He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.
Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.
In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.
In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.
Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.
Music
One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.
Albums
Singles
Personal life
Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).
Reception, acting style and legacy
Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease.
Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in The Night of the Hunter, considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.
A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.
Documentaries
2017 : James Stewart/Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America directed by Gregory Monro
Filmography
References
Citations
General sources
Mitchum, John. Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum. Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large, 1989. .
Olson, James and Randy Roberts. John Wayne: American. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1997. .
O'Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions, 2002. .
Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum: In His Own Words. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. .
Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care". New York: St Martin's Press, 2001. .
Sound, Owen. TCM Film Guide: Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books, 2006. .
Tomkies, Mike. The Robert Mitchum Story: "It Sure Beats Working". New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. .
External links
Profile at Turner Classic Movies
Photographs and literature
1917 births
1997 deaths
20th Century Fox contract players
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
American country singer-songwriters
American male composers
American male film actors
American male poets
American Methodists
American baritones
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Norwegian descent
California Republicans
Capitol Records artists
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Civilian Conservation Corps people
Combat medics
Connecticut Republicans
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from emphysema
Deaths from lung cancer
Haaren High School alumni
Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Male Western (genre) film actors
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Military personnel from Connecticut
Mitchum family
Monument Records artists
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
RKO Pictures contract players
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state) | true | [
"Brendha Prata Haddad (April 12, 1986 in Rio Branco, Acre) is a Brazilian actress.\n\nAt 3 years, she was paraded in the capital of Acre. At 12, she won the Miss Brazil Child, Paraná. Although now want to pursue an acting career at an early age, his father, a doctor Eduardo Haddad, caused her to postpone the start of his career. In 2006, now studying at the Faculty of Law, Brendha did the tests in his hometown for the miniseries Amazônia, de Galvez a Chico Mendes, shown in 2007. And that's when she got her first role, Ritinha.\n\nCareer\n\nTelevision\n\nFilms\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1986 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Rio Branco\nBrazilian telenovela actresses\nBrazilian stage actresses",
"Bouras Djamel is an Algerian politician and the Third Vice President of the Pan-African Parliament representing the Northern African Region. He was designated Acting President starting in August 2020, with his term set to end when the full Bureau of the PAP is reconstituted at the start of the next plenary session.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nAlgerian politicians\n1971 births"
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"1942 and 1943."
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| C_1b646414938c45e983367b2ad6a17667_1 | What was his first film? | 2 | What was Robert Mitchum's first film? | Robert Mitchum | Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California in 1936, staying again with his sister Annette, now going by the name of Julie. She had migrated to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies. Soon, the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they returned to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh. They had two more children: Chris and Petrine. Mitchum got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. In 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. CANNOTANSWER | His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; | Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. He rose to prominence
with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Early life
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Scots-Irish/Norwegian Methodist family. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.
Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.
Acting
Getting established
In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.
In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.
He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.
After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.
Film noir
Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, Undercurrent, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Ryan and Robert Young, earned five Academy Award nominations.
Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.
On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.
Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.
Mainstream stardom in the 1950s and 1960s
In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama The Racket (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.
Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.
Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.
On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day.
Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".
Mitchum returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.
Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films, including the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959) (in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne's character), and another WWII epic, Anzio (1968). He teamed with Martin again for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.
Later work
Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.
The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a re-make of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.
In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.
At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".
That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.
Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.
In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.
He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.
Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.
In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.
In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.
Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.
Music
One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.
Albums
Singles
Personal life
Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).
Reception, acting style and legacy
Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease.
Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in The Night of the Hunter, considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.
A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.
Documentaries
2017 : James Stewart/Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America directed by Gregory Monro
Filmography
References
Citations
General sources
Mitchum, John. Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum. Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large, 1989. .
Olson, James and Randy Roberts. John Wayne: American. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1997. .
O'Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions, 2002. .
Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum: In His Own Words. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. .
Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care". New York: St Martin's Press, 2001. .
Sound, Owen. TCM Film Guide: Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books, 2006. .
Tomkies, Mike. The Robert Mitchum Story: "It Sure Beats Working". New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. .
External links
Profile at Turner Classic Movies
Photographs and literature
1917 births
1997 deaths
20th Century Fox contract players
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
American country singer-songwriters
American male composers
American male film actors
American male poets
American Methodists
American baritones
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Norwegian descent
California Republicans
Capitol Records artists
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Civilian Conservation Corps people
Combat medics
Connecticut Republicans
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from emphysema
Deaths from lung cancer
Haaren High School alumni
Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Male Western (genre) film actors
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Military personnel from Connecticut
Mitchum family
Monument Records artists
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
RKO Pictures contract players
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state) | false | [
"Patrick Douglas Selmes Jackson (26 March 1916 – 3 June 2011) was an English film and television director.\n\nBiography\n\nBorn in Eltham, to a formerly affluent family which was severely affected by the Wall Street Crash in 1929, and his father's long-term illness and early death ending Jackson's formal education. He joined the GPO Film Unit on his 17th birthday as a messenger boy after his mother persuaded her MP, Sir Kingsley Wood, then also postmaster general, to find work for her son. Rising to production assistant, he was part of the crew for the short film Night Mail (1936). The voice narrating the poem by W.H. Auden (\"This is the Night Mail crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order.\") was Jackson himself. He directed a number of documentaries, the first being The Horsey Mail (1938) about the rural postal service in Suffolk. The First Days (1939), co-directed by Harry Watt and Humphrey Jennings, was the first of the wartime documentaries, in this instance concerned with the 'Phoney War' period.\n\nJackson's debut feature film was Western Approaches (1944), a semi-documentary war film for what was now the Ministry of Information's Crown Film Unit. For what became a three-year project, Jackson took on the writing, direction, editing and casting (of non-professional actors) a film about merchant seamen. Featuring an extended period on location at sea, the lifeboat sequences alone took six-months to complete.\n\nAfter the war, Jackson spent three years in Hollywood under contract to MGM, although the only film he directed during this period was Shadow on the Wall (1950), based on the novel Death in the Doll's House by Lawrence P. Bachmann and Hannah Leessuch. His film Encore (1951) was in competition at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival . White Corridors (1951), a semi-documentary drama about a hospital in the regions, was critically well received at the time. What a Carve Up! (1961), a film in the old dark house genre, was the most commercially successful of Jackson's later feature films.\n\nJackson worked in television during the 1960s and 1970s. Impressed by the stage work of Patrick McGoohan, he seems to have been involved in casting him for Danger Man (US:Secret Agent), episodes of which he directed. Apart from McGoohan's The Prisoner (1967), he was also involved with episodes of The Saint and The Professionals.\n\nJackson died on 3 June 2011 aged 95.\n\nFilms and television series\n\nWestern Approaches (documentary feature, 1944)\nWhite Corridors (1951)\nEncore! (1951)\nThe Feminine Touch (1956)\nThe Birthday Present (1957)\nVirgin Island (US Our Virgin Island, 1958)\nSeven Keys (1961)\nWhat a Carve Up! (1961)\nDon't Talk to Strange Men (1962)\nSeventy Deadly Pills (1964)\nThe Prisoner (4 episodes; 1967–1968)\nThe Famous Five (2 episodes; 1978)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1916 births\n2011 deaths\nEnglish film directors\nPeople from Eltham\nPeople educated at Bryanston School",
"Tommy Wirkola (born 6 December 1979) is a Norwegian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His first film was 2007's Kill Buljo, which he co-wrote with Stig Frode Henriksen. They later made the 2009 horror comedy Dead Snow. In 2010 they again collaborated on the film Kurt Josef Wagle and the Legend of the Fjord Witch. In 2012 a television series directed & produced by Wirkola called Hellfjord premiered, consisting of seven 30-minute episodes. His first English-language film, which was also his first large-budget film, was Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which was co-written by Dante Harper and released in 2013. In 2014 a sequel to Dead Snow, named Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, was released. Wirkola's most recent films, What Happened to Monday, a science fiction film starring Noomi Rapace & Willem Dafoe, was released in 2017 and The Trip starring Aksel Hennie & Noomi Rapace in 2021.\n\nFilmography \n\nActing roles\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1979 births\nBond University alumni\nLiving people\nNorwegian film directors\nNorwegian screenwriters\nNorwegian film producers\nPeople from Alta, Norway\nNorwegian people of Finnish descent\nHorror film directors"
]
|
[
"Robert Mitchum",
"Acting",
"When did he start acting?",
"1942 and 1943.",
"What was his first film?",
"His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd;"
]
| C_1b646414938c45e983367b2ad6a17667_1 | Did he have a big role in that? | 3 | Did Robert Mitchum have a big role in Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series? | Robert Mitchum | Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California in 1936, staying again with his sister Annette, now going by the name of Julie. She had migrated to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies. Soon, the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they returned to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh. They had two more children: Chris and Petrine. Mitchum got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. In 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. CANNOTANSWER | Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles | Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. He rose to prominence
with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Early life
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Scots-Irish/Norwegian Methodist family. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.
Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.
Acting
Getting established
In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.
In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.
He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.
After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.
Film noir
Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, Undercurrent, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Ryan and Robert Young, earned five Academy Award nominations.
Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.
On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.
Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.
Mainstream stardom in the 1950s and 1960s
In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama The Racket (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.
Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.
Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.
On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day.
Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".
Mitchum returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.
Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films, including the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959) (in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne's character), and another WWII epic, Anzio (1968). He teamed with Martin again for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.
Later work
Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.
The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a re-make of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.
In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.
At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".
That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.
Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.
In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.
He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.
Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.
In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.
In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.
Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.
Music
One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.
Albums
Singles
Personal life
Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).
Reception, acting style and legacy
Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease.
Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in The Night of the Hunter, considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.
A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.
Documentaries
2017 : James Stewart/Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America directed by Gregory Monro
Filmography
References
Citations
General sources
Mitchum, John. Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum. Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large, 1989. .
Olson, James and Randy Roberts. John Wayne: American. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1997. .
O'Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions, 2002. .
Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum: In His Own Words. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. .
Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care". New York: St Martin's Press, 2001. .
Sound, Owen. TCM Film Guide: Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books, 2006. .
Tomkies, Mike. The Robert Mitchum Story: "It Sure Beats Working". New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. .
External links
Profile at Turner Classic Movies
Photographs and literature
1917 births
1997 deaths
20th Century Fox contract players
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
American country singer-songwriters
American male composers
American male film actors
American male poets
American Methodists
American baritones
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Norwegian descent
California Republicans
Capitol Records artists
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Civilian Conservation Corps people
Combat medics
Connecticut Republicans
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from emphysema
Deaths from lung cancer
Haaren High School alumni
Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Male Western (genre) film actors
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Military personnel from Connecticut
Mitchum family
Monument Records artists
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
RKO Pictures contract players
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state) | true | [
"Park Sung-woo (born June 7, 1988) is a South Korean actor and model. He is best known for his main role in I Have Three Boyfriends, Because It's My First Time and Oh! Dear Half-Basement Goddesses.\n\nBiography and career\nHe was born on May 7, 1988 in Bucheon, Gyeonggi. He completed his studies from Sejong University. He made his debut as actor in 2010, he did a supporting role in film Pretty Romance. In 2011 he did again a supporting in film A Function and after two years, he did a lead role in short film High Fever in 2013 that gained him attention. In 2016 he starred in web drama, Unrequited Love playing a supporting role. He joined Produce 101, he was the oldest trainee on the show. He was a competitor on Produce 101 Season 2, he made it to ranked 37 in episode 8 but was eliminated. He then sang some songs on Produce 101 such as It's Me (Pick Me) in 2017. He was invited on Superman Family program he made his appearance in Remember Me and the same he was invited to variety show Kwang Seungjun's Coolkkadang. He signed with agency HIM Entertainment and he did modeling for different magazines and comerciales. He then starred in Crushes: Special Edition in 2017 playing a supporting role. He played his first lead role in web drama Oh! Dear Half-Basement Goddesses which attracted attention towards him. In 2018 he starred in drama Because It's My First Time by playing a lead role as Park Sung-woo he was praised for his acting. In 2019 he starred along Kim Ji-eun in drama I Have Three Boyfriends.\n\nFilmography\n\nTelevision\n\nFilm\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1988 births\nLiving people\n21st-century South Korean male actors\nSouth Korean male models\nSouth Korean male television actors\nSouth Korean male film actors",
"Marcus Morgan Bentley (born 4 October 1967) is a British actor, broadcaster and voice-over artist. Bentley is most known for narrating the UK version of the Dutch reality television programme Big Brother since its inception in 2000, until the series' end in 2018. He also did other continuity announcements for Channel 4 until he left in July 2011 to continue narrating the revived Big Brother on Channel 5. Bentley's voice-over work and distinctive Geordie accent has led to him becoming one of Britain's most recognised voices.\n\nBentley has also appeared on stage and in London's Burning. Although he rarely makes public appearances, his public profile has been raised since Big Brothers revival on Channel 5.\n\nEarly life\nBentley was born in Gateshead, County Durham, and brought up in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. He attended East 15 Acting School.\n\nBig Brother\nBentley was selected as the narrator of the Channel 4 (2000–2010) and Channel 5 (2011–2018) reality television programme Big Brother, which originated in the Netherlands, and this remains his best-known work. The producers of Big Brother gave him the job of narrator because they liked the way he said \"Chickens\". His most notable catchphrase is \"Day [x] (in the Big Brother house...)\". Bentley has narrated all nineteen series of the show to date, as well as the spin-off shows Celebrity Big Brother, Teen Big Brother, Celebrity Hijack and Ultimate Big Brother.\n\nOther work\nBefore Big Brother, Bentley starred in several TV adaptations of Catherine Cookson's novels where he honed his now familiar Teesside accent. He also starred in several TV commercials as well as minor parts in feature films, such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen, which starred Joss Ackland, C. Thomas Howell, and Elizabeth Hurley.\n\nAside from Big Brother, Bentley could be heard on Channel 4 as a continuity announcer until he left after ten years, when he reprised his Big Brother narrator role on the revived Channel 5 series.\n\nAnother of Bentley's roles is the unseen question master on Sky One quiz show, Dirty Money.\n\nChannel 5\nFrom December 2011, Bentley began doing continuity links on Channel 5, complementing his role as narrator of Big Brother on the same channel.\n\nPersonal life\nBentley married his wife Jools in 1997. The couple have three children, and live in Kent.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nMarcus Bentley – TV Tome\n\n1965 births\nLiving people\n20th-century English male actors\n21st-century English male actors\nAlumni of East 15 Acting School\nEnglish game show hosts\nEnglish male television actors\nEnglish male voice actors\nActors from Gateshead\nPeople from Stockton-on-Tees\nActors from County Durham"
]
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[
"Robert Mitchum",
"Acting",
"When did he start acting?",
"1942 and 1943.",
"What was his first film?",
"His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd;",
"Did he have a big role in that?",
"Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles"
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| C_1b646414938c45e983367b2ad6a17667_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 4 | Besides Robert Mitchum acting in Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Robert Mitchum | Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California in 1936, staying again with his sister Annette, now going by the name of Julie. She had migrated to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies. Soon, the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they returned to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh. They had two more children: Chris and Petrine. Mitchum got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. In 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. CANNOTANSWER | Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. | Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. He rose to prominence
with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Early life
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Scots-Irish/Norwegian Methodist family. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.
Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.
Acting
Getting established
In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.
In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.
He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.
After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.
Film noir
Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, Undercurrent, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Ryan and Robert Young, earned five Academy Award nominations.
Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.
On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.
Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.
Mainstream stardom in the 1950s and 1960s
In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama The Racket (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.
Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.
Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.
On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day.
Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".
Mitchum returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.
Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films, including the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959) (in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne's character), and another WWII epic, Anzio (1968). He teamed with Martin again for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.
Later work
Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.
The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a re-make of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.
In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.
At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".
That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.
Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.
In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.
He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.
Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.
In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.
In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.
Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.
Music
One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.
Albums
Singles
Personal life
Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).
Reception, acting style and legacy
Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease.
Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in The Night of the Hunter, considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.
A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.
Documentaries
2017 : James Stewart/Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America directed by Gregory Monro
Filmography
References
Citations
General sources
Mitchum, John. Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum. Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large, 1989. .
Olson, James and Randy Roberts. John Wayne: American. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1997. .
O'Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions, 2002. .
Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum: In His Own Words. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. .
Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care". New York: St Martin's Press, 2001. .
Sound, Owen. TCM Film Guide: Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books, 2006. .
Tomkies, Mike. The Robert Mitchum Story: "It Sure Beats Working". New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. .
External links
Profile at Turner Classic Movies
Photographs and literature
1917 births
1997 deaths
20th Century Fox contract players
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
American country singer-songwriters
American male composers
American male film actors
American male poets
American Methodists
American baritones
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Norwegian descent
California Republicans
Capitol Records artists
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Civilian Conservation Corps people
Combat medics
Connecticut Republicans
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from emphysema
Deaths from lung cancer
Haaren High School alumni
Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Male Western (genre) film actors
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Military personnel from Connecticut
Mitchum family
Monument Records artists
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
RKO Pictures contract players
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state) | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Robert Mitchum",
"Acting",
"When did he start acting?",
"1942 and 1943.",
"What was his first film?",
"His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd;",
"Did he have a big role in that?",
"Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films."
]
| C_1b646414938c45e983367b2ad6a17667_1 | What caused the mental breakdown? | 5 | What caused Robert Mitchum's mental breakdown? | Robert Mitchum | Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California in 1936, staying again with his sister Annette, now going by the name of Julie. She had migrated to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies. Soon, the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they returned to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh. They had two more children: Chris and Petrine. Mitchum got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. In 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. He rose to prominence
with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Early life
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Scots-Irish/Norwegian Methodist family. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.
Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.
Acting
Getting established
In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.
In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.
He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.
After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.
Film noir
Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, Undercurrent, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Ryan and Robert Young, earned five Academy Award nominations.
Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.
On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.
Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.
Mainstream stardom in the 1950s and 1960s
In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama The Racket (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.
Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.
Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.
On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day.
Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".
Mitchum returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.
Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films, including the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959) (in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne's character), and another WWII epic, Anzio (1968). He teamed with Martin again for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.
Later work
Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.
The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a re-make of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.
In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.
At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".
That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.
Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.
In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.
He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.
Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.
In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.
In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.
Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.
Music
One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.
Albums
Singles
Personal life
Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).
Reception, acting style and legacy
Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease.
Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in The Night of the Hunter, considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.
A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.
Documentaries
2017 : James Stewart/Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America directed by Gregory Monro
Filmography
References
Citations
General sources
Mitchum, John. Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum. Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large, 1989. .
Olson, James and Randy Roberts. John Wayne: American. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1997. .
O'Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions, 2002. .
Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum: In His Own Words. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. .
Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care". New York: St Martin's Press, 2001. .
Sound, Owen. TCM Film Guide: Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books, 2006. .
Tomkies, Mike. The Robert Mitchum Story: "It Sure Beats Working". New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. .
External links
Profile at Turner Classic Movies
Photographs and literature
1917 births
1997 deaths
20th Century Fox contract players
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
American country singer-songwriters
American male composers
American male film actors
American male poets
American Methodists
American baritones
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Norwegian descent
California Republicans
Capitol Records artists
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Civilian Conservation Corps people
Combat medics
Connecticut Republicans
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from emphysema
Deaths from lung cancer
Haaren High School alumni
Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Male Western (genre) film actors
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Military personnel from Connecticut
Mitchum family
Monument Records artists
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
RKO Pictures contract players
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state) | false | [
"Bedlam is the British mental health documentary filmed at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). The series offers unprecedented access to clinical services, patients and staff at the Trust.\n\nOverview\nThe first episode of the four-part series Bedlam was broadcast on Thursday, 31 October 2013 at 9 pm on C4.\n\nThe first programme, Anxiety, follow patients through the 18-bed Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit at Bethlem Royal Hospital. This national unit treats the most anxious people in the country - the top one per cent - and claims a success rate of three in four patients. Some are consumed by irrational fears they've caused a road accident in their sleep, harmed strangers or have intrusive thoughts.\n\nThe second programme is called Crisis. Cameras are allowed in Lambeth Hospital Triage ward for the first time. This is the Accident and Emergency of mental health - where patients are at their most unwell. This episode features Medical Director Dr Martin Baggaley who has spoken out about the pressure facing mental health services in England.\n\nThe third programme, Psychosis, films a community mental health team. South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provides support for more than 35,000 people with mental health problems.\n\nThe final programme, Breakdown, focuses on older adults, including the inpatient ward for people over 65 with mental health problems at Maudsley Hospital.\n\nName\nThe title ‘Bedlam’ was decided upon both by SLaM, Channel 4 and The Garden Productions. It is based on the fact that SLaM can trace its roots back to 1247 when the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem was established in the City of London. The priory, which became a refuge for the sick and infirm, was known as ‘Bedlam’ and was the earliest form of what is now Bethlem Royal Hospital. The title has generated concern and criticism from some mental health campaigners because of what is seen as the negative, stigmatising associations with the term ‘Bedlam’. In response, the Trust set out the process and thinking which led to the name being agreed.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust\n Bedlam on C4\n Channel 4\n The Garden Productions Ltd\n\n2013 British television series debuts\n2013 British television series endings\n2010s British documentary television series\nChannel 4 original programming\nChannel 4 documentary series\nEnglish-language television shows\nMental health in the United Kingdom\nTelevision series by ITV Studios",
"JetBlue Flight 191 was a scheduled domestic commercial passenger flight from New York to Las Vegas, United States. On March 27, 2012, the Airbus A320 serving the route diverted to Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, in Amarillo, Texas, after the captain, suffering from an apparent mental breakdown, started behaving erratically and was restrained by passengers. There were no fatalities.\n\nIncident\nCaptain Clayton Osbon was locked out of the cockpit by First Officer Jason Dowd and was subdued by passengers after he started acting erratically and ranting about terrorists and 9/11 and apparently suffered from an unspecified mental breakdown. The aircraft was then diverted to Amarillo. Osbon received medical treatment by Northwest Texas Healthcare System.\n\nDowd grew concerned when Osbon made comments such as \"We need to take a leap of faith\", \"We're not going to Vegas\", and \"I can't be held responsible when this plane crashes.\" Osbon began giving what the first officer described as a sermon. Dowd tricked Osbon into going to the passenger compartment, then locked the cockpit door and changed the security code. Osbon railed at passengers about Jesus, Al-Qaeda, countries in the Middle East, and a possible bomb on board. Alarmed passengers tackled him and tied him up with seat belt extenders. An off-duty JetBlue pilot who was travelling as a passenger joined Dowd in the cockpit and the plane landed about 20 minutes later in Amarillo. Osbon was arrested and charged with \"interference with a flight crew.\"\n\nThe 49-year-old Osbon was suspended from work after being with JetBlue for 12 years. He had attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated in 1987 from Nathaniel Hawthorne College, an aeronautics and aviation college located in New Hampshire.\n\nTrial and lawsuits \nOn Tuesday, July 3, 2012, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity of the charge of interference with the flight crew by an Amarillo, Texas-based federal judge, Judge Mary Lou Robinson. Mr. Osbon was then ordered to be held pending a further investigation; he was then immediately transferred to a mental health facility in Fort Worth for additional treatment.\n\nAfter Captain Osbon was evaluated in a federal mental health facility in North Carolina, on November 9, 2012, US District Judge Robinson freed him under the provisions that he continue mental health treatment, follow a prescribed medication regime, and meet a variety of other conditions. Osbon must continue to be monitored by his probation officer for an undetermined amount of time. \"This is a bad situation for you and your family, but you are very fortunate to have the type of immediate support you have,\" Robinson said. \"Good Luck, Mr. Osbon.\"\n\nIn March 2015, Mr. Osbon filed a suit against JetBlue for $14.9 million, claiming that the airline did not ensure he was fit to fly, and endangered the lives of the crew and the passengers. The suit was filed three days after the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash, in which the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane killing all the people aboard. The passenger suit was settled the following month; terms of the settlement were not disclosed to the public.\n\nCauses of illness \nThe cause of Osbon's mental breakdown remains unknown. Possibilities suggested included the onset of a psychotic disorder, a neurological event that compromised his brain function, or intoxication due to medication. In March 2015, Osbon filed a lawsuit against JetBlue in which he claimed the incident was caused by a complex partial brain seizure.\n\nSee also\nList of air rage incidents\n\nReferences\n\nAviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 2012\nAccidents and incidents involving the Airbus A320\nAirliner accidents and incidents in Texas\n2012 in Texas\n191\nMarch 2012 events in the United States\nAirliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot incapacitation"
]
|
[
"Robert Mitchum",
"Acting",
"When did he start acting?",
"1942 and 1943.",
"What was his first film?",
"His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd;",
"Did he have a big role in that?",
"Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films.",
"What caused the mental breakdown?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_1b646414938c45e983367b2ad6a17667_1 | What other acting did he do? | 6 | besides Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, what other acting did Robert Mitchum do? | Robert Mitchum | Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California in 1936, staying again with his sister Annette, now going by the name of Julie. She had migrated to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies. Soon, the rest of the Mitchum family joined them in Long Beach. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. His sister Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. In his years with the Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum made a living as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances. In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they returned to California. He remained a footloose character until the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh. They had two more children: Chris and Petrine. Mitchum got a steady job as a machine operator with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Mitchum suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), apparently from job-related stress. He sought work as an actor or extra in films. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. In 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, Mitchum was lent from RKO to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after making the film, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir. CANNOTANSWER | After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. | Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. He rose to prominence
with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), followed by starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Out of the Past (1947), River of No Return (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Thunder Road (1958), Cape Fear (1962), El Dorado (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).
Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Early life
Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Scots-Irish/Norwegian Methodist family. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Scots-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.
Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.
As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.
Acting
Getting established
In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.
In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.
He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film The Human Comedy starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film Gung Ho! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.
After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.
Film noir
Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, Undercurrent, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Robert Ryan and Robert Young, earned five Academy Award nominations.
Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.
On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.
Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.
Mainstream stardom in the 1950s and 1960s
In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama The Racket (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.
Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.
Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in The Night of the Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.
On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the 1962 World War II epic The Longest Day.
Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".
Mitchum returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.
Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film The Sundowners (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.
Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films, including the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959) (in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne's character), and another WWII epic, Anzio (1968). He teamed with Martin again for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.
Later work
Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.
The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) (a re-make of 1944's Murder My Sweet) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep, a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.
In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.
At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".
That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.
Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.
In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.
He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.
Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.
In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.
In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.
Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.
Music
One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.
Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.
Albums
Singles
Personal life
Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).
Reception, acting style and legacy
Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease.
Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in The Night of the Hunter, considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.
A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.
Documentaries
2017 : James Stewart/Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America directed by Gregory Monro
Filmography
References
Citations
General sources
Mitchum, John. Them Ornery Mitchum Boys: The Adventures of Robert and John Mitchum. Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large, 1989. .
Olson, James and Randy Roberts. John Wayne: American. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1997. .
O'Steen, Sam. Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies. Los Angeles: Michael Wiese Productions, 2002. .
Roberts, Jerry. Mitchum: In His Own Words. New York: Limelight Editions, 2000. .
Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby, I Don't Care". New York: St Martin's Press, 2001. .
Sound, Owen. TCM Film Guide: Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. San Francisco, California: Chronicle Books, 2006. .
Tomkies, Mike. The Robert Mitchum Story: "It Sure Beats Working". New York: Ballantine Books, 1972. .
External links
Profile at Turner Classic Movies
Photographs and literature
1917 births
1997 deaths
20th Century Fox contract players
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American memoirists
20th-century American male singers
20th-century American singers
American country singer-songwriters
American male composers
American male film actors
American male poets
American Methodists
American baritones
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Norwegian descent
California Republicans
Capitol Records artists
Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
Civilian Conservation Corps people
Combat medics
Connecticut Republicans
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from emphysema
Deaths from lung cancer
Haaren High School alumni
Male actors from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Male Western (genre) film actors
Military personnel from Bridgeport, Connecticut
Military personnel from Connecticut
Mitchum family
Monument Records artists
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
RKO Pictures contract players
United States Army personnel of World War II
United States Army soldiers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state) | true | [
"\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)",
"Mukul Chadda is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema.\n\nEarly life and education\nMukul was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and it was after working in a bank in New York City that he decided to take his passion for acting forward. Even while he was in New York City, he take part-time classes at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He did shows and he would rehearse on weekends. Then he left his job and came to India. His plan was to try it out for a year or two and see what happens next. Then he did it for longer and after he did a bunch of advertisements and other stuff then he realized that acting was paying his bills, so he continued acting.\n\nPersonal life\nMukul has been married to actress Rasika Dugal since 2010.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilms\n\nWeb Series\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nIndian male actors\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nIndian male film actors\nMale actors in Hindi cinema\nMale actors from Mumbai\nIndian stage actors\n \nIndian Institute of Management Ahmedabad\nIndian Institute of Management Ahmedabad\nIndian Institutes of Management alumni"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character"
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | What is meant by the UKJ character? | 1 | What is meant by the UKJ character? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"International Territorial Level (ITL) is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of the United Kingdom for statistical purposes, used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Between 2003 and 2021, as part of the European Union and European Statistical System, the geocode standard used for the United Kingdom were Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS. \n\nFollowing Brexit, the ONS set to develop a domestic statistical classification framework separate from NUTS. Currently the ITLs are a mirror to the pre-existing NUTS system, they retain the same three level hierarchy and boundaries used for NUTS in the United Kingdom since 2018, with the next review scheduled for 2024. ITLs are set to follow a similar review timetable to NUTS, being reviewed every three years. The ONS will develop new official GSS codes of ITL geography aligned with the existing NUTS codes. From 1 January 2021, the ONS encourages ITL be used as a replacement to NUTS, with lookups between NUTS and ITL maintained and published until 2023.\n\nThe current ITL classification is a mirror of the previous NUTS classification with slight modification, the ONS lists 12 regions at ITL 1, 41 regions at ITL 2, and 179 regions at ITL 3. \"UK\" in the NUTS codes were replaced with \"TL\".\n\nThe last NUTS classification is dated 21 November 2016 and was effective from 1 January 2018, listed 12 regions at NUTS 1, 40 regions at NUTS 2, and 174 regions at NUTS 3 level.\n\nNUTS 2018 codes\n\nNUTS 2015 codes (now superseded)\n\nDemographic statistics by ITL 1 region\nThe 12 ITL regions of the United Kingdom are listed below. Population numbers are for mid-2019 (as NUTS 1), and areas are in square kilometers. Data is from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nHistory\n\nNUTS 2003\n\nIn the first version in 2003, North Eastern Scotland (which then included part of Moray) was coded UKM1, and Highlands and Islands was coded UKM4.\n\nThe current NUTS level 1 codes start with \"C\" (following \"UK\") rather than \"1\" because the new list reflected the revised regions of England and local government changes throughout the UK; \"1\" to \"B\" had been used for the 11 regions in the previous coding system.\n\nNUTS 2006\n\nNUTS 2006 came into force on 1 January 2008.\n\nNUTS 2010\n\nNUTS 2010 came into force on 1 January 2012.\n\n2010 changes to NUTS 2 also resulting in changes with NUTS 3 regions\n\n The combined area of UKD2 (Cheshire pre-2010) and UKD5 (Merseyside pre-2010) were replaced by UKD6 (Cheshire post-2010) and UKD7 (Merseyside post-2010), due to the transfer of Halton to the Merseyside NUTS region from Cheshire. This resulted in the following changes to the underlying NUTS 3 areas: UKD22 (Cheshire CC) being split into UKD62 (Cheshire East) and UKD63 (Cheshire West and Chester); The areas of Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral were not changed as NUTS 3 areas however to reflect their transfer within NUTS 2 areas were respectively renumbered from (UKD52 to UKD72; UKD53 to UKD 73 and UKD54 to UKD 74). The two areas of UKD51 (East Merseyside pre 2010) and UKD21 (Halton and Warrington) were amended by the transfer of Halton from the latter to former to form the new areas of UKD71 (East Merseyside post-2010) and UKD61 (Warrington).\n\n2010 changes to NUTS 3 areas without changes occurring to NUTS 2 areas\n\n UKE43 (Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield) was replaced by UKE44 (Calderdale and Kirklees) and UKE45 (Wakefield)\n UKF23 (Northamptonshire) was replaced by UKF24 (West Northamptonshire) and UKF25 (North Northamptonshire)\n UKG34 (Dudley and Sandwell) was replaced by UKG36 (Dudley) and UKG37 (Sandwell)\n UKG35 (Walsall and Wolverhampton) was replaced by UKG38 (Walsall) and UKG39 (Wolverhampton).\n Bedfordshire CC UKH22 was replaced by UKH24 (Bedford) and UKH25 (Central Bedfordshire)\n\nNUTS 2013\n\nNUTS 2013 came into force on 1 January 2015.\n\n2015 changes to NUTS 3 areas without changes to NUTS 2 areas:\n\n UKJ42 (Kent CC) was replaced by UKJ43 (Kent Thames Gateway) UKJ44 (East Kent) UKJ45 (Mid Kent) UKJ46 (West Kent)\n UKJ23 (Surrey) was replaced by UKJ25 (West Surrey) and UKJ26 (East Surrey)\n UKJ24 (West Sussex) was replaced by UKJ27 (West Sussex South West) and UKJ28 (West Sussex North East) \n UKJ33 (Hampshire CC) was replaced by UKJ35 (South Hampshire), UKJ36 (Central Hampshire), UKJ37 (North Hampshire)\n UKD43 (Lancashire CC) was replaced by UKD44 (Lancaster and Wyre), UKD45 (Mid Lancashire), UKD46 (East Lancashire) and UKD47 (Chorley and West Lancashire)\n UKD31 (Greater Manchester South) was replaced by UKD33 (Manchester), UKD34 (Greater Manchester South West) and UKD35 (Greater Manchester South East)\n UKD32 (Greater Manchester North) was replaced by UKD36 (Greater Manchester North West) and UKD37 (Greater Manchester North East)\n UKH13 (Norfolk) was replaced by UKH15 (Norwich and East Norfolk), UKH16 (North and West Norfolk) and UKH17 (Breckland and South Norfolk)\n UKH33 (Essex CC) was replaced by UKH34 (Essex Haven Gateway), UKH35 (West Essex), UKH36 (Heart of Essex) and UKH37 (Essex Thames Gateway)\n\nIn 2015 the Greater London NUTS 1 area was left unchanged however the previous NUTS 2 area of inner and outer London were abolished and with the previous NUTS 3 areas becoming NUTS 2 areas. Thus NUTS 2 of Inner London West UKI11 becoming the NUTS 3 area of UKI3 and likewise: Inner London East (from UKI12 to UKI4), Outer London East and North East (from UKI21 to UKI5), Outer London South (from UKI22 to UKI6) and Outer London West and North West (from UKI23 to UKI7). The NUTS 3 areas are now a single or a group of two or three boroughs.\n\nNUTS 2016\n UKM2 (Eastern Scotland) is replaced with UKM7 (Eastern Scotland) along with associated NUTS 3 areas\n UKM3 (South Western Scotland) is replaced with UKM8 (West Central Scotland) and UKM9 (Southern Scotland\n\nITL 2021 \nFollowing Brexit, the classification used by the ONS was replaced with ITLs. Between 2021 and the next review scheduled for 2024, the ITLs are a mirror of the NUTS classification adopted in 2018. All NUTS codes containing \"UK\" were changed to use \"TL\" for Territorial Level.\n\nLocal administrative units\n\nBelow the ITL levels, the two LAU (Local Administrative Units) levels are:\n\nThe two LAU levels are maintained by the UK Office for National Statistics within the ONS coding system.\n\nThe LAU codes of the United Kingdom can be downloaded here: ''\n\nSee also\n\n Subdivisions of the United Kingdom\nList of regions of the United Kingdom by Human Development Index\n ISO 3166-2 codes of the United Kingdom\n FIPS region codes of the United Kingdom\n\nSources\n\n Metadata Download NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), by regional level (NUTS) accessed 11 June 2012\n Overview map of EU Countries – NUTS level 1\n UNITED KINGDOM – NUTS level 2\n UNITED KINGDOM Center North – NUTS level 3\n UNITED KINGDOM Center South – NUTS level 3\n UNITED KINGDOM North – NUTS level 3\n UNITED KINGDOM South – NUTS level 3\n Correspondence between the NUTS levels and the national administrative units\n List of current NUTS codes\n Download current NUTS codes (ODS format)\n Divisions of the United Kingdom, Statoids.com\n Listings of subdivisions of NUTS / LAU areas, Office for National Statistics, accessed 6 September 2012\n\nExternal links\n Eurostat Overview of the NUTS classification\n UK Office for National Statistics Guidance on Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) / Local Administrative Units (LAU)\n\n \nTypes of subdivision in the United Kingdom\nUnited Kingdom",
"Sportklub Niederösterreich St. Pölten, commonly known as simply SKN St. Pölten, is a basketball club based in Sankt Pölten, Austria. The club has won the Austrian championship six times, between 1993 and 1999. St. Pölten currently plays in the Superliga, the highest league in Austria.\n\nIn 2019, the club agreed with football club SKN St. Pölten to adopt its name and logo.\n\nNames\nUntil 2005: UKJ SUBA Sankt Pölten\n2005–2007: UKJ St. Pölten Haie\n2007–2008: Sankt Pölten Basketball\n2008–2012: UBC Sankt Pölten\n2012–2017: Chin Min Dragons UBC Sankt Pölten\n2017–2019: UBC Sankt Pölten\n2019–present: SKN St. Pölten Basketball\n\nHonours\nAustrian Championship (6):\n 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999\nAustrian Basketball Cup (3):\n 1994, 1996, 1998\nAustrian Second League\nWinners (1): 2015–16\nRunners-up (2): 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19\n\nSeason by season\n\nPlayers\n\nCurrent roster\n\nNotable former players\nEither:\n- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.\n- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team at any time.\n Philip Jalalpoor\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nTeam profile at eurobasket.com\nOfficial website \n\nBasketball teams in Austria\nSankt Pölten\nBasketball teams established in 1955"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,"
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | What did the character represent? | 2 | What did the UKJ character represent? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"Ra (hiragana: ら; katakana: ラ) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both versions are written with two strokes and have origins in the character 良; both characters represent the sound . The Ainu language uses a small katakana ㇻ to represent a final r sound after an a sound (アㇻ ar). The combination of an R-column kana letter with ゜ら゚ in hiragana, and ラ゚ in katakana was introduced to represent [la] in the early 20th century.\n\nStroke order\n\nOther communicative representations\n\n Full Braille representation\n\n Computer encodings\n\nSee also\nJapanese phonology\n\nReferences\nThe Compact Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary, (Andrew N Nelson, John H Haig) Tuttle Publishing, 1999\n\nSpecific kana",
"Sa (hiragana: さ, katakana: サ) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent . The shapes of these kana originate from 左 and 散, respectively.\n\nLike き, the hiragana character may be written with or without linking the lower line to the rest of the character.\n\nThe character may be combined with a dakuten, changing it into ざ in hiragana, ザ in katakana, and za in Hepburn romanization. The pronunciation is also changed, to .\n\nStroke order\n\nOther communicative representations\n\n Full Braille representation\n\n Computer encodings\n\nReferences\n\nSpecific kana"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,",
"What did the character represent?",
"he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends"
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | Who designed the character? | 3 | Who designed the UKJ character? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman ( | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"is a Japanese character designer and director of numerous anime series and video games who also goes by the pseudonym . His directorial work includes Parasite Dolls, the anime sequence in Kill Bill: Volume 1, and the Moondrive segment of Genius Party Beyond. He has designed characters for many anime, such as Ashita no Nadja and Samurai Champloo, for which he also served as animation director. In addition to his work with anime, he designed the characters of Tales of Legendia and was the animation director of Devil Kings. Throughout his career, he has worked also as an animator, providing key animations to anime such as The Animatrix's \"Kid's Story\" and \"A Detective Story\". He has made two appearances at anime conventions in the United States: at Otakon in 1999 and 2006. He also animated the Joe Hahn-directed music video for the Linkin Park song \"Breaking the Habit.\"\n\nFilmography\n\nTV series\nEl-Hazard (1995) – character design, chief animation director\nTenchi in Tokyo (1997) – character design, chief animation director\nBlack Heaven (1999) – character design\nFinal Fantasy: Unlimited (2001) – character design\nAshita no Nadja (2003) – character design\nSamurai Champloo (2004) – character design, screenplay & storyboard & chief animation director (ep 15)\nYurururu ~Nichijou Hen~ (2007) – director\nHouse of Five Leaves (2010) – character design, chief animation director (ep 4)\nTerror in Resonance (2014) – character design, chief animation director (ep 1-7)\nDays (2016) – character design\nFena: Pirate Princess (2021) – creator, director\n\nFilms\nHells Angels (2008) – character design\nGenius Party Beyond: Moondrive (2008) – director, character design\nMusashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai (2009) – character design\nCOMEDY SKIT (Hitman) 1989 (2015) – director\n\nOVAs/ONAs\nEl Hazard: The Magnificent World (1995) – character design\nStarship Girl Yamamoto Yohko (1996) – character design\nBattle Arena Toshinden (1996) – character design\nStarship Girl Yamamoto Yohko II (1997) – character design\nEl Hazard 2: The Magnificent World (1997) – character design\nCOMEDY (2002) – director\nParasite Dolls (2003) – director\nVassalord (2013) – director\nB: The Beginning (2018) – creator, director, character design, chief animation director\nB: The Beginning – Succession (2021) – creator, chief director, character design, series composition\n\nVideo games\nLe Roman de la Reine (1998) – character design\nTales of Legendia (2005) – character design\nAsura's Wrath (2012) – director & main character design (ep 15.5)\n\nMusic videos\nLinkin Park - Breaking the Habit (2004) – director\nASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION - Atarashii Sekai (2008) – director\nsupercell - Utakata Hanabi (2010) – director\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Production IG Interview: \"The Making of Asience 5\"\n\nJapanese animators\nJapanese animated film directors\nJapanese music video directors\nAnime directors\nAnime character designers\nLiving people\n1968 births\nPeople from Niigata Prefecture",
"The Fine Young Capitalists is an organization that sponsored a video game design contest for women in 2014. They are primarily known for their involvement in the harassment campaign known as Gamergate after users of the website 4chan provided significant financial support for the project. The project resulted in the game Afterlife Empire; a character created for the game, Vivian James, became a symbol of Gamergate.\n\nHistory\nThe Fine Young Capitalists corporation was created by a partnership between Colombian media developer Autobótika and Canadian organization Empowered Up. It was founded with the goal of helping women and other underrepresented groups get involved in video game design. Its founder is Matthew Rappard, who is the only member who is publicly identified. In 2014, The Fine Young Capitalists started a competition for women to pitch game ideas. The top pitches would be given to an artist for storyboarding, with the art put online for public voting. The winning entry would be designed by Autobótika, with the winner receiving 8% of the profits and the rest going to charity.\n\nIn February 2014, The Fine Young Capitalists became involved in a dispute with game designer Zoë Quinn, who criticized the group for its transgender policy and for not paying designers who participated in the contest. The dispute played out especially on Twitter and the website 4chan. After the Gamergate harassment campaign began in August 2014 with attacks on Quinn and other women in the video game industry, 4chan users who disliked Quinn began contributing financial support to The Fine Young Capitalists' Indiegogo campaign to spite Quinn. 4chan users stated that supporting a feminist group's game competition would cast them in a good light while making Quinn look bad. 4chan members soon became the project's major donors, eventually contributing over . The Fine Young Capitalists drew criticism for working with 4chan.\n\nFor their donations, The Fine Young Capitalists allowed 4chan members to place their logo in the winning game, and to select the charity that would receive the funds. They also allowed 4chan to create a character to be included in the game. 4chan users created \"Vivian James\", a character designed to appear like an ordinary female gamer; her name is meant to sound like \"video games\". The character became a mascot for Gamergate. The colors of her striped purple and green hooded sweatshirt represent a viral 4chan meme known as \"daily dose\", which depicted a character from the anime Dragon Ball Z anally raping another character. The character was met with criticism, mainly for the character's association with 4chan. Allegra Ringo of Vice called her \"a character masquerading as a feminist icon for the express purpose of spiting feminists\". \n\nThe winner of the contest was Afterlife Empire, designed and written by Danielle Maiorino; Autobótika developed the game, which was released on Steam on August 21, 2015.\nOther projects by The Fine Young Capitalists included videos about female video game designers, which were sponsored by 4chan users during the development of Afterlife Empire. In 2015, The Fine Young Capitalists worked with pornographic actress Mercedes Carrera to create a scholarship for students studying in STEM fields. Fundraising included a live webcam show featuring Carrera; $11,280 was raised.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nTFYC on Tumblr\n\nIndependent video game developers\nWomen and video games"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,",
"What did the character represent?",
"he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends",
"Who designed the character?",
"UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman ("
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | What other characters were designed? | 4 | What other characters were designed by fans other than UKJ? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"Hollyworld is a role playing game published in 2005 by Blacksburg Tactical Resource Center (BTRC), and designed by Greg Porter.\n\nSetting\nHollyworlds premise is both simple and humorous. What if everything behaved like it does in big budget action movies? Falling rarely does damage, explosions can't hurt if you are running away from them, and children and cute creatures must be rescued. All characters are Actors, and have a goal of becoming more famous than other actors.\n\nSystem\nHollyworld uses a custom game system, designed for fast, easy and non-realistic play. Every character is an Actor, and everything that happens is part of a Movie. Characters have only two states, Style and Substance'.\n\nBlacksburg Tactical Research Center games\nComedy role-playing games\nRole-playing games introduced in 2005",
"Paradox Live is a Japanese media mix project created by Avex Pictures. The project features 14 voice actors and is centered on rap battles between each faction.\n\nSummary \nIn the near future, amidst the Hip-Hop culture rises a new movement called \"Phantom Live\". The rappers create illusions linked to their emotions using chemically reactive accessories that contain a metal called \"phantometal\" with their own DNA to enthuse young people on a brilliant stage. Behind the scenes, however, they suffer from \"traumatic illusions\" as a side effect.\n\nThe Paradox Live's story follow four groups who are immensely popular with their respective genres. BAE, The Cat’s Whisker’s, cozmez and Akan Yatsura (悪漢奴等). They will lead the way to the legendary club called CLUB PARADOX where the mysterious gathering occurs. In order to prove that their own music is the number 1, they participate in battles. The curtains are raised to this illusionary stage battle where light and darkness come together in a swirling frenzy.\n\nCharacters\n\nBAE\n\nThe characters of BAE were designed by Akane Aki.\n\nAllen is 21 years old and uses the rapper name Suzaku. He is a quarter-Russian and comes from a family with a musical background.\n\nHajun is 21 years old and uses the rapper name 48. He is South Korean and his family owns a large conglomerate. He has a kind smile but has a sadistic personality.\n\nAnne is 20 years old and uses the rapper name AnZ. He is an otokonoko and looks feminine because of his fashionable appearance, but he is described as the manliest in the group.\n\nThe Cat's Whiskers\n\nThe characters of The Cat's Whiskers were designed by Kuniharu Komiya.\n\nNaoakira is 34 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nYohei is 28 years old and uses the rapper name God Summer.\n\nRyu claims to be 800 years old and uses the rapper name \n\nShiki is 17 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nCozmez\n\nThe characters of Cozmez were designed by Kinako.\n\nKanata is 19 years old and uses the rapper name Kanata (in romaji).\n\nNayuta is 19 years old and uses the rapper name Nayuta (in romaji).\n\nAkan Yatsura\n\nThe characters of were designed by Harada.\n\nIori is 28 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nZen is 27 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nHokusai is 24 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nSatsuki is 19 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nReo is 17 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nBuraikan\n\nThe characters of were designed by Suoh.\n\nChisei uses the rapper name .\n\nHaruomi is 36 years old and uses the rapper name .\n\nVISTY \nThe characters of VISTY were designed by Kazari Tayu. \n\nShogo is 20 years old and uses the rapper name SHOGO.\n\nToma is 21 years old and uses the rapper name TOMA.\n\nAoi is 16 years old and uses the rapper name AOI.\n\nKantaro is 17 years old and uses the rapper name KANTARO.\n\nAMPRULE \nThe characters of AMPRULE were designed by Uri. \n\nDongha is 14 years old and uses the rapper name lil EMPERA.\n\nChungsung is 28 years old and uses the rapper name BATTLER.\n\n1Nm8 \nThe characters of 1Nm8 (pronounced In Mate) were designed by Hou. \n\nKei is 19 years old and uses the rapper name 7.\n\nItsuki is 17 years old and uses the rapper name 5.\n\nRokuta is 17 years old and uses the rapper name 6.\n\nGoku Luck \nThe characters of Goku Luck (獄Luck) were designed by Lack. \n\nYuto is 32 years old and uses the rapper name HANCHO.\n\nRyoga is 23 years old and uses the rapper name PITBULL.\n\nShion is 16 years old and uses the rapper name smokin'dog.\n\nKenta is 15 years old and uses the rapper name anonymous.\n\nDiscography\n\nSingles\n\nAlbums\n\nVideo Albums\n\nOther charted songs\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\nAnimated musical groups\nAvex Group artists\nJapanese boy bands\n\nJapanese musical groups\nJapanese rappers\nMusical groups established in 2019\n2019 establishments in Japan"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,",
"What did the character represent?",
"he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends",
"Who designed the character?",
"UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (",
"What other characters were designed?",
"coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves."
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | Where did the character appear? | 5 | Where did the UKJ character appear? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"Marcel Junior Loutarila (; born April 3, 2000), better known as Koba LaD (), is a French rapper from Évry, Île-de-France. He grew up in famous Bâtiment 7 in Évry, where Bolémvn came from. His name Koba is inspired from the fictional character in Planet of the Apes. \"LaD\" means 'la débrouille, la détaille, la défonce'. He is signed with Def Jam Recordings. The wealth of Koba laD is estimated at $3,500,000.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nEPs\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\n*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.\n\nAs featured artist\n\n*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.\n\nOther charted songs\n\n*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.\n\nReferences\n\n2000 births\nLiving people\nFrench rappers\n French people of Republic of the Congo descent\nPeople from Évry, Essonne\nRappers from Essonne",
"Rinth Island is a third person adventure puzzle game that combines 2D and 3D perspectives. The game is played through either the male character (Gimble) or the female character (Libby) as they help rebuild the town on Rinth Island after a powerful storm. The game received positive reviews, but was not a commercial success, with only 1,990 downloads from the iOS App Store. It was removed by 2015.\n\nGameplay\nThe player controls either as the male character Gimble, or the female character Libby. The character is controlled by a virtual direction pad that can go either left or right, or by touching the screen towards where the character would move. The characters cannot jump, so players must make use of ladders and flying bugs to elevate. The player pushes coconuts and crates, pulls levers, and fires cannons and explosives in order to clear off obstacles such as opening/closing platforms, baskets, and rocks. There are four modes in the game: Basic (beat the level), steps (beat the level under a certain number of steps), timed (beat the level quickly), and crystal (collectible crystals appear in the level, often requiring the player to access parts of the level they did not consider before).\n\nReception\n\nReferences\n\n2012 video games\nPuzzle video games\nVideo games with 2.5D graphics\nIOS games\nIOS-only games\nVideo games featuring female protagonists\nVideo games developed in the United States"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,",
"What did the character represent?",
"he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends",
"Who designed the character?",
"UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (",
"What other characters were designed?",
"coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves.",
"Where did the character appear?",
"Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans."
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | Anything particularly interesting about the UKJ? | 6 | Anything particularly interesting about the UKJ? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"International Territorial Level (ITL) is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of the United Kingdom for statistical purposes, used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Between 2003 and 2021, as part of the European Union and European Statistical System, the geocode standard used for the United Kingdom were Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS. \n\nFollowing Brexit, the ONS set to develop a domestic statistical classification framework separate from NUTS. Currently the ITLs are a mirror to the pre-existing NUTS system, they retain the same three level hierarchy and boundaries used for NUTS in the United Kingdom since 2018, with the next review scheduled for 2024. ITLs are set to follow a similar review timetable to NUTS, being reviewed every three years. The ONS will develop new official GSS codes of ITL geography aligned with the existing NUTS codes. From 1 January 2021, the ONS encourages ITL be used as a replacement to NUTS, with lookups between NUTS and ITL maintained and published until 2023.\n\nThe current ITL classification is a mirror of the previous NUTS classification with slight modification, the ONS lists 12 regions at ITL 1, 41 regions at ITL 2, and 179 regions at ITL 3. \"UK\" in the NUTS codes were replaced with \"TL\".\n\nThe last NUTS classification is dated 21 November 2016 and was effective from 1 January 2018, listed 12 regions at NUTS 1, 40 regions at NUTS 2, and 174 regions at NUTS 3 level.\n\nNUTS 2018 codes\n\nNUTS 2015 codes (now superseded)\n\nDemographic statistics by ITL 1 region\nThe 12 ITL regions of the United Kingdom are listed below. Population numbers are for mid-2019 (as NUTS 1), and areas are in square kilometers. Data is from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nHistory\n\nNUTS 2003\n\nIn the first version in 2003, North Eastern Scotland (which then included part of Moray) was coded UKM1, and Highlands and Islands was coded UKM4.\n\nThe current NUTS level 1 codes start with \"C\" (following \"UK\") rather than \"1\" because the new list reflected the revised regions of England and local government changes throughout the UK; \"1\" to \"B\" had been used for the 11 regions in the previous coding system.\n\nNUTS 2006\n\nNUTS 2006 came into force on 1 January 2008.\n\nNUTS 2010\n\nNUTS 2010 came into force on 1 January 2012.\n\n2010 changes to NUTS 2 also resulting in changes with NUTS 3 regions\n\n The combined area of UKD2 (Cheshire pre-2010) and UKD5 (Merseyside pre-2010) were replaced by UKD6 (Cheshire post-2010) and UKD7 (Merseyside post-2010), due to the transfer of Halton to the Merseyside NUTS region from Cheshire. This resulted in the following changes to the underlying NUTS 3 areas: UKD22 (Cheshire CC) being split into UKD62 (Cheshire East) and UKD63 (Cheshire West and Chester); The areas of Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral were not changed as NUTS 3 areas however to reflect their transfer within NUTS 2 areas were respectively renumbered from (UKD52 to UKD72; UKD53 to UKD 73 and UKD54 to UKD 74). The two areas of UKD51 (East Merseyside pre 2010) and UKD21 (Halton and Warrington) were amended by the transfer of Halton from the latter to former to form the new areas of UKD71 (East Merseyside post-2010) and UKD61 (Warrington).\n\n2010 changes to NUTS 3 areas without changes occurring to NUTS 2 areas\n\n UKE43 (Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield) was replaced by UKE44 (Calderdale and Kirklees) and UKE45 (Wakefield)\n UKF23 (Northamptonshire) was replaced by UKF24 (West Northamptonshire) and UKF25 (North Northamptonshire)\n UKG34 (Dudley and Sandwell) was replaced by UKG36 (Dudley) and UKG37 (Sandwell)\n UKG35 (Walsall and Wolverhampton) was replaced by UKG38 (Walsall) and UKG39 (Wolverhampton).\n Bedfordshire CC UKH22 was replaced by UKH24 (Bedford) and UKH25 (Central Bedfordshire)\n\nNUTS 2013\n\nNUTS 2013 came into force on 1 January 2015.\n\n2015 changes to NUTS 3 areas without changes to NUTS 2 areas:\n\n UKJ42 (Kent CC) was replaced by UKJ43 (Kent Thames Gateway) UKJ44 (East Kent) UKJ45 (Mid Kent) UKJ46 (West Kent)\n UKJ23 (Surrey) was replaced by UKJ25 (West Surrey) and UKJ26 (East Surrey)\n UKJ24 (West Sussex) was replaced by UKJ27 (West Sussex South West) and UKJ28 (West Sussex North East) \n UKJ33 (Hampshire CC) was replaced by UKJ35 (South Hampshire), UKJ36 (Central Hampshire), UKJ37 (North Hampshire)\n UKD43 (Lancashire CC) was replaced by UKD44 (Lancaster and Wyre), UKD45 (Mid Lancashire), UKD46 (East Lancashire) and UKD47 (Chorley and West Lancashire)\n UKD31 (Greater Manchester South) was replaced by UKD33 (Manchester), UKD34 (Greater Manchester South West) and UKD35 (Greater Manchester South East)\n UKD32 (Greater Manchester North) was replaced by UKD36 (Greater Manchester North West) and UKD37 (Greater Manchester North East)\n UKH13 (Norfolk) was replaced by UKH15 (Norwich and East Norfolk), UKH16 (North and West Norfolk) and UKH17 (Breckland and South Norfolk)\n UKH33 (Essex CC) was replaced by UKH34 (Essex Haven Gateway), UKH35 (West Essex), UKH36 (Heart of Essex) and UKH37 (Essex Thames Gateway)\n\nIn 2015 the Greater London NUTS 1 area was left unchanged however the previous NUTS 2 area of inner and outer London were abolished and with the previous NUTS 3 areas becoming NUTS 2 areas. Thus NUTS 2 of Inner London West UKI11 becoming the NUTS 3 area of UKI3 and likewise: Inner London East (from UKI12 to UKI4), Outer London East and North East (from UKI21 to UKI5), Outer London South (from UKI22 to UKI6) and Outer London West and North West (from UKI23 to UKI7). The NUTS 3 areas are now a single or a group of two or three boroughs.\n\nNUTS 2016\n UKM2 (Eastern Scotland) is replaced with UKM7 (Eastern Scotland) along with associated NUTS 3 areas\n UKM3 (South Western Scotland) is replaced with UKM8 (West Central Scotland) and UKM9 (Southern Scotland\n\nITL 2021 \nFollowing Brexit, the classification used by the ONS was replaced with ITLs. Between 2021 and the next review scheduled for 2024, the ITLs are a mirror of the NUTS classification adopted in 2018. All NUTS codes containing \"UK\" were changed to use \"TL\" for Territorial Level.\n\nLocal administrative units\n\nBelow the ITL levels, the two LAU (Local Administrative Units) levels are:\n\nThe two LAU levels are maintained by the UK Office for National Statistics within the ONS coding system.\n\nThe LAU codes of the United Kingdom can be downloaded here: ''\n\nSee also\n\n Subdivisions of the United Kingdom\nList of regions of the United Kingdom by Human Development Index\n ISO 3166-2 codes of the United Kingdom\n FIPS region codes of the United Kingdom\n\nSources\n\n Metadata Download NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), by regional level (NUTS) accessed 11 June 2012\n Overview map of EU Countries – NUTS level 1\n UNITED KINGDOM – NUTS level 2\n UNITED KINGDOM Center North – NUTS level 3\n UNITED KINGDOM Center South – NUTS level 3\n UNITED KINGDOM North – NUTS level 3\n UNITED KINGDOM South – NUTS level 3\n Correspondence between the NUTS levels and the national administrative units\n List of current NUTS codes\n Download current NUTS codes (ODS format)\n Divisions of the United Kingdom, Statoids.com\n Listings of subdivisions of NUTS / LAU areas, Office for National Statistics, accessed 6 September 2012\n\nExternal links\n Eurostat Overview of the NUTS classification\n UK Office for National Statistics Guidance on Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) / Local Administrative Units (LAU)\n\n \nTypes of subdivision in the United Kingdom\nUnited Kingdom",
"Sportklub Niederösterreich St. Pölten, commonly known as simply SKN St. Pölten, is a basketball club based in Sankt Pölten, Austria. The club has won the Austrian championship six times, between 1993 and 1999. St. Pölten currently plays in the Superliga, the highest league in Austria.\n\nIn 2019, the club agreed with football club SKN St. Pölten to adopt its name and logo.\n\nNames\nUntil 2005: UKJ SUBA Sankt Pölten\n2005–2007: UKJ St. Pölten Haie\n2007–2008: Sankt Pölten Basketball\n2008–2012: UBC Sankt Pölten\n2012–2017: Chin Min Dragons UBC Sankt Pölten\n2017–2019: UBC Sankt Pölten\n2019–present: SKN St. Pölten Basketball\n\nHonours\nAustrian Championship (6):\n 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999\nAustrian Basketball Cup (3):\n 1994, 1996, 1998\nAustrian Second League\nWinners (1): 2015–16\nRunners-up (2): 2014–15, 2016–17, 2018–19\n\nSeason by season\n\nPlayers\n\nCurrent roster\n\nNotable former players\nEither:\n- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.\n- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team at any time.\n Philip Jalalpoor\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nTeam profile at eurobasket.com\nOfficial website \n\nBasketball teams in Austria\nSankt Pölten\nBasketball teams established in 1955"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,",
"What did the character represent?",
"he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends",
"Who designed the character?",
"UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (",
"What other characters were designed?",
"coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves.",
"Where did the character appear?",
"Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans.",
"Anything particularly interesting about the UKJ?",
"a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected."
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | What is the rule of "Not For Sale"? | 7 | What is the rule of "Not For Sale" for UKJ? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
People from Isla Vista, California | false | [
"The uptick rule is a trading restriction that states that short selling a stock is only allowed on an uptick. For the rule to be satisfied, the short must be either at a price above the last traded price of the security, or at the last traded price when the most recent movement between traded prices was upward (i.e. the security has traded below the last-traded price more recently than above that price).\n\nThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defined the rule, and summarized it:\"Rule 10a-1(a)(1) provided that, subject to certain exceptions, a listed security may be sold short (A) at a price above the price at which the immediately preceding sale was effected (plus tick), or (B) at the last sale price if it is higher than the last different price (zero-plus tick). Short sales were not permitted on minus ticks or zero-minus ticks, subject to narrow exceptions.\"\n\nThe rule went into effect in 1938 and was removed when Rule 201 Regulation SHO became effective in 2007. In 2009, the reintroduction of the uptick rule was widely debated, and proposals for a form of its reintroduction by the SEC went into a public comment period on 2009-04-08. A modified form of the rule, known as a short-sale restriction, was adopted on 2010-02-24.\n\nUnited States\n\nOrigin\nIn 1938, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted the uptick rule, more formally known as rule 10a-1, after conducting an inquiry into the effects of concentrated short selling during the market break of 1937. The original rule was implemented when Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was SEC commissioner.\n\nIn 1994, the NASD and Nasdaq adopted their own short sale price tests, known as NASD Rule 3350, based on the last bid rather than on the last reported sale.\n\nIn 1978, the purpose of the uptick rule was described in a standard text \"It was not unusual [prior to 1934] to discover groups of speculators pooling their capital and selling short for the sole purpose of driving down the stock price of a particular security to a level where the stockholders would panic and unload their fully owned shares. This, in turn, caused even greater declines in value.\"\n\nSEC actions commencing in 2004 leading to the end of the uptick rule\n\"In 2004, the Commission initiated a year-long pilot that eliminated short sale price test restrictions from approximately one-third of the largest stocks. The purpose of the pilot was to study how the removal of such short sale price test restrictions impacted the market for those subject securities.\n\nShort sale data was made publicly available during this pilot to allow the public and Commission staff to study the effects of eliminating short sale price test restrictions. Third-party researchers analyzed the publicly available data and presented their findings in a public Roundtable discussion in September 2006. The Commission staff also studied the pilot data extensively and made its findings available in draft form in September 2006, and final form in February 2007.\n\nAt the time the SEC acted in 2007, two different types of price tests covered significant numbers of securities. The Nasdaq \"bid\" test, based on the national best bid, covered approximately 2,900 Nasdaq securities in 2005 (or 44 million short sales). The SEC's former uptick test (former Rule 10a-1), based on the last sale price, covered approximately 4,000 exchange-listed securities (or 68 million short sales).\"\n\nElimination of the uptick rule\nEffective July 3, 2007, the Commission eliminated former Rule 10a-1 and added Rule 201 of Regulation SHO, prohibiting any SRO from having a short sale price test. The SEC concluded from the study cited above: \"The general consensus from these analyses and the roundtable was that the Commission should remove price test restrictions because they modestly reduce liquidity and do not appear necessary to prevent manipulation. In addition, the empirical evidence did not provide strong support for extending a price test to either small or thinly-traded securities not currently subject to a price test.\"\n\nIn addition, the Commission stated its belief that the amendments would bring increased\nuniformity to short sale regulation, level the playing field for market participants, and remove an\nopportunity for regulatory arbitrage.\n\nCommenting on the scrapping of the uptick rule, The Economist reported that \"short-sellers argue [it] was largely symbolic, and it remains in place at only a few of the world's big stock exchanges.\"\n\nCalls for reinstatement\n\nOn August 27, 2007, the New York Times published an article on Muriel Siebert, former state banking superintendent of New York, \"Wall Street veteran and financial sage\", and, in 1967, the first woman to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In this article she expressed severe concerns about market volatility: \"We've never seen volatility like this. We're watching history being made.\" Siebert pointed to the uptick rule, saying, \"The S.E.C. took away the short-sale rule and when the markets were falling, institutional investors just pounded stocks because they didn't need an uptick.\"\n\nOn March 28, 2008 Jim Cramer of CNBC offered the opinion that the absence of the uptick rule harms the stock market today. He claimed that reintroducing the uptick rule would help stabilize the banking sector.\n\nOn July 3, 2008 Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, an adviser on mergers and acquisitions, said short-selling was at record levels and asked the SEC to take urgent action and reinstate the 70-year-old uptick rule. On November 20, 2008, they renewed their call stating \"Decisive action cannot await ... a new S.E.C. Chairman. ... There is no tomorrow. The failure to reinstate the Uptick Rule is not acceptable.\"\n\nOn July 16, 2008, Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Congressman Mike Capuano (D-MA) introduced H.R. 6517, \"A bill to require the Securities and Exchange Commission to reinstate the uptick rule on short sales of securities.\"\n\nOn September 18, 2008, presidential candidate and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said that the SEC allowed short-selling to turn \"our markets into a casino.\" McCain criticized the SEC and its Chairman for eliminating the uptick rule.\n\nOn October 6, 2008, Erik Sirri, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, said that the SEC is considering bringing back the uptick rule, stating, \"It's something we have talked about and it may be something that we in fact do.\"\n\nOn October 17, 2008, the New York Stock Exchange reported a survey with 85% of its members being in favor of reinstating the uptick rule with the dominant reason to \"help instill market confidence\".\n\nOn November 18, 2008, the Wall Street Journal published an opinion editorial by Robert Pozen and Yaneer Bar-Yam describing an analysis of the difference between regulated and unregulated stocks during the SEC pilot program. By using an analysis they claimed to be more comprehensive than the SEC's original study, they showed that unregulated stocks have lower returns, with a difference that is both statistically and economically significant. They also reported that twice as many stocks had greater than 40% drops in corresponding 12 month periods before and after the repeal.\n\nOn January 20, 2009, Ackerman received a letter from Chairman Cox—written the day he left the SEC—in which Cox said he supports the reinstatement of an uptick rule. The letter reads, \"I have been interested in proposing an updated uptick rule. However, as you know, the SEC is a commission of five members. Throughout 2008 there was not a majority interested in reconsidering the 2007 decision to repeal the uptick rule, or in proposing some modernized variant of it. I sincerely hope that the commission, in the year ahead, continues to reassess this issue in light of the extraordinary market events of the last several months, with a view to implementing a modernized version of the uptick rule.\"\n\nOn February 25, 2009, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee stated he favored the SEC examining restoring the uptick-rule.\n\nOn March 10, 2009, the SEC and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the Financial Services Committee announced plans to restore the uptick rule. Frank said he was hopeful that it would be restored within a month.\n\n2008 Financial Crisis\nA paper from the New England Complex Systems Institute claims that they have found evidence that suggests the 2008 financial crisis was triggered by a \"Bear Raid\" market manipulation by short sellers against Citigroup late in 2007. The uptick rule was repealed in July, 2007, and the alleged bear raid took place in November, 2007.\n\nThis paper has an addendum based on additional data provided by the NYSE for short sells during the time period that in fact the uptick rule would not have prevented what occurred. To quote the paper directly:\n\nThe new information we received implies that the sale of borrowed shares reflected in the increase in borrowed shares on November 1 and the corresponding decrease on November 7 may have been done in a way that would not have been prevented by the uptick rule. A more detailed inquiry into the means by which such selling could have been done is beyond the current work.\n\nProposals for restoration of the uptick rule\nOn April 8, 2009, the SEC voted to seek public comment on the following proposals to restore a form of the uptick rule.\n\nThe SEC disclosed the 273 page text of the proposals on April 17, 2009. The comment period closed on June 19, 2009.\n\nMarket-Wide, Permanent Approach:\nProposed Modified Uptick Rule: A market-wide short sale price test based on the national best bid (a proposed modified uptick rule).\nProposed Uptick Rule: A market-wide short sale price test based on the last sale price or tick (a proposed uptick rule).\nSecurity-Specific, Temporary Approach:\nCircuit Breaker: A circuit breaker that would either:\nBan short selling in a particular security for the remainder of the day if there is a severe decline in price in that security (a proposed circuit breaker halt rule).\nImpose a short sale price test based on the national best bid in a particular security for the remainder of the day if there is a severe decline in price in that security (a proposed circuit breaker modified uptick rule).\nImpose a short sale price test based on the last sale price in a particular security for the remainder of the day if there is a severe decline in price in that security (a proposed circuit breaker uptick rule).\n\nAdoption of Alternative Uptick Rule\nOn February 24, 2010 the SEC adopted the alternative uptick rule, by amending Rules 200(g) and 201 of Regulation SHO [17 CFR 242.200(g) and 17 CFR 242.201] under the Exchange Act. The new rule does not apply to all securities. It is triggered when a security's price decreases by 10% or more from the previous day's closing price and is effective until the close of the next day.\n\nSpecifically Rule 201(b) has the following amendments:\n\n(b) (1) A trading center shall establish, maintain, and enforce written policies and\nprocedures reasonably designed to:\n\n(i) Prevent the execution or display of a short sale order of a covered security at a price\nthat is less than or equal to the current national best bid if the price of that covered security\ndecreases by 10% or more from the covered security's closing price as determined by the listing\nmarket for the covered security as of the end of regular trading hours on the prior day; and\n\n(ii) Impose the requirements of paragraph (b)(1)(i) of this section for the remainder of the\nday and the following day when a national best bid for the covered security is calculated and\ndisseminated on a current and continuing basis by a plan processor pursuant to an effective\nnational market system plan.\n\n(iii) Provided, however, that the policies and procedures must be reasonably designed to\npermit:\n\n(A) The execution of a displayed short sale order of a covered security by a trading center\nif, at the time of initial display of the short sale order, the order was at a price above the current\nnational best bid; and\n\n(B) The execution or display of a short sale order of a covered security marked \"short\nexempt\" without regard to whether the order is at a price that is less than or equal to the current\nnational best bid.\n\nHong Kong\nHong Kong traditionally had no uptick rule, a situation depicted in James Clavell's novel Noble House.\nThey instituted one following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.\n\nEffectiveness of the rule\nGordon J. Alexander and Mark A. Peterson, in an academic study of the uptick rule, found \"the execution quality of short-sell orders is adversely affected by the Uptick Rule, even when stocks are trading in advancing markets. This is inconsistent with one of the three stated objectives of the rule, i.e., to allow relatively unrestricted short selling when a firm's stock is advancing so that the rule does not affect price discovery during such times.\"\n\nKarl B. Diether, Kuan-Hui Lee, and Ingrid M. Werner stated in their study: \"The results suggest that the effect of the price-tests on market quality can largely be attributed to the distortions in order flow created by the price-tests in the first place. Therefore, we believe that the price-tests can safely be permanently suspended.\"\n\nOne empirical study found no statistically significant link between the uptick rule and the rates of price decline.\n\nA 2006 study by Alexander and Peterson found no substantial differences between stocks subjected to the rule and those that were not.\n\nWhile the market experienced a brief upward trend when the rule first became effective in February 1938, it ultimately continued the broad decline that had begun in 1937—though the fact that the market suffers a short-term decline does not necessarily establish that the rule is ineffective in contributing to long-term market confidence.\n\nReferences\n\nUnited States securities law\nStock market",
"Markup (or price spread) is the difference between the selling price of a good or service and cost. It is often expressed as a percentage over the cost. A markup is added into the total cost incurred by the producer of a good or service in order to cover the costs of doing business and create a profit. The total cost reflects the total amount of both fixed and variable expenses to produce and distribute a product. Markup can be expressed as a fixed amount or as a percentage of the total cost or selling price. Retail markup is commonly calculated as the difference between wholesale price and retail price, as a percentage of wholesale. Other methods are also used.\n\nPrice determination\n\nProfit\nAssume: Sale price is 2500, Product cost is 1800\nProfit = Sale price − Cost\n700 = 2500 − 1800\n\nMarkup\nBelow shows markup as a percentage of the cost added to the cost to create a new total (i.e. cost plus).\n\nCost × (1 + Markup) = Sale price\nor solved for Markup = (Sale price / Cost) − 1\nor solved for Markup = (Sale price − Cost) / Cost\n\nAssume the sale price is $1.99 and the cost is $1.40\nMarkup = ($1.99 / 1.40) − 1 = 42%\nor Markup = ($1.99 − $1.40) / $1.40 = 42%\n\nTo convert from markup to profit margin:\nSale price − Cost = Sale price × Profit margin\ntherefore Profit Margin = (Sale price − Cost) / Sale price\nMargin = 1 − (1 / (Markup + 1))\nor Margin = Markup/(Markup + 1)\nMargin = 1 − (1 / (1 + 0.42)) = 29.5%\nor Margin = ($1.99 − $1.40) / $1.99 = 29.6%\n\nA different method of calculating markup is based on percentage of selling price. This method eliminates the two-step process above and incorporates the ability of discount pricing.\n\nFor instance cost of an item is 75.00 with 25% markup discount.\n75.00/(1 − .25) = 75.00/.75 = 100.00\n\nComparing the two methods for discounting:\n75.00 × (1 + .25) = 93.75 sale price with a 25% discount\n93.75 × (1 − .25) = 93.75 × .75 = 70.31(25) \ncost was 75.00 and if sold for 70.31 both the markup and the discount is 25%\n\n75.00 /(1 − .25) = 100.00 sale price with a 25% discount\n100.00 × (1 − .25) = 100.00 × .75 = 75.00\ncost was 75.00 and if sold for 75.00 both the profit margin and the discount is 25%\n\nThese examples show the difference between adding a percentage of a number to a number and asking of what number is this number X% of. If the markup has to include more than just profit, such as overhead, it can be included as such:\ncost × 1.25 = sale price\n\nor\n\ncost / .75 = sale price\n\nAggregate supply framework\nP = (1+μ) W. Where μ is the markup over costs. This is the pricing equation.\n\nW = F(u,z) Pe . This is the wage setting relation. u is unemployment which negatively affects wages and z the catch all variable positively affects wages.\n\nSub the wage setting into the price setting to get the aggregate supply curve.\n\nP = Pe(1+μ) F(u,z). This is the aggregate supply curve. Where the price is determined by expected price, unemployment and z the catch all variable.\n\nSee also\nAdministered prices\nCost-plus pricing\nMarketing\nMarkup rule\nPricing\n\nReferences\n\nPricing\nProfit"
]
|
[
"Ugly Kid Joe",
"The UKJ character",
"What is meant by the UKJ character?",
"created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts,",
"What did the character represent?",
"he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends",
"Who designed the character?",
"UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (",
"What other characters were designed?",
"coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves.",
"Where did the character appear?",
"Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans.",
"Anything particularly interesting about the UKJ?",
"a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected.",
"What is the rule of \"Not For Sale\"?",
"Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer"
]
| C_35ac2eced66647e1b818de19b9062f65_0 | Is the character still in use? | 8 | Is the UKJ character still in use? | Ugly Kid Joe | Klaus revealed in an earlier interview on TV that the character was a caricature of Whitfield Crane, info confirmed later by its author Moish Brenman (Whitfield's high school friend and Roger Lahr's roommate in their teenagehood). Moish became the genius painter for customisation skateboards and was involved in plenty of projects about Arts. He died during the Stairway to Hell sessions and was replaced by Daniel Mercer for the coverdesigns. The UKJ he created is a boy showing a middle finger and hiding a bottle of beer behind his back, wearing a blue baseball hat, a dirty white T-shirt, green Bermuda shorts, white socks and Doc marten shoes ( or sometimes sneakers too). Moish was supposed to be the official and unique drawer of the band once they were signed by Mercury Records, but for still unexplained reasons he was replaced by Marc Goldstein (so damn cool and Goddamn Devil pictures). Some unknown pictures from Brenman about UKJ are still in existence. In a conversation on the UKJ forum in 2006, he revealed he wanted to build up a bunch of other characters deriving from the other band's members or their friends by the time he was the official drawer but that project has never been broacasted. Plenty of pictures of the UKJ are made for free for the UKJ fans. They are coverdesigns bootlegs to replace those which are disappointing (Goddamn Cool or As ugly as it gets for instance) or for old or new bootlegs without sleeves. The very great majority of those sleeves are made by UKJ Fan Artists or Mercer-Moish's fans such as Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. Those pictures are not for lucrative activities and made as a tribute to Brenman or Mercer or for fun for fans and a warning message is always put on every bootleg about the consequences if that rule of 'NOT FOR SALE' would not be respected. CANNOTANSWER | Karaokeman (who is more a customizer of other artists work), Kiplegends (Iamthewolf), Marcos Moura, Vivien Hup for the most current. | Ugly Kid Joe is an American rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
To date, Ugly Kid Joe have released four full-length albums, two compilation albums and two EPs. Their best selling records are As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991) and America's Least Wanted (1992), which were both certified double platinum by the RIAA; the former is notable for being the first EP to go platinum. The band broke up in 1997, but announced a reunion in 2010 and has ever since both reformed and recommenced activity.
History
Early history (1990–1991)
Childhood friends Whitfield Crane and Klaus Eichstadt took an interest in music while growing up in Palo Alto, California. In 1989 James Lambert and Eichstadt joined Crane's band in Isla Vista, California, and the trio recorded a demo with another Palo Alto native, record producer Eric Valentine. After several band member changes, the band signed with Mercury Records in 1991. By this time the As Ugly as They Wanna Be line-up was formed; consisting of Crane, Eichstadt, Mark Davis, Roger Lahr, and Cordell Crockett.
Initially named Overdrive, then Suburban White Alcoholic Trash, the band got its name Ugly Kid Joe as a parody of L.A. glam band Pretty Boy Floyd, initially for a one night show in Santa Barbara opening for Pretty Boy Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd would pull out of the show and have the gig cancelled, but the band decided to keep the name.
The band became popular in the early 1990s, mixing satirical humor and heavy metal. Its logo was a cartoon embodiment of an "ugly kid" wearing a backwards baseball hat and giving the finger. Heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Ugly Kid Joe covered several of the veteran band's songs, including "Sweet Leaf" and "N.I.B." The group toured the United States several times, making its second tour in support of Scatterbrain, and later opening for former Black Sabbath lead vocalist Ozzy Osbourne.
The band released the EP As Ugly as They Wanna Be in October 1991, garnering success in 1992 with the single "Everything About You", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart and made it into the Billboard Top 10. Later in the year, the song would be used in the movie Wayne's World. As Ugly As They Wanna Be went on to sell over one million copies in the U.S. alone.
Commercial success (1992–1996)
The band spent 2 months in the studio to record America's Least Wanted. During the process, Roger Lahr left the band due to musical differences and was eventually replaced by Sugartooth guitarist Dave Fortman in April 1992. Rob Halford of Judas Priest was a guest vocalist on the song "Goddamn Devil". The band sped up the recording process for their album in order to get a spot as a supporting act for Ozzy Osbourne's "No More Tears" tour. The band eventually landed a spot for the tour, only to have Crane fly back to L.A. several times to finish edits on the album. The album caused controversy with its cover, which features the band's mascot posing as the Statue of Liberty holding up the middle finger and holding a porno magazine in his hand instead of the hallowed Declaration. As some stores would not carry the album due to the cover image, the band decided to have an alternative cover made with the band's mascot chained and gagged.
America's Least Wanted appeared on the U.S. charts at No. 27 having sold over 600,000 units upon release and was considered a favorite among fans and critics. One critic praised the album as, "A rock record you can play all day." The album achieved Gold status in both Canada and Australia, Silver status in the United Kingdom, and went Platinum in the U.S.A. A cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was subsequently released as a well-received single that sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and peaked at No. 7 in the UK Singles Chart.
After finishing up with Ozzy, they opened up for Def Leppard on the European leg of their tour which was sold-out in 6 weeks. Ugly Kid Joe then made a stop at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards and thereafter spent 3 weeks playing sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. They became the Reader's Choice for Best New Artist voted by Metal Edge and Raw magazine. They also presented The Favorite Heavy Metal band award to Metallica at the American Music Awards in 1993. The band would also get nominated for Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock New Artist but lost to Pearl Jam.
After their tour in support of their 1992 album America's Least Wanted, the band searched for a replacement drummer, as Mark Davis left to pursue a life away from the spotlight. The band tried out for new drummers, such as Bob Fernandez who only appeared on a cover of Black Sabbath's "N.I.B." for the Nativity in Black Black Sabbath tribute album. He also showed up in Brazil with the band at the Hollywood Rock festival in 1994 as headliners along with Aerosmith, Poison, among others. After attending a Souls at Zero show in Colorado, Crane became immediately impressed with the band's drummer, Shannon Larkin. Crane later called up Larkin to join Ugly Kid Joe to which Larkin agreed. The band then wrote some new song material with Larkin and embarked on a short tour titled the "Excuse To Go Snowboarding Tour" with guests Dog Eat Dog and Goldfinger. Larkin's contributions led to a grittier sound for the second album Menace to Sobriety, released in the summer of 1995. The album was recorded in Palacio Del Rio in northern Santa Barbara.
The band embarked on a tour in support of the album. They did a snowboard tour, a small club tour, and later a stadium tour opening for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. The band excluded "Everything About You" from their set list in order to show the fans that they stand tall on their recent material. At a show in Wembley Stadium in London, the band was joined on stage by Ozzy Osbourne's son, Jack Osbourne before playing Sabbath's "N.I.B".
Menace to Sobriety received much praise from the press and fans, and UK rock magazine Kerrang! ranked it as a contender for album of the year. Despite success overseas and a successful European tour, the album was given little encouragement from Mercury Records and subsequently failed in the United States.
After being dropped by Mercury, Ugly Kid Joe formed its own independent label, Evilution Records, for the release of the band's next album. With distribution support from Castle Communications, Motel California was released in late 1996, and again the band toured Europe to smaller crowds. The tour was named "Late Check-out Tour", underlining the band's characteristic sense of humor. Motel California, an album lead vocalist Whitfield Crane described as "heavy, funky, and has everything in it", initially received lukewarm reviews and sold poorly, though it has gained a minor cult following in recent times.
Break-up and aftermath (1997–2009)
Ugly Kid Joe disbanded in 1997. Drummer Shannon Larkin has been a member of Godsmack since 2002, while lead vocalist Whitfield Crane took the then-vacant vocalist spot for New York City rock band Life of Agony whose former singer Keith Caputo had left the group in 1997. After his quick departure from Life of Agony, Crane collaborated with some Soulfly members on a new project called Medication (1999–2003) and Godsmack members on Another Animal (2006–2009).
In 2005, an unreleased video for "Bicycle Wheels" was made public onto the Ugly Kid Joe forum site (created in January 2004 by J.Goldman, aka DMJ). In 2007, an official Myspace page was made of the band, with old photographs of the band and other candid pictures along with promotional artwork and uploaded live footage and another unreleased music video for "Sandwich". Some of the other footage included footage of the band playing at the UC Santa Barbara campus before getting signed. Soon videos were appearing on YouTube by fans. Some even included live recordings of them in concert and television recordings. Meanwhile, the band's main page featured live tracks and rare songs including a demo of "C.U.S.T." and a few tracks from Motel California and Menace to Sobriety.
Reunion (2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt stated in the December 2009 issue of the German edition of the music magazine Metal Hammer, that the members of Ugly Kid Joe were planning to reunite in summer 2010, although did not specify whether their intent was to produce a new album or simply to perform together. However, rumors of a reunion were confirmed on their MySpace page on May 27, 2010. Their MySpace page also says that the reunion lineup will be the same as the last one before their breakup.
In July 2011, according to drummer Shannon Larkin, a new album has been completed. He revealed the album's status in an interview with California's 107.7 The Bone at the Mayhem Festival, saying "It's a fun band – it's funny, you listen to the songs and it makes you laugh. Just a good-time rock band, y'know?"
On September 9, 2011, vocalist Whitfield Crane made an update on the band's official Facebook page stating he appeared 107.7 The Bone the day before and played a new track called "Love Ain't True" and stating that a 6 track EP and was mixed and finished. According to official website "also in the works is an EPK documenting the reunification and the latest recording sessions along with some rare old footage of interviews, behind the scenes stuff, and live performances".
The new EP, Stairway to Hell, was released digitally on June 5, 2012, while physical version surfaced a month later, July 9. In order to promote the recording, Ugly Kid Joe played a series of festivals that summer, including Sweden Rock in Sweden, Download in England, Gods of Metal in Milan, Italy, and Belgrade Calling in Serbia. They were the main support act for Guns N' Roses in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 3, 2012, and also for Alice Cooper on his "Raise The Dead" tour in October 2012.
Ugly Kid Joe started a joint co-headlining European tour with Skid Row in October 2013 kicking off the tour in Southampton, UK.
In February 2015, Ugly Kid Joe successfully used pledgemusic.com in a crowdfunding effort to pay for the recording of their next album, to be titled Uglier Than They Used ta Be, is the first full-length studio album since they break-up after the album was completed in nearly 19 years, set to be released on October 16, 2015.
As of July 2021, Ugly Kid Joe is working on their follow-up to Uglier Than They Used ta Be for a planned 2022 release.
Musical style
Ugly Kid Joe is considered a heavy metal band, that is described as pop-metal, alternative metal, hard rock, grunge, funk-metal, and comedy metal.
Members
Current members
Whitfield Crane – lead vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Klaus Eichstadt – guitars, backing vocals (1987–1997, 2010–present)
Cordell Crockett – bass, backing vocals (1991–1997, 2010–present)
Dave Fortman – guitars, backing vocals (1992–1997, 2010–present)
Zac Morris – drums, percussion (2012–present)
Former members
Eric Phillips – guitars (1987–1990)
Jonathan Spaulding – drums (1987–1990)
Phil Hilgaertner – bass, backing vocals (1987–1991)
Mark Davis – drums, percussion (1989–1994)
Roger Lahr – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1992)
Shannon Larkin – drums, percussion (1994–1997, 2010–2021)
Bob Fernandez – drums, percussion (1994)
Timeline
Session musicians
Carrie Hamilton – piano on As Ugly as They Wanna Be (1991 — "Everything About You")
Stephen Perkins – percussion on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks)
Dean Pleasants – rhythm guitar on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Same Side")
Jennifer Barry – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks), backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Would You Like To Be There")
Rob Halford – backing vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil")
Julia Sweeney – additional vocals on America's Least Wanted (1992 — "Goddamn Devil", "Everything About You")
Brad Divens – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Tom Fletcher – backing vocals on Menace To Sobriety (1995 — multiple tracks)
Lemmy – backing vocals on Motel California (1996 — "Little Red Man")
Angus Cooke – cello on Motel California (1996 — "Undertow")
Tim Wheater – flute on Motel California (1996 — "12 Cents")
Angelo Moore – saxophone on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
"Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II – trumpet on Stairway to Hell (2012 — "Love Ain't True!")
Sonny Mayo – guitar (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Yael Benzaken – drums (live only) (2012 Summer European Tour)
Zac Morris – drums (live only as of 2012)
Chris Catalyst – guitar (live in Europe 2016)
Phil Campbell – guitar on Uglier Than They Used Ta Be (2015 – "Under the Bottom", "My Old Man", "Ace of Spades")
Lineups
Discography
Studio albums
America's Least Wanted (1992)
Menace to Sobriety (1995)
Motel California (1996)
Uglier Than They Used ta Be (2015)
See also
List of alternative metal artists
List of funk-metal bands
References
External links
Official Ugly Kid Joe website
Ugly Kid Joe on RockAlmanac.com
1987 establishments in California
American alternative metal musical groups
American funk metal musical groups
Grunge musical groups
Comedy rock musical groups
Hard rock musical groups from California
Heavy metal musical groups from California
Mercury Records artists
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups disestablished in 1997
Musical groups reestablished in 2010
Musical quintets
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| C_27501d0840054543bce69588a5d74e8e_1 | How was Sherman's childhood like? | 1 | How was Sherman Alexie's childhood like? | Sherman Alexie | Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. CANNOTANSWER | His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. | Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay.
His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award.
His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry.
In 2018 he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
Early life
Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but
had other side effects.
His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.
Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to suffering hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.
Education
In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.
His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.
In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans.
Sexual harassment allegations
On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."
Career
Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.
In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth.
Literary works
Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?" The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Poetry
Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. Alexie was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1995.
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as "fancydancing," a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self-expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities...: the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters."
Alexie's other collections of poetry include:
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Short stories
Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience."
Ten Little Indians (2004) is a collection of "nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life," according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities."
War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews.
Other short stories by Alexie include:
Superman and Me (1997)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) (collection of short stories)
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (2003), published in The New Yorker
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"
Novels
In his first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues: "you can feel Alexie's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo." Klinkenborg says that Alexie is "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers."
Indian Killer (1996) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures.
Alexie's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen-year-old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, "Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."
Flight (2007) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel explores experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others' lives after he believes to be shot while committing a crime.
Memoir
Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir "pulls readers so deeply into the author's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos." Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I’m not performing the book," he said. "I’m getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." He went on to add that he won't be answering any questions that he doesn't want to answer. "I’ll put my armor back on," he said.
Films
In 1998 Alexie's film, Smoke Signals gained considerable attention. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie's works make appearances in the film. The film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a predominantly Native American production team and cast. The film is a road movie and buddy film, featuring two young Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor's dead father (Gary Farmer). During their journey the characters' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86% and "fresh" rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.
The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, gay identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues related to what makes someone a "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly-white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in "Smoke Signals", again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. It received a 57% and "rotten" rating from the online Film database Rotten Tomatoes.
Other film projects include:
49? (writer, 2003)
The Exiles (presenter, 2008)
Sonicsgate (participant, 2009)
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Hymn (2017)
Uncollected poems
Memoir
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017), Hachette Book Group, .
Novels
Reservation Blues (1995)
Indian Killer (1996)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
Flight (2007)
Short fiction
Collections
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000)
Ten Little Indians (2004)
War Dances (2009)
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
List of short stories
Children's books
Thunder Boy, Jr. (2016), illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Personal life
Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.
Arizona HB 2281
In 2012, Arizona's HB 2281 removed Alexie's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie's response:
{{quote|Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.}}
Influences
Alexie's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He "blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit," according to Quirk. Alexie's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a "means of cultural survival for American Indians—survival in the face of the larger American culture's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness."
Awards and honors
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
1993
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven1994
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
1996
American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine: Best of Pages
1999
The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
2001
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2009
American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, )
2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award
Puterbaugh Award ", the first American Puterbaugh fellow
California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2013
The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
See also
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Louise Erdrich
Native American Renaissance
Native American studies
There There (novel)
References
Other sources
Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". News Hour. July 9, 1998.
Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." MELUS 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149–69.
West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. ""Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste 23.4 (Fall 1998): 29–33.
External links and further reading
Western American Literature Journal: Sherman Alexie
Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in "The Guardian" January 3, 2003
Sherman Alexie's poem "Punch" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (24.1).
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays, (2010) .
Sherman Alexie's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information
Interviews
"Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003
"Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001
"Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009
"Interview With Sherman Alexie" as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
"No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post'', July 3, 1998
"Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders" by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 – with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence
1966 births
Living people
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century Native Americans
American Book Award winners
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American people of Russian descent
American people with disabilities
Coeur d'Alene people
Film directors from Washington (state)
Filmmakers from Seattle
Gonzaga University alumni
Harper's Magazine people
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners
Native American children's writers
Native American novelists
Native American poets
Native American short story writers
Novelists from Washington (state)
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners
People from Stevens County, Washington
People with bipolar disorder
People with hydrocephalus
Postmodern writers
Screenwriters from Washington (state)
Spokane people
The New Yorker people
Washington State University alumni
Writers from Seattle | false | [
"Carrie Babcock Sherman (November 16, 1856 – October 6, 1931) was the wife of Vice President James S. Sherman, and thus second lady of the United States from 1909 to 1912.\n\nCarrie was the daughter of Lewis Hamilton Babcock, a prominent attorney, and Ellen Catherine (Sherrill) Babcock. She had two siblings, Sherrill Babcock, a soldier, and Anita Babcock DeLong. Her grandfather was Congressman and Union brigade commander Eliakim Sherrill, killed at Gettysburg.\n\nCarrie Babcock married James Schoolcraft Sherman on January 26, 1881. Carrie and James had known each other since childhood.\n\nThe couple had three sons: Sherrill B. Sherman (1883–1962), Richard U. Sherman (1884–1951), and Thomas M. Sherman (1885–1944).\n\nWhen her husband became vice-president in March 1909, Carrie became the first second lady to accompany her spouse in the inaugural parade, riding to and from the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.\n\nSherman is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica, New York, alongside her husband.\n\nReferences\n\n1856 births\n1931 deaths\nSecond Ladies of the United States\nSpouses of United States mayors\nSpouses of New York (state) politicians\nPeople from Utica, New York\nSherman family (U.S.)\nBurials in New York (state)\n19th-century American women\n20th-century American women",
"Sherman Independent School District is a public school district based in Sherman, Texas (USA).\n\nIn addition to Sherman, the district also serves the village of Knollwood. Sherman is the sister city of Denison, Texas.\n\nIn 2009, the school district was rated \"academically acceptable\" by the Texas Education Agency.\n\nSchools\nSecondary schools\nGrades 9-12: Sherman High School\n Grades 6-8: Piner Middle School\n Grades 6-8 Sherman Middle School\n Jefferson learning Center\n\n \nGrades PK-5\nCrutchfield Elementary School\nFairview Elementary School\nNeblett Elementary School \nSory Elementary School \nWakefield Elementary School\nWashington Elementary School\n Dillingham Elementary School\nPreschools\nFred Douglass Early Childhood Center\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nSherman ISD\n\nSchool districts in Grayson County, Texas"
]
|
[
"Sherman Alexie",
"Childhood",
"How was Sherman's childhood like?",
"His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic."
]
| C_27501d0840054543bce69588a5d74e8e_1 | Did this have an effect on his life? | 2 | Did his parents being alcoholics have an effect on Sherman Alexie's life? | Sherman Alexie | Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay.
His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award.
His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry.
In 2018 he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
Early life
Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but
had other side effects.
His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.
Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to suffering hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.
Education
In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.
His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.
In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans.
Sexual harassment allegations
On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."
Career
Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.
In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth.
Literary works
Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?" The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Poetry
Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. Alexie was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1995.
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as "fancydancing," a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self-expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities...: the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters."
Alexie's other collections of poetry include:
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Short stories
Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience."
Ten Little Indians (2004) is a collection of "nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life," according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities."
War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews.
Other short stories by Alexie include:
Superman and Me (1997)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) (collection of short stories)
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (2003), published in The New Yorker
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"
Novels
In his first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues: "you can feel Alexie's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo." Klinkenborg says that Alexie is "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers."
Indian Killer (1996) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures.
Alexie's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen-year-old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, "Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."
Flight (2007) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel explores experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others' lives after he believes to be shot while committing a crime.
Memoir
Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir "pulls readers so deeply into the author's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos." Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I’m not performing the book," he said. "I’m getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." He went on to add that he won't be answering any questions that he doesn't want to answer. "I’ll put my armor back on," he said.
Films
In 1998 Alexie's film, Smoke Signals gained considerable attention. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie's works make appearances in the film. The film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a predominantly Native American production team and cast. The film is a road movie and buddy film, featuring two young Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor's dead father (Gary Farmer). During their journey the characters' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86% and "fresh" rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.
The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, gay identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues related to what makes someone a "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly-white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in "Smoke Signals", again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. It received a 57% and "rotten" rating from the online Film database Rotten Tomatoes.
Other film projects include:
49? (writer, 2003)
The Exiles (presenter, 2008)
Sonicsgate (participant, 2009)
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Hymn (2017)
Uncollected poems
Memoir
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017), Hachette Book Group, .
Novels
Reservation Blues (1995)
Indian Killer (1996)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
Flight (2007)
Short fiction
Collections
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000)
Ten Little Indians (2004)
War Dances (2009)
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
List of short stories
Children's books
Thunder Boy, Jr. (2016), illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Personal life
Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.
Arizona HB 2281
In 2012, Arizona's HB 2281 removed Alexie's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie's response:
{{quote|Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.}}
Influences
Alexie's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He "blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit," according to Quirk. Alexie's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a "means of cultural survival for American Indians—survival in the face of the larger American culture's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness."
Awards and honors
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
1993
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven1994
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
1996
American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine: Best of Pages
1999
The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
2001
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2009
American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, )
2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award
Puterbaugh Award ", the first American Puterbaugh fellow
California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2013
The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
See also
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Louise Erdrich
Native American Renaissance
Native American studies
There There (novel)
References
Other sources
Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". News Hour. July 9, 1998.
Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." MELUS 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149–69.
West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. ""Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste 23.4 (Fall 1998): 29–33.
External links and further reading
Western American Literature Journal: Sherman Alexie
Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in "The Guardian" January 3, 2003
Sherman Alexie's poem "Punch" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (24.1).
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays, (2010) .
Sherman Alexie's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information
Interviews
"Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003
"Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001
"Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009
"Interview With Sherman Alexie" as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
"No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post'', July 3, 1998
"Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders" by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 – with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence
1966 births
Living people
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century Native Americans
American Book Award winners
American children's writers
American male novelists
American male poets
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American people of Russian descent
American people with disabilities
Coeur d'Alene people
Film directors from Washington (state)
Filmmakers from Seattle
Gonzaga University alumni
Harper's Magazine people
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners
Native American children's writers
Native American novelists
Native American poets
Native American short story writers
Novelists from Washington (state)
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners
People from Stevens County, Washington
People with bipolar disorder
People with hydrocephalus
Postmodern writers
Screenwriters from Washington (state)
Spokane people
The New Yorker people
Washington State University alumni
Writers from Seattle | false | [
"A perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect) is the effect of an utterance on an interlocutor. Examples of perlocutionary acts include persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening, inspiring, or otherwise affecting the interlocutor. The perlocutionary effect of an utterance is contrasted with the locutionary act, which is the act of producing the utterance, and with the illocutionary force, which does not depend on the utterance's effect on the interlocutor.\n\nAs an example, consider the following utterance: \"By the way, I have a CD of Debussy; would you like to borrow it?\" Its illocutionary function is an offer, while its intended perlocutionary effect might be to impress the interlocutor, or to show a friendly attitude, or to encourage an interest in a particular type of music. The actual perlocutionary effect can be different than the intended perlocutionary effect. In this example, the speaker may have intended to show a friendly attitude, but the listener might become irritated if they thought the speaker's intent was to impress them.\n\nReferences\n\nLinguistics\nPragmatics\nOral communication\nDiscourse analysis",
"The birthday effect (sometimes called the birthday blues, especially when referring specifically to suicide) is a statistical phenomenon where an individual's likelihood of death appears to increase on or close to their birthday. The birthday effect has been seen in studies of general populations in England and Wales, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United States, as well as in smaller populations such as Major League Baseball players. Studies do not consistently show this effect; some studies find that men's and women's mortality rates diverge in the run-up to the birthday, while others find no significant gender effect. Suggested mechanisms for the effect include alcohol consumption, psychological stress relating to the birthday, increased suicide risk, terminally ill patients attempting to hold on until their birthday, an increased mortality salience, or a physiological cycle that causes the body to weaken annually. It has also been suggested that it may be a statistical artifact, perhaps as a result of anomalies in reporting, but the birthday effect has also been seen in studies that control for known reporting anomalies.\n\nStudies\n\nWith the introduction of statistical software that can process large datasets easily, a number of state- or country-wide studies have been carried out to investigate whether birthdays have any effect on mortality. The first large-scale study used the records of 2,745,149 Californians who died between 1969 and 1990. After correcting for confounding factors such as seasonality in deaths, elective surgery, and people born on February 29, there was a significant increase in deaths in the week before the individual's birthday for men, and in the week after the birthday for women – in both cases, mortality did not peak on the birthday, but close to it. This effect was consistent across age and race cohorts.\n\nA similar study among 12,275,033 Swiss found the highest mortality on the actual birthday (17% greater than the expected value), and the effect was largest for those over 80; another study on Swiss data found a 13.8% excess and was able to link this to specific causes: heart attack and stroke (predominant in women) and suicides and accidents (predominant in men), as well as an increase in cancer deaths. Among 25 million Americans who died between 1998 and 2011, 6.7% more people than expected die on their birthday, and the effect was most pronounced at weekends and among the young – among 20 to 29 year olds, the excess was over 25%. An even greater excess was found in the population of Kiev, where between 1990 and 2000 there were 44.4% more deaths than expected among men on their birthdays and 36.2% more than expected among women. Smaller biographical studies have also shown a birthday effect within subpopulations, such as among Major League Baseball (MLB) players and people with entries in the Encyclopedia of American History.\n\nFocusing on suicide deaths alone, large studies have found evidence for a peak in suicides on or just after a birthday in Denmark and Hungary, but not in Bavaria or Taiwan.\n\nHowever, other studies have not found such a correlation. A study using the populations of Denmark and Austria (a total of 2,052,680 deaths over the time period) found that although people's life span tended to correlate with their month of birth, there was no consistent birthday effect, and people born in autumn or winter were more likely to die in the months further from their birthday. A study of all cancer deaths in Germany from 1995 to 2009 found no evidence of a birthday effect, although it did find a related Christmas effect. A small study by Leonard Zusne found birthday effects among both male and female cohorts, where women were more likely to die immediately before a birthday and men more likely to die immediately after, but that when averaged together there was no birthday effect among the population as a whole. The same was found for a study of mortality data in England and Wales, where there was a statistically significant birthday effect among each subgroup (men and women; never married, married, divorced and widowed) but it was not seen in the population as a whole.\n\nPossible explanations\n\nExternal causes\nBirthday celebrations are often associated with large increases in alcohol consumption. Binge drinking can increase an individual's risk of death through alcohol poisoning, accidents and drunk driving, as well as by exacerbating existing conditions and increasing suicide risk. In the USA where the legal minimum drinking age is 21, there is a very large mortality rate excess on the 21st birthday and the day immediately following, almost entirely attributable to an increase in accidents.\n\nPsychosomatic and psychological\n\nTwo mutually contradictory explanations have been put forward that rely on psychosomatic effects. On the one hand, a birthday provides a fixed date to focus on, allowing the terminally ill to hold on until the day itself. On the other hand, a birthday also reminds the individual of mortality and offers an occasion to look back on life. According to the terror management theory, this causes stress which can accelerate death. The uneven mortality rate distribution between men and women, and between more and less successful baseball players, suggests that both may play a role in the birthday effect: people who have focused on the public sphere of life (for example, career-driven people or professional athletes) might be reminded that their glory days have passed, while those who lived more in the private sphere (such as stay-at-home parents and amateur sports players) are more aware of what they will lose in death and try to hold on. Related is the \"broken promise effect\", whereby a person suffering suicidal ideation will wait until a birthday or other significant event to see whether their circumstances will improve.\n\nThe psychosomatic/psychological model would also explain the similar increase in cancer deaths around holidays such as Christmas, and is supported by the fact that such phenomena appear to be dependent on culture – there is a Passover effect among the Jewish community (which moves with the festival itself), and a Mid-Autumn Festival effect among the Chinese.\n\nPhysiological\nIt has been suggested that, like the 24-hour circadian rhythm, the body also has a yearly \"circannual\" biological rhythm. Vaiserman et al. have suggested that the climatic conditions at birth act as a zeitgeber that triggers internal stress and increases the chance of death.\n\nStatistical\nIt is possible when processing death certificates to confuse the date of birth and date of death fields, which would increase the apparent number of certificates in which these coincide. Additionally, where the exact date is not known, the 1st and 15th of the month are often used as placeholders. These will cause an excess of births and deaths recorded on these dates. However studies also find changes in the mortality rate in the days immediately before and after (which are unlikely to be caused by data processing anomalies), which suggests that statistical artifacts alone cannot explain the birthday effect.\n\nReferences\n\nBirthdays\nDeath\nMedical statistics\nSuicide\nUnexplained phenomena"
]
|
[
"Sherman Alexie",
"Childhood",
"How was Sherman's childhood like?",
"His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic.",
"Did this have an effect on his life?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_27501d0840054543bce69588a5d74e8e_1 | What school did Sherman go to? | 3 | What school did Sherman Alexie go to? | Sherman Alexie | Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay.
His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award.
His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry.
In 2018 he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
Early life
Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but
had other side effects.
His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.
Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to suffering hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.
Education
In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.
His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.
In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans.
Sexual harassment allegations
On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."
Career
Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.
In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth.
Literary works
Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?" The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Poetry
Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. Alexie was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1995.
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as "fancydancing," a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self-expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities...: the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters."
Alexie's other collections of poetry include:
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Short stories
Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience."
Ten Little Indians (2004) is a collection of "nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life," according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities."
War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews.
Other short stories by Alexie include:
Superman and Me (1997)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) (collection of short stories)
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (2003), published in The New Yorker
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"
Novels
In his first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues: "you can feel Alexie's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo." Klinkenborg says that Alexie is "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers."
Indian Killer (1996) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures.
Alexie's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen-year-old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, "Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."
Flight (2007) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel explores experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others' lives after he believes to be shot while committing a crime.
Memoir
Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir "pulls readers so deeply into the author's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos." Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I’m not performing the book," he said. "I’m getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." He went on to add that he won't be answering any questions that he doesn't want to answer. "I’ll put my armor back on," he said.
Films
In 1998 Alexie's film, Smoke Signals gained considerable attention. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie's works make appearances in the film. The film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a predominantly Native American production team and cast. The film is a road movie and buddy film, featuring two young Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor's dead father (Gary Farmer). During their journey the characters' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86% and "fresh" rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.
The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, gay identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues related to what makes someone a "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly-white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in "Smoke Signals", again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. It received a 57% and "rotten" rating from the online Film database Rotten Tomatoes.
Other film projects include:
49? (writer, 2003)
The Exiles (presenter, 2008)
Sonicsgate (participant, 2009)
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Hymn (2017)
Uncollected poems
Memoir
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017), Hachette Book Group, .
Novels
Reservation Blues (1995)
Indian Killer (1996)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
Flight (2007)
Short fiction
Collections
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000)
Ten Little Indians (2004)
War Dances (2009)
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
List of short stories
Children's books
Thunder Boy, Jr. (2016), illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Personal life
Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.
Arizona HB 2281
In 2012, Arizona's HB 2281 removed Alexie's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie's response:
{{quote|Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.}}
Influences
Alexie's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He "blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit," according to Quirk. Alexie's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a "means of cultural survival for American Indians—survival in the face of the larger American culture's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness."
Awards and honors
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
1993
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven1994
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
1996
American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine: Best of Pages
1999
The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
2001
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2009
American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, )
2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award
Puterbaugh Award ", the first American Puterbaugh fellow
California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2013
The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
See also
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Louise Erdrich
Native American Renaissance
Native American studies
There There (novel)
References
Other sources
Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". News Hour. July 9, 1998.
Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." MELUS 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149–69.
West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. ""Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste 23.4 (Fall 1998): 29–33.
External links and further reading
Western American Literature Journal: Sherman Alexie
Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in "The Guardian" January 3, 2003
Sherman Alexie's poem "Punch" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (24.1).
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays, (2010) .
Sherman Alexie's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information
Interviews
"Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003
"Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001
"Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009
"Interview With Sherman Alexie" as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
"No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post'', July 3, 1998
"Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders" by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 – with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence
1966 births
Living people
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century Native Americans
American Book Award winners
American children's writers
American male novelists
American male poets
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American people of Russian descent
American people with disabilities
Coeur d'Alene people
Film directors from Washington (state)
Filmmakers from Seattle
Gonzaga University alumni
Harper's Magazine people
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners
Native American children's writers
Native American novelists
Native American poets
Native American short story writers
Novelists from Washington (state)
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners
People from Stevens County, Washington
People with bipolar disorder
People with hydrocephalus
Postmodern writers
Screenwriters from Washington (state)
Spokane people
The New Yorker people
Washington State University alumni
Writers from Seattle | false | [
"Charles Phineas Sherman (8 June 1874 – 20 July 1962) was a professor of Roman law and canon law at several colleges, including the Yale Law School, the College of William and Mary, and the Boston University School of Law. He wrote many articles and books, of which the best known is Roman Law in the Modern World (1917, 2nd ed. 1922, 3rd ed. 1933).\n\nBiography\nSherman was born into an old New England family in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The American Sherman family began with Philip Sherman, who emigrated from England in 1634 and became the Colony of Rhode Island's first Secretary. He studied at the public schools of West Springfield and graduated from high school there in 1891 as class valedictorian.\n\nSherman received his B.A. degree from Yale in 1896 and entered Yale Law School the same year. The three-year Yale Law School undergraduate degree (an LL.B.) could be shortened to two at that time if a student already had earned a B.A., so he took this path and was granted his LL.B. in 1898. That same summer he took the Connecticut bar exam and was admitted to practice there. Since he was academically inclined he decided not to head into practice immediately. Instead he applied for Yale's D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) program. Sherman completed the requirements in 1899, after only one year, including the writing of his dissertation on a Roman law topic.\n\nCareer\n\nLaw Practice \nAfter receiving his D.C.L. degree from Yale Sherman started practicing law in New Haven, Connecticut, In his memoir, Academic Adventures, Sherman claimed that he did not want his D.C.L. as a teaching credential. His goal rather was to go to Norfolk, Virginia to practice admiralty law, but in his memoir Sherman does not indicate why he failed to carry out that plan. Remaining in New Haven, acquired the French and the German translations of the Corpus Juris Civilis (in 1900, shortly after he earned his Doctor of Civil Law degree), regularly visited his old Roman law professor, Albert S. Wheeler, and, at the latter's suggestion, translated Bernard's La Premiere Annee de Droit Roman into English. Sherman also practiced law in New Haven for several years.\n\nTeaching at Yale \nIn 1905, Yale Law School Dean Henry Wade Rogers asked Sherman to take over Professor Wheeler's courses when the latter died. This was the beginning of Sherman's twelve-year stint at Yale, the longest full-time appointment of his career. This was a particularly auspicious year for him in that it also was the year in which he married Miss Julia Rungee. In the next year, in addition to teaching three courses on Roman law, Sherman's translation of La Premiere Annee de Droit Roman was published, and he took on the position of Law Librarian at Yale. He translation (which he used for his Roman Law I course), was moderately well received by reviewers.\n\nSherman spent ten of these Yale years researching and writing what he called his magnum opus, Roman Law in the Modern World, which was published in 1917. In that same year, however, Sherman and other non-tenured Yale law School faculty members were forced out by the new dean, Thomas Swan.\n\nOther Teaching and Activities \nFor many years afterwards, Sherman looked for a full-time teaching position. His failure to obtain a regular academic position may have resulted from the decidedly mixed reception by scholars of his Roman Law in the Modern World (RLMW). It is a three-volume work of great ambition. Volume one consists of a history of Roman law from its possible beginnings in Babylon, through the Republic and Empire, medieval times, and into the modern world. Volume two is a \"manual,\" or exposition of the fundamental principles of Roman law, including their expressions in modern legal systems, while volume three is a bibliography of Roman and civil law by subject. RLMW was a huge undertaking that would have taxed the abilities of even the greatest Roman law scholar, and most critics decided Sherman had not been fully up to the task.\n\nIn 1920 Sherman was appointed as a full professor at the Boston University School of Law ). This was not a full-time teaching position, though, as he had already taken on two positions at a legal publishing company in Boston. However, owing to his workload, housing problems, and his mother's poor health, Sherman resigned his position at BU in 1922.\n\nThree years later Sherman began what would began an association with the College of William and Mary that would continue for the rest of his life, teaching first in its history department, then, starting in 1927, at its School of Jurisprudence. Meanwhile, in 1926. at the age of fifty, he was appointed Professor of Canon Law and Modern Church Law at National University in Washington, D.C. Sherman commuted between Washington, D.C. and Williamsburg, teaching in more than one department at each institution, and full-time at neither, until 1935 when he resigned from National and returned to Boston University. At National University, he was given an honorary LL.D. degree and taught several courses, including one on his favorite topic of Roman civilization in the modern world, and another on research in Greek or Hellenic Law. In 1933 Sherman published Roman Readings in Roman Law, the first in a planned two-volume set for use in Roman law courses.\n\nIn Washington, D.C., Sherman became friends with Professor Salvatore Riccobono. Sherman was among the group that organized Riccobono's presentations. Sherman also was a member of the council that organized the Riccobono Seminar of Roman Law in America after Riccobono returned to Italy. Sherman had two papers read at Riccobono Seminar meetings, one of which was introduced by his National University colleague Charles S. Lobingier. Sherman also made a contribution to a festschrift honoring Riccobono.\n\nHe was rehired as a lecturer in Roman law at Boston University Law School in 1935, teaching a course called Roman and Modern Law. In 1939, at the age of sixty-five, Sherman was elevated from the status of lecturer to full professor at BU. In 1942, his Roman Civilization in the Modern World was published. In 1945, when Sherman turned seventy-one, it seemed his career would be capped by an appointment to \"a new professorial chair of Latin-American Commercial Law\" at the Catholic University of America. However, Sherman never assumed that position. He retired from teaching in 1956 and died in 1962 at age 88 in Short Beach, Connecticut.\n\nReferences\n\n1874 births\n1962 deaths\nPeople from Massachusetts\nCollege of William & Mary faculty",
"James Patrick Toomey (born December 26, 1960) is an American cartoonist famous for his comic Sherman's Lagoon. Toomey received his B.S.E. from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering in 1983, an M.L.A. from Stanford University in 1995, and a Master's of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences in 2008.\n\nHis cartoon strip, Sherman's Lagoon, is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and appears in over 250 newspapers in North America and in over 30 foreign countries.\n\nCreative works\nLunch Wore a Speedo - Oct. 2014\nHere We Go Again - Oct. 2013\nThink Like a Shark - Sep. 2012\nNever Bite Anything That Bites Back - Sep. 2011\nDiscover Your Inner Hermit Crab - Sep. 2010\nConfessions of a Swinging Single Sea Turtle - Sep. 2009\nSharks Just Wanna Have Fun - Sep. 2008\nYarns and Shanties - Sep. 2007\nPlanet of the Hairless Beach Apes - Sep. 2006\nIn Shark Years I'm Dead - March 2006\nA Day at the Beach - March 2005\nSurfer Safari - Sep. 2005\nCatch of the Day - Sep. 2004\nShark Diaries - Sep. 2003\nA Lagoa de Sherman - Sep. 2003 (Spanish)\nLe Lagon de Sherman - Sep. 2003 (French)\nGreatest Hits & Near Misses - Sep. 2002\nSurf's Up - March 2003\nGreetings From Sherman's Lagoon - Sep 2002\nAnother Day in Paradise - Sep 2001\nAn Illustrated Guide to Shark Etiquette - Sep 2000\nPoodle: The Other White Meat - Sep 1999\nAte That, What's Next? - Sep. 1997\nLagunen - Sep. 1996 (Norwegian)\nSigges Lagun - Sep. 1994 (Swedish)\n50 Ways to Save the Ocean (illustrator; written by David Helvarg)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Sherman's Lagoon website\n Jim Toomey website\n TED Talk - April 2010\n Ocean Inspiration: 100-Second Tribute to Jacques Cousteau\n UNEP Video: Climate Change\n UNEP Video: The True Value of Our Oceans\n UNEP Video: Marine Litter\n UNEP Video: Blue Carbon\n UNEP Video: Nutrient Runoff\n UNEP Video: Adaptation to Sea Level Rise\n\n1960 births\nAmerican comic strip cartoonists\nLiving people\nDuke University Pratt School of Engineering alumni\nPeople from Alexandria, Virginia"
]
|
[
"Sherman Alexie",
"Childhood",
"How was Sherman's childhood like?",
"His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic.",
"Did this have an effect on his life?",
"I don't know.",
"What school did Sherman go to?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_27501d0840054543bce69588a5d74e8e_1 | Anything else interesting about Sherman's childhood? | 4 | Aside from having alcoholic parents, anything else interesting about Sherman Alexie's childhood? | Sherman Alexie | Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. CANNOTANSWER | Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, | Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay.
His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award.
His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry.
In 2018 he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
Early life
Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but
had other side effects.
His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.
Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to suffering hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.
Education
In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.
His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.
In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans.
Sexual harassment allegations
On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."
Career
Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.
In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth.
Literary works
Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?" The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Poetry
Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. Alexie was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1995.
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as "fancydancing," a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self-expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities...: the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters."
Alexie's other collections of poetry include:
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Short stories
Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience."
Ten Little Indians (2004) is a collection of "nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life," according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities."
War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews.
Other short stories by Alexie include:
Superman and Me (1997)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) (collection of short stories)
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (2003), published in The New Yorker
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"
Novels
In his first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues: "you can feel Alexie's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo." Klinkenborg says that Alexie is "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers."
Indian Killer (1996) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures.
Alexie's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen-year-old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, "Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."
Flight (2007) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel explores experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others' lives after he believes to be shot while committing a crime.
Memoir
Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir "pulls readers so deeply into the author's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos." Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I’m not performing the book," he said. "I’m getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." He went on to add that he won't be answering any questions that he doesn't want to answer. "I’ll put my armor back on," he said.
Films
In 1998 Alexie's film, Smoke Signals gained considerable attention. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie's works make appearances in the film. The film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a predominantly Native American production team and cast. The film is a road movie and buddy film, featuring two young Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor's dead father (Gary Farmer). During their journey the characters' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86% and "fresh" rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.
The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, gay identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues related to what makes someone a "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly-white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in "Smoke Signals", again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. It received a 57% and "rotten" rating from the online Film database Rotten Tomatoes.
Other film projects include:
49? (writer, 2003)
The Exiles (presenter, 2008)
Sonicsgate (participant, 2009)
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Hymn (2017)
Uncollected poems
Memoir
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017), Hachette Book Group, .
Novels
Reservation Blues (1995)
Indian Killer (1996)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
Flight (2007)
Short fiction
Collections
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000)
Ten Little Indians (2004)
War Dances (2009)
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
List of short stories
Children's books
Thunder Boy, Jr. (2016), illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Personal life
Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.
Arizona HB 2281
In 2012, Arizona's HB 2281 removed Alexie's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie's response:
{{quote|Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.}}
Influences
Alexie's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He "blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit," according to Quirk. Alexie's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a "means of cultural survival for American Indians—survival in the face of the larger American culture's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness."
Awards and honors
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
1993
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven1994
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
1996
American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine: Best of Pages
1999
The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
2001
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2009
American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, )
2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award
Puterbaugh Award ", the first American Puterbaugh fellow
California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2013
The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
See also
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Louise Erdrich
Native American Renaissance
Native American studies
There There (novel)
References
Other sources
Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". News Hour. July 9, 1998.
Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." MELUS 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149–69.
West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. ""Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste 23.4 (Fall 1998): 29–33.
External links and further reading
Western American Literature Journal: Sherman Alexie
Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in "The Guardian" January 3, 2003
Sherman Alexie's poem "Punch" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (24.1).
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays, (2010) .
Sherman Alexie's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information
Interviews
"Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003
"Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001
"Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009
"Interview With Sherman Alexie" as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
"No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post'', July 3, 1998
"Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders" by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 – with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence
1966 births
Living people
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century Native Americans
American Book Award winners
American children's writers
American male novelists
American male poets
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American people of Russian descent
American people with disabilities
Coeur d'Alene people
Film directors from Washington (state)
Filmmakers from Seattle
Gonzaga University alumni
Harper's Magazine people
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners
Native American children's writers
Native American novelists
Native American poets
Native American short story writers
Novelists from Washington (state)
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners
People from Stevens County, Washington
People with bipolar disorder
People with hydrocephalus
Postmodern writers
Screenwriters from Washington (state)
Spokane people
The New Yorker people
Washington State University alumni
Writers from Seattle | true | [
"Eleanor Mary Sherman Thackara (1859–1915), is most known as the daughter of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of American Civil War fame and his wife, Ellen Ewing Sherman. Married to a diplomat, she spent a good deal of her time in Europe.\n\nEarly life\n\nChildhood\nKnown as \"Ellie\" in the correspondence between her and her father, she was one of eight children, but little is known about her childhood. Her mother was a cousin of Mother Angela Gillespie, directress of St. Mary's Academy in South Bend, Indiana. In 1864, Ellen Sherman took up temporary residence in South Bend, in order to have her young children educated at St. Mary's and Notre Dame du Lac.\n\nIn 1879 and at the age of 20, Thackara met Alexander Montgomery Thackara in Washington, D. C. The two began a courtship that lasted a year before their marriage on May 5, 1880, at her parents' home in Washington, D.C.\n\nFamily\nIn 1881, the Lt. Thackara left military service, moving to Philadelphia with Thackara to join the family business . While there, the couple spent three years in the town of Rosemont where Thackara gave birth to four children, Alexander Montgomery \"Mont\", William Sherman \"Sherman\", Elizabeth, and Eleanor. Thackara was also mentioned in the New York Evangelist as an upcoming writer as she weighed in on the idea of training schools in Philadelphia, but little else is known about her career in writing.\n\nLater life\n\nPhilanthropy\nIn 1897, Mr. Thackara was appointed by President William McKinley to serve as US Consul in Le Havre, France, moving the entire family overseas. He also served as Consul General in Berlin from 1905 to 1913. While living in France, she served with the Red Cross in Paris, and received awards for her work in the organization. She was elected President of the American Women's Club, a social organization.\n\nDeath\nIn 1913, Eleanor and Thackara returned to Paris when President Woodrow Wilson appointed the Lieutenant as Consul General once again. She died two years after their return on July 18, 1915. She was survived by her four children and her husband Alexander.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Sherman-Thackara Collection at Villanova University\n\n1859 births\n1915 deaths\nPeople of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War\nAmerican expatriates in Germany\nAmerican expatriates in France\n19th-century American philanthropists",
"\"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"
]
|
[
"Sherman Alexie",
"Childhood",
"How was Sherman's childhood like?",
"His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic.",
"Did this have an effect on his life?",
"I don't know.",
"What school did Sherman go to?",
"I don't know.",
"Anything else interesting about Sherman's childhood?",
"Alexie was born with hydrocephalus,"
]
| C_27501d0840054543bce69588a5d74e8e_1 | How did hydrocephalus affect his life? | 5 | How did hydrocephalus affect Sherman Alexie's life? | Sherman Alexie | Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. CANNOTANSWER | Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. | Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay.
His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award.
His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry.
In 2018 he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
Early life
Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but
had other side effects.
His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.
Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to suffering hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.
Education
In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.
His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.
In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans.
Sexual harassment allegations
On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."
Career
Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.
In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth.
Literary works
Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?" The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Poetry
Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. Alexie was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1995.
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as "fancydancing," a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self-expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities...: the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters."
Alexie's other collections of poetry include:
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Short stories
Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience."
Ten Little Indians (2004) is a collection of "nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life," according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities."
War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews.
Other short stories by Alexie include:
Superman and Me (1997)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) (collection of short stories)
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (2003), published in The New Yorker
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"
Novels
In his first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues: "you can feel Alexie's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo." Klinkenborg says that Alexie is "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers."
Indian Killer (1996) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures.
Alexie's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen-year-old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, "Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."
Flight (2007) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel explores experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others' lives after he believes to be shot while committing a crime.
Memoir
Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir "pulls readers so deeply into the author's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos." Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I’m not performing the book," he said. "I’m getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." He went on to add that he won't be answering any questions that he doesn't want to answer. "I’ll put my armor back on," he said.
Films
In 1998 Alexie's film, Smoke Signals gained considerable attention. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie's works make appearances in the film. The film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a predominantly Native American production team and cast. The film is a road movie and buddy film, featuring two young Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor's dead father (Gary Farmer). During their journey the characters' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86% and "fresh" rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.
The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, gay identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues related to what makes someone a "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly-white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in "Smoke Signals", again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. It received a 57% and "rotten" rating from the online Film database Rotten Tomatoes.
Other film projects include:
49? (writer, 2003)
The Exiles (presenter, 2008)
Sonicsgate (participant, 2009)
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Hymn (2017)
Uncollected poems
Memoir
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017), Hachette Book Group, .
Novels
Reservation Blues (1995)
Indian Killer (1996)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
Flight (2007)
Short fiction
Collections
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000)
Ten Little Indians (2004)
War Dances (2009)
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
List of short stories
Children's books
Thunder Boy, Jr. (2016), illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Personal life
Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.
Arizona HB 2281
In 2012, Arizona's HB 2281 removed Alexie's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie's response:
{{quote|Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.}}
Influences
Alexie's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He "blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit," according to Quirk. Alexie's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a "means of cultural survival for American Indians—survival in the face of the larger American culture's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness."
Awards and honors
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
1993
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven1994
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
1996
American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine: Best of Pages
1999
The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
2001
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2009
American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, )
2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award
Puterbaugh Award ", the first American Puterbaugh fellow
California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2013
The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
See also
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Louise Erdrich
Native American Renaissance
Native American studies
There There (novel)
References
Other sources
Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". News Hour. July 9, 1998.
Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." MELUS 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149–69.
West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. ""Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste 23.4 (Fall 1998): 29–33.
External links and further reading
Western American Literature Journal: Sherman Alexie
Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in "The Guardian" January 3, 2003
Sherman Alexie's poem "Punch" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (24.1).
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays, (2010) .
Sherman Alexie's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information
Interviews
"Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003
"Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001
"Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009
"Interview With Sherman Alexie" as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
"No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post'', July 3, 1998
"Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders" by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 – with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence
1966 births
Living people
20th-century American male writers
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Writers from Seattle | true | [
"This article concerns the medical condition. For the hydrocephalus creature in American folklore that bares this condition as a part of its legend, see melon heads.\n\nHydrocephalus is a condition in which an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) occurs within the brain. This typically causes increased pressure inside the skull. Older people may have headaches, double vision, poor balance, urinary incontinence, personality changes, or mental impairment. In babies, it may be seen as a rapid increase in head size. Other symptoms may include vomiting, sleepiness, seizures, and downward pointing of the eyes.\n\nHydrocephalus can occur due to birth defects or be acquired later in life. Associated birth defects include neural tube defects and those that result in aqueductal stenosis. Other causes include meningitis, brain tumors, traumatic brain injury, intraventricular hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The four types of hydrocephalus are communicating, noncommunicating, ex vacuo, and normal pressure. Diagnosis is typically made by physical examination and medical imaging.\n\nHydrocephalus is typically treated by the surgical placement of a shunt system. A procedure called a third ventriculostomy is an option in some people. Complications from shunts may include overdrainage, underdrainage, mechanical failure, infection, or obstruction. This may require replacement. Outcomes are variable, but many people with shunts live normal lives. Without treatment, death or permanent disability may occur.\n\nAbout one to two per 1,000 newborns have hydrocephalus. Rates in the developing world may be higher. Normal pressure hydrocephalus is estimated to affect about 5 per 100,000 people, with rates increasing with age. Description of hydrocephalus by Hippocrates dates back more than 2,000 years. The word hydrocephalus is from the Greek , meaning 'water' and , meaning 'head'.\n\nSigns and symptoms\n\nThe clinical presentation of hydrocephalus varies with chronicity. Acute dilatation of the ventricular system is more likely to manifest with the nonspecific signs and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure (ICP). By contrast, chronic dilatation (especially in the elderly population) may have a more insidious onset presenting, for instance, with Hakim's triad (Adams' triad).\n\nSymptoms of increased ICP may include headaches, vomiting, nausea, papilledema, sleepiness, or coma. With increased levels of CSF, there have been cases of hearing loss due to CSF creating pressure on the auditory pathways or disrupting the communication of inner ear fluid. Elevated ICP of different etiologies have been linked to sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Transient SNHL has been reported after the loss of CSF with shunt surgeries. Hearing loss is a rare but well-known sequela of procedures resulting in CSF loss. Elevated ICP may result in uncal or tonsillar herniation, with resulting life-threatening brain stem compression.\n\nHakim's triad of gait instability, urinary incontinence, and dementia is a relatively typical manifestation of the distinct entity normal-pressure hydrocephalus. Focal neurological deficits may also occur, such as abducens nerve palsy and vertical gaze palsy (Parinaud syndrome due to compression of the quadrigeminal plate, where the neural centers coordinating the conjugated vertical eye movement are located). The symptoms depend on the cause of the blockage, the person's age, and how much brain tissue has been damaged by the swelling.\n\nIn infants with hydrocephalus, CSF builds up in the central nervous system (CNS), causing the fontanelle (soft spot) to bulge and the head to be larger than expected. Early symptoms may also include:\n Eyes that appear to gaze downward\n Irritability\n Seizures\n Separated sutures\n Sleepiness\n Vomiting\n\nSymptoms that may occur in older children can include:\n Brief, shrill, high-pitched cry\n Changes in personality, memory, or the ability to reason or think\n Changes in facial appearance and eye spacing (craniofacial disproportion)\n Crossed eyes or uncontrolled eye movements\n Difficulty feeding\n Excessive sleepiness\n Headaches\n Irritability, poor temper control\n Loss of bladder control (urinary incontinence)\n Loss of coordination and trouble walking\n Muscle spasticity (spasm)\n Slow growth (child 0–5 years)\n Delayed milestones\n Failure to thrive\n Slow or restricted movement\n Vomiting\n\nBecause hydrocephalus can injure the brain, thought and behavior may be adversely affected. Learning disabilities, including short-term memory loss, are common among those with hydrocephalus, who tend to score better on verbal IQ than on performance IQ, which is thought to reflect the distribution of nerve damage to the brain. Hydrocephalus that is present from birth can cause long-term complications with speech and language. Children can have issues such as nonverbal learning disorder, difficulty understanding complex and abstract concepts, difficulty retrieving stored information, and spatial/perceptual disorders. Children with hydrocephalus are often known in having the difficulty in understanding the concepts within conversation and tend to use words they know or have heard. However, the severity of hydrocephalus can differ considerably between individuals, and some are of average or above-average intelligence. Someone with hydrocephalus may have coordination and visual problems, or clumsiness. They may reach puberty earlier than the average child (this is called precocious puberty). About one in four develops epilepsy.\n\nCause\n\nCongenital\n\nCongenital hydrocephalus is present in the infant prior to birth, meaning the fetus developed hydrocephalus in utero during fetal development. The most common cause of congenital hydrocephalus is aqueductal stenosis, which occurs when the narrow passage between the third and fourth ventricles in the brain is blocked or too narrow to allow sufficient cerebral spinal fluid to drain. Fluid accumulates in the upper ventricles, causing hydrocephalus.\n\nOther causes of congenital hydrocephalus include neural-tube defects, arachnoid cysts, Dandy–Walker syndrome, and Arnold–Chiari malformation.\nThe cranial bones fuse by the end of the third year of life. For head enlargement to occur, hydrocephalus must occur before then. The causes are usually genetic, but can also be acquired and usually occur within the first few months of life, which include intraventricular matrix hemorrhages in premature infants, infections, type II Arnold-Chiari malformation, aqueduct atresia and stenosis, and Dandy-Walker malformation. Hydrocephalus has also been seen in cases of congenital syphilis.\n\nIn newborns and toddlers with hydrocephalus, the head circumference is enlarged rapidly and soon surpasses the 97th percentile. Since the skull bones have not yet firmly joined together, bulging, firm anterior and posterior fontanelles may be present even when the person is in an upright position.\n\nThe infant exhibits fretfulness, poor feeding, and frequent vomiting. As the hydrocephalus progresses, torpor sets in, and infants show lack of interest in their surroundings. Later on, their upper eyelids become retracted and their eyes are turned downwards (\"sunset eyes\") (due to hydrocephalic pressure on the mesencephalic tegmentum and paralysis of upward gaze). Movements become weak and the arms may become tremulous. Papilledema is absent, but vision may be reduced. The head becomes so enlarged that they eventually may be bedridden.\n\nAbout 80–90% of fetuses or newborn infants with spina bifida—often associated with meningocele or myelomeningocele—develop hydrocephalus.\n\nAcquired\nThis condition is acquired as a consequence of CNS infections, meningitis, brain tumors, head trauma, toxoplasmosis, or intracranial hemorrhage (subarachnoid or intraparenchymal), and is usually painful.\n\nType\nThe cause of hydrocephalus is not known with certainty and is probably multifactorial. It may be caused by impaired CSF flow, reabsorption, or excessive CSF production.\n Obstruction to CSF flow hinders its free passage through the ventricular system and subarachnoid space (e.g., stenosis of the cerebral aqueduct or obstruction of the interventricular foramina secondary to tumors, hemorrhages, infections or congenital malformations) and can cause increases in ICP.\n Hydrocephalus can also be caused by overproduction of CSF (relative obstruction) (e.g., choroid plexus papilloma, villous hypertrophy).\n Bilateral ureteric obstruction is a rare, but reported, cause of hydrocephalus.\n\nHydrocephalus can be classified into communicating and noncommunicating (obstructive). Both forms can be either congenital or acquired.\n\nCommunicating\nCommunicating hydrocephalus, also known as nonobstructive hydrocephalus, is caused by impaired CSF reabsorption in the absence of any obstruction of CSF flow between the ventricles and subarachnoid space. This may be due to functional impairment of the arachnoidal granulations (also called arachnoid granulations or Pacchioni's granulations), which are located along the superior sagittal sinus, and is the site of CSF reabsorption back into the venous system. Various neurologic conditions may result in communicating hydrocephalus, including subarachnoid/intraventricular hemorrhage, meningitis, and congenital absence of arachnoid villi. Scarring and fibrosis of the subarachnoid space following infectious, inflammatory, or hemorrhagic events can also prevent reabsorption of CSF, causing diffuse ventricular dilatation.\n\nNoncommunicating\nNoncommunicating hydrocephalus, or obstructive hydrocephalus, is caused by an obstruction to the flow of CSF. \n Foramen of Monro obstruction may lead to dilation of one, or if large enough (e.g., in colloid cyst), both lateral ventricles.\n The aqueduct of Sylvius, normally narrow, may be obstructed by a number of genetic or acquired lesions (e.g., atresia, ependymitis, hemorrhage, or tumor) and lead to dilation of both lateral ventricles, as well as the third ventricle.\n Fourth ventricle obstruction leads to dilatation of the aqueduct, as well as the lateral and third ventricles (e.g., Chiari malformation).\n The foramina of Luschka and foramen of Magendie may be obstructed due to congenital malformation (e.g., Dandy-Walker malformation).\n\nOther\n\n Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a particular form of chronic communicating hydrocephalus, characterized by enlarged cerebral ventricles, with only intermittently elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure. Characteristic triad of symptoms are; dementia, apraxic gait and urinary incontinence. The diagnosis of NPH can be established only with the help of continuous intraventricular pressure recordings (over 24 hours or even longer), since more often than not instant measurements yield normal pressure values. Dynamic compliance studies may be also helpful. Altered compliance (elasticity) of the ventricular walls, as well as increased viscosity of the cerebrospinal fluid, may play a role in the pathogenesis.\n Hydrocephalus ex vacuo also refers to an enlargement of cerebral ventricles and subarachnoid spaces, and is usually due to brain atrophy (as it occurs in dementias), post-traumatic brain injuries, and even in some psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. As opposed to hydrocephalus, this is a compensatory enlargement of the CSF-spaces in response to brain parenchyma loss; it is not the result of increased CSF pressure.\n\nMechanism\n\nHydrocephalus is usually due to blockage of CSF outflow in the ventricles or in the subarachnoid space over the brain. In a person without hydrocephalus, CSF continuously circulates through the brain, its ventricles and the spinal cord and is continuously drained away into the circulatory system. Alternatively, the condition may result from an overproduction of the CSF, from a congenital malformation blocking normal drainage of the fluid, or from complications of head injuries or infections.\n\nCompression of the brain by the accumulating fluid eventually may cause neurological symptoms such as convulsions, intellectual disability, and epileptic seizures. These signs occur sooner in adults, whose skulls are no longer able to expand to accommodate the increasing fluid volume within. Fetuses, infants, and young children with hydrocephalus typically have an abnormally large head, excluding the face, because the pressure of the fluid causes the individual skull bones—which have yet to fuse—to bulge outward at their juncture points. Another medical sign, in infants, is a characteristic fixed downward gaze with whites of the eyes showing above the iris, as though the infant were trying to examine its own lower eyelids.\n\nThe elevated ICP may cause compression of the brain, leading to brain damage and other complications. A complication often overlooked is the possibility of hearing loss due to ICP. The mechanism of ICP on hearing loss is presumed that the transmission of CSF pressure to and from the Perilymphatic space through a patent cochlear aqueduct. The cochlear aqueduct connects the Perilymphatic space of the inner ear with the subarachnoid space of the posterior cranial fossa. A loss of CSF pressure can induce Perilymphatic loss or endolymphatic hydrops resembling the clinical presentation of Ménière's disease associated hearing loss in the low frequencies.\n\nCSF can accumulate within the ventricles, this condition is called internal hydrocephalus and may result in increased CSF pressure. The production of CSF continues, even when the passages that normally allow it to exit the brain are blocked. Consequently, fluid builds inside the brain, causing pressure that dilates the ventricles and compresses the nervous tissue. Compression of the nervous tissue usually results in irreversible brain damage. If the skull bones are not completely ossified when the hydrocephalus occurs, the pressure may also severely enlarge the head. The cerebral aqueduct may be blocked at the time of birth or may become blocked later in life because of a tumor growing in the brainstem.\n\nTreatments\n\nProcedures\n\nHydrocephalus treatment is surgical, creating a way for the excess fluid to drain away. In the short term, an external ventricular drain (EVD), also known as an extraventricular drain or ventriculostomy, provides relief. In the long term, some people will need any of various types of cerebral shunt. It involves the placement of a ventricular catheter (a tube made of silastic) into the cerebral ventricles to bypass the flow obstruction/malfunctioning arachnoidal granulations and drain the excess fluid into other body cavities, from where it can be resorbed. Most shunts drain the fluid into the peritoneal cavity (ventriculoperitoneal shunt), but alternative sites include the right atrium (ventriculoatrial shunt), pleural cavity (ventriculopleural shunt), and gallbladder. A shunt system can also be placed in the lumbar space of the spine and have the CSF redirected to the peritoneal cavity (lumbar-peritoneal shunt). An alternative treatment for obstructive hydrocephalus in selected people is the endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), whereby a surgically created opening in the floor of the third ventricle allows the CSF to flow directly to the basal cisterns, thereby shortcutting any obstruction, as in aqueductal stenosis. This may or may not be appropriate based on individual anatomy. For infants, ETV is sometimes combined with choroid plexus cauterization, which reduces the amount of cerebrospinal fluid produced by the brain. The technique, known as ETV/CPC, was pioneered in Uganda by neurosurgeon Benjamin Warf and is now in use in several U.S. hospitals. Hydrocephalus can be successfully treated by placing a drainage tube (shunt) between the brain ventricles and abdominal cavity. Some risk exists of infection being introduced into the brain through these shunts, however, and the shunts must be replaced as the person grows.\n\nExternal hydrocephalus\nExternal hydrocephalus is a condition generally seen in infants which involves enlarged fluid spaces or subarachnoid spaces around the outside of the brain. This is generally a benign condition that resolves spontaneously by two years of age and therefore usually does not require insertion of a shunt. Imaging studies and a good medical history can help to differentiate external hydrocephalus from subdural hemorrhages or symptomatic chronic extra-axial fluid collections which are accompanied by vomiting, headaches, and seizures.\n\nShunt complications\nExamples of possible complications include shunt malfunction, shunt failure, and shunt infection, along with infection of the shunt tract following surgery (the most common reason for shunt failure is infection of the shunt tract). Although a shunt generally works well, it may stop working if it disconnects, becomes blocked (clogged) or infected, or it is outgrown. If this happens, the CSF begins to accumulate again and a number of physical symptoms develop (headaches, nausea, vomiting, photophobia/light sensitivity), some extremely serious, such as seizures. The shunt failure rate is also relatively high (of the 40,000 surgeries performed annually to treat hydrocephalus, only 30% are a person's first surgery) and people not uncommonly have multiple shunt revisions within their lifetimes.\n\nAnother complication can occur when CSF drains more rapidly than it is produced by the choroid plexus, causing symptoms of listlessness, severe headaches, irritability, light sensitivity, auditory hyperesthesia (sound sensitivity), hearing loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, vertigo, migraines, seizures, a change in personality, weakness in the arms or legs, strabismus, and double vision to appear when the person is vertical. If the person lies down, the symptoms usually vanish quickly. A CT scan may or may not show any change in ventricle size, particularly if the person has a history of slit-like ventricles. Difficulty in diagnosing over-drainage can make treatment of this complication particularly frustrating for people and their families. Resistance to traditional analgesic pharmacological therapy may also be a sign of shunt overdrainage or failure.\n\nFollowing placement of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt there have been cases of a decrease in post-surgery hearing. It is presumed that the cochlea aqueduct is responsible for the decrease in hearing thresholds. The cochlea aqueduct has been considered as a probable channel where CSF pressure can be transmitted. Therefore, the reduced CSF pressure could cause a decrease in Perilymphatic pressure and cause secondary endolymphatic hydrops. In addition to the increased hearing loss, there have also been findings of resolved hearing loss after ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement, where there is a release of CSF pressure on the auditory pathways.\n\nThe diagnosis of CSF buildup is complex and requires specialist expertise. Diagnosis of the particular complication usually depends on when the symptoms appear, that is, whether symptoms occur when the person is upright or in a prone position, with the head at roughly the same level as the feet.\n\nStandardized protocols for inserting cerebral shunts have been shown to reduce shunt infections. There is tentative evidence that preventative antibiotics may decrease the risk of shunt infections.\n\nHistory\n\nReferences to hydrocephalic skulls can be found in ancient Egyptian medical literature from 2,500 BC to 500 AD. Hydrocephalus was described more clearly by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates in the fourth century BC, while a more accurate description was later given by the Roman physician Galen in the second century AD.\n\nThe first clinical description of an operative procedure for hydrocephalus appears in the Al-Tasrif (1,000 AD) by the Arab surgeon Abulcasis, who clearly described the evacuation of superficial intracranial fluid in hydrocephalic children. He described it in his chapter on neurosurgical disease, describing infantile hydrocephalus as being caused by mechanical compression. He wrote:\n\nIn 1881, a few years after the landmark study of Retzius and Key, Carl Wernicke pioneered sterile ventricular puncture and external drainage of CSF for the treatment of hydrocephalus. It remained an intractable condition until the 20th century, when cerebral shunt and other neurosurgical treatment modalities were developed.\n\nIt is a lesser-known medical condition; relatively little research is conducted to improve treatment, and still no cure has been found. In developing countries, the condition often goes untreated at birth. Before birth, the condition is difficult to diagnose, and access to medical treatment is limited. However, when head swelling is prominent, children are taken at great expense for treatment. By then, brain tissue is undeveloped and neurosurgery is rare and difficult. Children more commonly live with undeveloped brain tissue and consequential intellectual disabilities and restrictions.\n\nSociety and culture\n\nName \nThe word hydrocephalus is from the Greek meaning 'water' and meaning 'head'. Other names for hydrocephalus include \"water on the brain\", a historical name, and \"water baby syndrome\".\n\nAwareness campaign\n\nSeptember was designated National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month in July 2009 by the U.S. Congress in . The resolution campaign is due in part to the advocacy work of the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation. Prior to July 2009, no awareness month for this condition had been designated. Many hydrocephalus organizations, such as the One Small Voice Foundation, promote awareness and fundraising activities.\n\nExceptional case\nOne case of hydrocephalus was a man whose brain shrank to a thin sheet of tissue, due to a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in his skull. As a child, the man had a shunt, but it was removed when he was 14. In July 2007, at age 44, he went to a hospital due to mild weakness in his left leg. When doctors learned of the man's medical history, they performed a CT and MRI scan, and were astonished to see \"massive enlargement\" of the lateral ventricles in the skull. Dr. Lionel Feuillet of Hôpital de la Timone in Marseille said, \"The images were most unusual... the brain was virtually absent.\" Intelligence tests showed the person had an IQ of 75, considered \"borderline intellectual functioning\", just above what would be officially considered mentally challenged.\n\nThe person was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant, leading an at least superficially normal life, despite having enlarged ventricles with a decreased volume of brain tissue. \"What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life\", commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain-defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute. \"If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side.\"\n\nNotable cases \n Ice hockey player Colby Cave had acute obstructive hydrocephalus due to a colloid cyst.\n Author Sherman Alexie, born with the condition, wrote about it in his semi-autobiographical junior fiction novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.\n Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (1689–1700), probably contracted meningitis at birth, which resulted in this condition.\n Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (1793–1875) became emperor in 1835 despite various health issues including hydrocephalus and epilepsy.\n In the American folklore of the states of Ohio, Michigan, and Connecticut, an urban legend exists about the melon heads, the inbred descendants of families of people born with hydrocephaly.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n Guidelines for pediatric hydrocephalus\n\nCongenital disorders of nervous system\nDisorders causing seizures\nPediatrics\nWikipedia medicine articles ready to translate\nVentricular system\nWikipedia neurology articles ready to translate",
"Hydrocephalus is a genus of middle Cambrian trilobite.\n\nSpecies include \n\nHydrocephalus hicksii Salter 1864\n\nReferences\n\nParadoxidoidea"
]
|
[
"Sherman Alexie",
"Childhood",
"How was Sherman's childhood like?",
"His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic.",
"Did this have an effect on his life?",
"I don't know.",
"What school did Sherman go to?",
"I don't know.",
"Anything else interesting about Sherman's childhood?",
"Alexie was born with hydrocephalus,",
"How did hydrocephalus affect his life?",
"Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males."
]
| C_27501d0840054543bce69588a5d74e8e_1 | Was he an active member of the Indian comunity? | 6 | Was Sherman Alexie an active member of the Indian comunity? | Sherman Alexie | Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a little child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the cranial cavity. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but had other side effects. His parents were alcoholics though his mother was a sober alcoholic. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post and had some other jobs. Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging because he was constantly teased by other kids as well as endured abuse he described as "torture" from teachers who were white nuns. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to the hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sherman Joseph Alexie Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Native American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker. His writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes. He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington.
His best-known book is The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), a collection of short stories. It was adapted as the film Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay.
His first novel, Reservation Blues, received a 1996 American Book Award.
His first young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), is a semi-autobiographical novel that won the 2007 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Odyssey Award as best 2008 audiobook for young people (read by Alexie). His 2009 collection of short stories and poems, War Dances, won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alexie is the guest editor of the 2015 Best American Poetry.
In 2018 he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
Early life
Alexie was born on October 7, 1966, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Washington. As a child he lived on the Spokane Indian Reservation, located west of Spokane. His father, Sherman Joseph Alexie, was a member of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, and his mother, Lillian Agnes Cox, was of Colville, Choctaw, Spokane and European American ancestry. One of his paternal great-grandfathers was of Russian descent. Alexie was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when there is an abnormally large amount of cerebral fluid in the brain's ventricular system. He had to have brain surgery when he was six months old, and was at high risk of death or mental disabilities if he survived. Alexie's surgery was successful; he suffered no mental damage but
had other side effects.
His parents were alcoholics, though his mother achieved sobriety. His father often left the house on drinking binges for days at a time. To support her six children, Alexie's mother, Lillian, sewed quilts, worked as a clerk at the Wellpinit Trading Post, and had some other jobs.
Alexie has described his life at the reservation school as challenging, as he was constantly teased by other kids and endured abuse he described as "torture" from white nuns who taught there. They called him "The Globe" because his head was larger than usual, due to suffering hydrocephalus as an infant. Until the age of seven, Alexie suffered from seizures and bedwetting; he had to take strong drugs to control them. Because of his health problems, he was excluded from many of the activities that are rites of passage for young Indian males. Alexie excelled academically, reading everything available, including auto repair manuals.
Education
In order to better his education, Alexie decided to leave the reservation and attend high school in Reardan, Washington., 22 miles from the reservation, and where Alexie was the only Native American student. He excelled at his studies and became a star player on the basketball team, the Reardan High School Indians. He was elected class president and was a member of the debate team.
His successes in high school won him a scholarship in 1985 to Gonzaga University, a Roman Catholic university in Spokane. Originally, Alexie enrolled in the pre-med program with hopes of becoming a doctor, but found he was squeamish during dissection in his anatomy classes. Alexie switched to law, but found that was not suitable, either. He felt enormous pressure to succeed in college, and consequently, he began drinking heavily to cope with his anxiety. Unhappy with law, Alexie found comfort in literature classes.
In 1987, he dropped out of Gonzaga and enrolled in Washington State University (WSU), where he took a creative writing course taught by Alex Kuo, a respected poet of Chinese-American background. Alexie was at a low point in his life, and Kuo served as a mentor to him. Kuo gave Alexie an anthology entitled Songs of This Earth on Turtle's Back, by Joseph Bruchac. Alexie said this book changed his life as it taught him "how to connect to non-Native literature in a new way". He was inspired by reading works of poetry written by Native Americans.
Sexual harassment allegations
On February 28, 2018, Alexie published a statement regarding accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women, including author Litsa Dremousis, with whom he had a consensual affair in the past and who claimed numerous women had spoken to her about Alexie's behavior. Alexie admitted he had "harmed" other people besides Dremousis. Dremousis's response initially appeared on her Facebook page and was subsequently reprinted in The Stranger on March 1, 2018. The allegations against Alexie were detailed in an NPR story five days later. NPR corroborated the sexual harassment allegations of three other women. The fallout from these accusations includes the Institute of American Indian Arts renaming its Sherman Alexie Scholarship as the MFA Alumni Scholarship. The blog Native Americans in Children's Literature has deleted or modified all references to Alexie. In February 2018 it was reported that the American Library Association, which had just awarded Alexie its Carnegie Medal for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, was reconsidering, and in March it was confirmed that Alexie had declined the award and was postponing the publication of a paperback version of the memoir. The American Indian Library Association rescinded its 2008 Best Young Adult Book Award from Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, "to send an unequivocal message that Alexie's actions are unacceptable."
Career
Alexie published his first collection of poetry, The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems, in 1992 through Hanging Loose Press. With that success, Alexie stopped drinking and quit school just three credits short of a degree. However, in 1995, he was awarded an honorary bachelor's degree from Washington State University.
In 2005, Alexie became a founding board member of Longhouse Media, a non-profit organization that is committed to teaching filmmaking skills to Native American youth and using media for cultural expression and social change. Alexie has long supported youth programs and initiatives dedicated to supporting at-risk Native youth.
Literary works
Alexie's stories have been included in several short story anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories 2004, edited by Lorrie Moore; and Pushcart Prize XXIX of the Small Presses. Additionally, a number of his pieces have been published in various literary magazines and journals, as well as online publications.
Themes
Alexie's poetry, short stories and novels explore themes of despair, poverty, violence and alcoholism among the lives of Native American people, both on and off the reservation. They are lightened by wit and humor. According to Sarah A. Quirk from the Dictionary of Library Biography, Alexie asks three questions across all of his works: "What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? Finally, what does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?" The protagonists in most of his literary works exhibit a constant struggle with themselves and their own sense of powerlessness in white American society.
Poetry
Within a year of graduating from college, Alexie received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. His career began with the publishing of his first two collections of poetry in 1992, entitled, I Would Steal Horses and The Business of Fancydancing. In these poems, Alexie uses humor to express the struggles of contemporary Indians on reservations. Common themes include alcoholism, poverty and racism. Although he uses humor to express his feelings, the underlying message is very serious. Alexie was awarded The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize by the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1995.
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992) was well received, selling over 10,000 copies. Alexie refers to his writing as "fancydancing," a flashy, colorful style of competitive Pow wow dancing. Whereas older, traditional forms of Indian dance may be ceremonial and kept private among tribal members, the fancydance style was created by Native American veterans from World War II as a form of public entertainment. Alexie compares the mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet that he finds in his writings to the vivid self-expression of the dancers. Leslie Ullman commented on The Business of Fancydancing in the Kenyon Review, writing that Alexie "weaves a curiously soft-blended tapestry of humor, humility, pride and metaphysical provocation out of the hard realities...: the tin-shack lives, the alcohol dreams, the bad luck and burlesque disasters, and the self-destructive courage of his characters."
Alexie's other collections of poetry include:
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Short stories
Alexie published his first prose work, entitled The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, in 1993. The book consists of a series of short stories that are interconnected. Several prominent characters are explored, and they have been featured in later works by Alexie. According to Sarah A. Quirk, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven can be considered a bildungsroman with dual protagonists, "Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, moving from relative innocence to a mature level on experience."
Ten Little Indians (2004) is a collection of "nine extraordinary short stories set in and around the Seattle area, featuring Spokane Indians from all walks of urban life," according to Christine C. Menefee of the School Library Journal. In this collection, Alexie "challenges stereotypes that whites have of Native Americans and at the same time shows the Native American characters coming to terms with their own identities."
War Dances is a collection of short stories, poems, and short works. It won the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The collection, however, received mixed reviews.
Other short stories by Alexie include:
Superman and Me (1997)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) (collection of short stories)
"What You Pawn I Will Redeem" (2003), published in The New Yorker
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
"Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star−Spangled Banner' at Woodstock"
Novels
In his first novel, Reservation Blues (1995), Alexie revisits some of the characters from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Victor Joseph, and Junior Polatkin, who have grown up together on the Spokane Indian reservation, were teenagers in the short story collection. In Reservation Blues they are now adult men in their thirties. Some of them are now musicians and in a band together. Verlyn Klinkenborg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1995 review of Reservation Blues: "you can feel Alexie's purposely divided attention, his alertness to a divided audience, Native American and Anglo." Klinkenborg says that Alexie is "willing to risk didacticism whenever he stops to explain the particulars of the Spokane and, more broadly, the Native American experience to his readers."
Indian Killer (1996) is a murder mystery set among Native American adults in contemporary Seattle, where the characters struggle with urban life, mental health, and the knowledge that there is a serial killer on the loose. Characters deal with the racism in the University system, as well as in the community at large, where Indians are subjected to being lectured about their own culture by white professors who are actually ignorant of Indian cultures.
Alexie's young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) is a coming-of-age story that began as a memoir of his life and family on the Spokane Indian reservation. The novel focuses on a fourteen-year-old Indian named Arnold Spirit. The novel is semi-autobiographical, including many events and elements of Alexie's life. For example, Arnold was born with hydrocephalus, and was teased a lot as a child. The story also portrays events after Arnold's transfer to Reardan High School, which Alexie attended. The novel received great reviews and continues to be a top seller. Bruce Barcott from the New York Times Book Review observed, "Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home."
Flight (2007) also features an adolescent protagonist. The narrator, who calls himself "Zits," is a fifteen-year-old orphan of mixed Native and European ancestry who has bounced around the foster system in Seattle. The novel explores experiences of the past, as Zits experiences short windows into others' lives after he believes to be shot while committing a crime.
Memoir
Alexie's memoir, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, was released by Hachette in June 2017. Claudia Rowe of The Seattle Times wrote in June 2017 that the memoir "pulls readers so deeply into the author's youth on the Spokane Indian Reservation that most will forget all about facile comparisons and simply surrender to Alexie's unmistakable patois of humor and profanity, history and pathos." Alexie cancelled his book tour in support of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me in July 2017 due to the emotional toll that promoting the book was taking. In September 2017, he decided to resume the tour, with some significant changes. As he related to Laurie Hertzel of The Star Tribune, "I’m not performing the book," he said. "I’m getting interviewed. That's a whole different thing." He went on to add that he won't be answering any questions that he doesn't want to answer. "I’ll put my armor back on," he said.
Films
In 1998 Alexie's film, Smoke Signals gained considerable attention. Alexie based the screenplay on his short story collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, and characters and events from a number of Alexie's works make appearances in the film. The film was directed by Chris Eyre, (Cheyenne-Arapaho) with a predominantly Native American production team and cast. The film is a road movie and buddy film, featuring two young Indians, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds the Fire (Evan Adams), who leave the reservation on a road trip to retrieve the body of Victor's dead father (Gary Farmer). During their journey the characters' childhood is explored via flashbacks. The film took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. It received an 86% and "fresh" rating from the online film database Rotten Tomatoes.
The Business of Fancydancing, written and directed by Alexie in 2002, explores themes of Indian identity, gay identity, cultural involvement vs blood quantum, living on the reservation or off it, and other issues related to what makes someone a "real Indian." The title refers to the protagonist's choice to leave the reservation and make his living performing for predominantly-white audiences. Evan Adams, who plays Thomas Builds the Fire in "Smoke Signals", again stars, now as an urban gay man with a white partner. The death of a peer brings the protagonist home to the reservation, where he reunites with his friends from his childhood and youth. The film is unique in that Alexie hired an almost completely female crew to produce the film. Many of the actors improvised their dialogue, based on real events in their lives. It received a 57% and "rotten" rating from the online Film database Rotten Tomatoes.
Other film projects include:
49? (writer, 2003)
The Exiles (presenter, 2008)
Sonicsgate (participant, 2009)
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems (1992)
Old Shirts and New Skins (1993)
First Indian on the Moon (1993)
Seven Mourning Songs For the Cedar Flute I Have Yet to Learn to Play (1994)
Water Flowing Home (1996)
The Summer of Black Widows (1996)
The Man Who Loves Salmon (1998)
One Stick Song (2000)
Face (2009), Hanging Loose Press (April 15, 2009) hardcover, 160 pages,
Hymn (2017)
Uncollected poems
Memoir
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (2017), Hachette Book Group, .
Novels
Reservation Blues (1995)
Indian Killer (1996)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)
Flight (2007)
Short fiction
Collections
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
The Toughest Indian in the World (2000)
Ten Little Indians (2004)
War Dances (2009)
Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories (2012)
List of short stories
Children's books
Thunder Boy, Jr. (2016), illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Personal life
Alexie is married to Diane Tomhave, who is of Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi heritage. They live in Seattle with their two sons.
Arizona HB 2281
In 2012, Arizona's HB 2281 removed Alexie's works, along with those of others, from Arizona school curriculum. Alexie's response:
{{quote|Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in banning me alongside Urrea, Baca, and Castillo, that their anti-immigration laws are also anti-Indian. I'm also strangely pleased that the folks of Arizona have officially announced their fear of an educated underclass. You give those brown kids some books about brown folks and what happens? Those brown kids change the world. In the effort to vanish our books, Arizona has actually given them enormous power. Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.}}
Influences
Alexie's writings are meant to evoke sadness, but at the same time, he uses humor and pop culture that leave the readers with a sense of respect, understanding, and compassion. Alexie's influences for his literary works do not rely solely on traditional Indian forms. He "blends elements of popular culture, Indian spirituality, and the drudgery of poverty-ridden reservation life to create his characters and the world they inhabit," according to Quirk. Alexie's work is laced with often startling humor. According to Quirk, he does this as a "means of cultural survival for American Indians—survival in the face of the larger American culture's stereotypes of American Indians and their concomitant distillation of individual tribal characteristics into one pan-Indian consciousness."
Awards and honors
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship
1993
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction for the story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven1994
Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award
1996
American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation) for Reservation Blues Granta Magazine: Twenty Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40
New York Times Notable Book for Indian Killer People Magazine: Best of Pages
1999
The New Yorker: 20 Writers for the 21st Century
2001
PEN/Malamud Award
2007
National Book Award, Young People's Literature, for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2009
American Library Association Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults", read by Alexie (Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, LLC, 2008, )
2010
PEN/Faulkner Award for War Dances Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award
Puterbaugh Award ", the first American Puterbaugh fellow
California Young Reader Medal for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian2013
The John Dos Passos Prize for Literature
See also
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Louise Erdrich
Native American Renaissance
Native American studies
There There (novel)
References
Other sources
Alexie, Sherman; Bill Clinton and Jim Lehrer. "A Dialogue on Race with President Clinton". News Hour. July 9, 1998.
Nygren, Åse. "A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie." MELUS 30.4 (Winter 2005): 149–69.
West, Dennis, and Joan M. West. ""Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie". Cineaste 23.4 (Fall 1998): 29–33.
External links and further reading
Western American Literature Journal: Sherman Alexie
Voice of the New Tribes article by Duncan Campbell in "The Guardian" January 3, 2003
Sherman Alexie's poem "Punch" in Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (24.1).
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays, (2010) .
Sherman Alexie's heartbreaking reason for pausing his book tour - via KUOW News and Information
Interviews
"Sherman Alexie" by Robert Capriccioso, Identity Theory, published March 23, 2003
"Sherman Alexie" by Joelle Fraser, Iowa Review, copyright 2001
"Northwest Passages: Sherman Alexie" by Emily Harris, Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting, broadcast October 8, 2009
"Interview With Sherman Alexie" as 2007 National Book Award winner, by Rita Williams-Garcia
"No More Playing Dead for American Indian Filmmaker Sherman Alexie" by Rita Kempley, The Washington Post'', July 3, 1998
"Sherman Alexie on Living Outside Cultural Borders" by Bill Moyers, broadcast April 12, 2013 – with "Dig Deeper" on Alexie's life, work, and influence
1966 births
Living people
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American poets
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century Native Americans
American Book Award winners
American children's writers
American male novelists
American male poets
American male screenwriters
American male short story writers
American people of Russian descent
American people with disabilities
Coeur d'Alene people
Film directors from Washington (state)
Filmmakers from Seattle
Gonzaga University alumni
Harper's Magazine people
National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners
Native American children's writers
Native American novelists
Native American poets
Native American short story writers
Novelists from Washington (state)
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners
PEN/Malamud Award winners
People from Stevens County, Washington
People with bipolar disorder
People with hydrocephalus
Postmodern writers
Screenwriters from Washington (state)
Spokane people
The New Yorker people
Washington State University alumni
Writers from Seattle | false | [
"Jibesh Kumar (born 25 July 1973) is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is currently elected as Member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly from Jale constituency in 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election. Jibesh Kumar is currently serving as Minister of Labour Resources Department and Information Technology in Bihar Government.\n\nPolitical background \nJibesh Kumar was an active member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad from 1981 to 1998. Jibes Kumar was working as a Primary Member from 1998 to 2002 and He has been working as an Active Member of Bhartiya Janta Party since 2002.\n\nFirst time He was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from the Jale constituency as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2015.\n\nAgain in the 2020 He had won from the same seat Jale constituency with a margin of 21,796 votes and elected second time for the Bihar Legislative Assembly as a Member of Bharatiya Janata Party.\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\nIndian politicians\n1973 births\nState cabinet ministers of Bihar",
"Ranjit Bhatia (27 May 1936 – 9 February 2014) was an Indian athlete and journalist who ran in the marathon and 5000 meters events at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.\n\nBiography\nRanjit Bhatia was born on 27 May 1936. He studied at the Lawrence School, Sanawar. He then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, matriculating from Jesus College in 1957.\n\nBhatia was an active athlete, both at Oxford (awarded a Blue) as well as a member of the Belgrave Harriers. He participated in the 1960 Rome Olympics, coming 60th in the marathon and participating in heats of the 5000 metres race.\n\nFollowing a long battle with Parkinson's disease, Bhatia died on 9 February 2014 in Delhi.\n\nCareer\nFollowing his graduation from Oxford, Ranjit Bhatia returned to India. In 1960, he joined St. Stephen's College, Delhi to teach Mathematics. He remained there until his retirement as Reader.\n\nHe was a sports writer and presenter. He wrote for Athletics Weekly and covered several Olympic Games for Indian newspapers, including The Statesman.\n\nBhatia was an active member of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians. He was also a national-level selector for Indian athletics between 1976 and 1984.\n\nAmong his written works are the Handbook of Indian Athletics, and the Book of Asian Games.\n\nRanjit Bhatia was an administrator for the Indian chapter of the Rhodes Scholarships from 1962 till his retirement in 1997.\n\nAwards\nFor his services to the Rhodes Trust and athletics, Bhatia was awarded the OBE.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1936 births\n2014 deaths\nAlumni of Jesus College, Oxford\nIndian male long-distance runners\nIndian Rhodes Scholars\nOfficers of the Order of the British Empire\nLawrence School, Sanawar alumni\nAthletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics\nOlympic athletes of India\nPlace of birth missing"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career"
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | Where did she get her education? | 1 | Where did Judy Chicago get her education? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | true | [
"Nancy Isime (born 17 December 1991) is a Nigerian actress, model and media personality.\n\nEarly life and background\nNancy Isime was born in Edo State. She studied for a course in Social Work for two years at the University of Lagos.\n\nNancy Isime lost her Mum at age 5 and was brought up solely by her Dad. She grew up in Lagos, where she had her primary and junior secondary education. Afterward, she left for Benin, where she had her senior secondary education. She did a six-month basic course at the University of Port Harcourt and a Diploma in Social Work at the University of Lagos.\n\nCareer\n\nModelling\nIn 2009, Nancy Isime won the Miss Valentine International beauty pageant, and finished second in the Miss Telecoms Nigeria beauty contest. As a model she has worked for the likes of \"House of Marie\", \"Ade Bakere\", \"Adebayo Jones\", \"Zizi Cardow\", \"Shakara Couture\", \"Konga Online\" and others. Isime has said of her modelling: \"It is all about the ability to always try and to keep coming back until you get your big break. In Nigeria, modelling is not as it is in the western countries where you get your big break and that is it. Here, you can get your big break and still go back down, so it is very imperative that you get your big break and continue to work hard and continue to come back for more.\"\nHost of The Voice Nigeria\n\nActing\nIsime began a career as an actress in the TV series Echoes in 2011..\n\nTelevision and event host\nIsime is also a television presenter, known for presenting gossip show The Squeeze, technology show What’s Hot and backstage segments of MTN Project Fame season 7.\nIn 2016 she replaced Toke Makinwa as the presenter of the popular show Trending on HipTV.\nShe co-hosted the 2019 edition of The Headies award with Reminisce she is also the presenter of the voice Nigeria 2021\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards and recognition\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n\nNigerian television actresses\nNigerian television presenters\nNigerian female models\nLiving people\n1991 births\nUniversity of Lagos alumni\nPeople from Edo State\nNigerian women television presenters",
"Hannah Alexandra Moylan (1867 – 15 June 1902), first woman to get a degree in science in Ireland.\n\nEarly life and education\nBorn Hannah Moylan of the Newcastle Road, Galway to Jeremiah Moylan and Mary Fitzgerald of Cork. Her mother was the matron and her father the headmaster of the Model school. Her father went on to become a Barrington Lecturer on Political Economy. Moylan was baptised on 2 December 1867, her exact date of birth is unknown. She was their second youngest child of ten. Her oldest brother Michael became a doctor. Her oldest sister a school governess and the youngest sister Vida Mary Augusta Constance Moylan (1871-1962) married William Worby Beaumont, an engineer and inventor. Her sister Josephine was a novelist who wrote under the name Errol Fitzgerald. In 1873 the family moved to Limerick where they were living when her mother died. Moylan got her primary education from her father but went to Madame De Prins College for Young Ladies and the Ladies Intermediate School on Catherine Street in Limerick for her secondary education. She won prizes in her examinations while in school.\n\nIn July 1887 she matriculated at the Royal University of Ireland where she studied the Arts. At the time it was not possible for a young woman to attend university directly and so Moylan got her university education from Alexandra College, Dublin and qualified with a BA in French, English and Mathematics in 1891. She won scholarships and awards during the period where she took her university exams through Trinity College Dublin.\n\nCareer\nMoylan took up a teaching position in Alexandria College from which she took a break in 1895 to study for a BSc through Queen's University Galway. Moylan was the first woman student to get this degree in Ireland. The next woman to do this was Jane Stephens in 1903. Once she had the second degree, Moylan returned to Alexandra College where she remained a lecturer. She was an activist in promoting women's education. Moylan was part of the Central Association of Irish Schoolmistresses working to get permission for women to be admitted to Trinity College Dublin. Even while in college herself she wrote papers for journals, mostly in mathematics. Moylan also worked on the need for training for secondary teachers in Ireland and on methods of teaching mathematics. Moylan was a founding member of the Alexandra College Guild, a philanthropic organisation of current and past members of the college. This established the Alexandra College Guild Tenement Company created to improve housing conditions in Dublin. Moylan was a director of the company.\n\nBy 1900 Moylan was studying for the Oxford University exams on the theory, history and practice of education. When she was finished this she took up a position in Saniah Girls School in Cairo. She left Europe to start the next term in October 1901. However Moylan contracted typhoid fever in June 1902. She was expected to recover but died in the British Nursing Home in the Ismailia Quarter of Cairo on 15 June 1902.\n\nMoylan was buried in Cairo. At the time she was still the only woman BSc of the Royal University of Ireland.\n\nReferences\n\n1867 births\n1902 deaths\nIrish women's rights activists\nIrish women academics\nPeople associated with Trinity College Dublin\n19th-century Irish educators\n19th-century women educators"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964."
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | Where did she start her career? | 2 | Where Judy Chicago start her career? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | false | [
"On Fire Baby (foaled February 23rd, 2009) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse and the winner of the 2014 La Troienne Stakes.\n\nCareer\n\nOn Fire Baby's first race was on August 19th, 2011, at Ellis Park, where she came in first. Within two months of her career, she captured the 2011 Pocahontas Stakes, her first graded win. She then followed it up with a win at the 2011 Golden Rod Stakes.\n\nTo start 2012, she captured the 2012 Honeybee Stakes in March. Her next victory would not come until over a year later when she won the April 2013 Apple Blossom Handicap.\n\nOn Fire Baby took her first shot at the 2013 La Troienne Stakes, coming in 2nd place. She did not much see on track access until a 2nd place finish at the 2014 Apple Blossom Handicap, followed by her final win of her career at the 2014 La Troienne Stakes. She competed in her last race on September 6th, 2014, coming in 6th at the Locust Grove Stakes.\n\nPedigree\n\nReferences\n\n2009 racehorse births",
"Exogenous (April 12, 1998 - November 2, 2001) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and the winner of the 2001 Beldame Stakes.\n\nCareer\nBred and raced by Vernon Heath's Centaur Farms, Inc., Exogenous' made her racing debut on July 15, 2000 at Belmont Park where she came in fourth place. She did not win her first race until her fifth start on November 18, 2000. She then won two races at Belmont Park in early summer 2001, before she started competing in stakes and graded races.\n\nExogenous ran third in the June 30, 2001, Mother Goose Stakes and then placed second in both the 2001 Coaching Club American Oaks and the 2001 Alabama Stakes. The last two races of her career were both wins, coming in the September 8, 2001, Gazelle Handicap and then the Beldame Stakes.\n\nScheduled to compete in the October 27, 2001 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park, Exogenous suffered a skull fracture after she flipped onto her back while leaving the paddock before the start of the race. Initially it was thought she would heal and likely race again but her condition worsened during the week. When she could no longer stand up, the decision was made to humanely euthanize her.\n\nPedigree\n\nReferences\n\n1998 racehorse births\n2001 racehorse deaths\nAmerican racehorses\nRacehorses bred in Kentucky\nRacehorses trained in the United States"
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| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | Did she create a famous piece during her early years? | 3 | Did Judy Chicago create a famous piece during her early years? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | true | [
"Margaret Harvey (1768–1858) was an English poet and scholar from Newcastle, England. Her father was a surgeon from nearby Sunderland; however, she did not live with him. Harvey was known to have a \"remarkable energy of character\" through both her writing and overall being. She is most known for her poetry, although she did write plays as well. Harvey died on 18 June 1858 at 27 Villiers Street in Bishop Wearmouth.\n\nEarly life\n\nHarvey was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne and lived with their aunt, Miss Ilderton and two sisters, Ann and Jane. After her aunt's death in 1812, Harvey and her sisters all moved to a house at the White Cross in the same city. During this time, it is \"likely\" that Harvey attended Dame Allan’s School where she \"developed her interest in local history, intensified, undoubtedly, by the presence of the nearby bona fide Gothic castle.\" Around the age of 36 Harvey wrote her first poem. Soon after, Harvey decided to move away from her sisters because she realized she needed to be on her own. Once she moved to New Castle, Harvey became the headmistress of a local girl's boarding school. It was here that Harvey adopted conservative values that would later be seen in her writing.\n\nMajor works\nHarvey began writing poetry at age 36. Her first major piece, The Lay of the Minstrel's Daughter, was published in Newcastle in the year 1814. This poem is made of six cantos, which were based on the history of the Percy family and Alnwick Castle and it was dedicated to Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland. She then published another poem titled Monody on the Princess in 1818. In terms of her most well-known play, Harvey based this on her most famous poem, The Lay of the Minstrel's Daughter, and the history of England to create her melodramatic piece, Raymond de Percy,. This melodrama was also known as The Tenant of the Tomb and it was published in April 1822 in Sunderland, where it was claimed to be the first \"historical Gothic Melodrama\" to be performed that was written by a woman. This melodrama was written in verse and prose. In the play, the villain of the story desires the hero's loved one and he is tormented by a certain ghost from a tomb. This play is written in a conservative, traditional way that emphasizes a woman's inability to act \"without the assistance of a man.\"\n\nHer major works include:\n\nThe Lay of the Minstrel's Daughter\nMonody on the Princess\nRaymond de Percy\nThe Grave of Hope: An Elegy\nSensibility, the Stranger, and other poems\n\nSee also\n Susanna Hawkins, 19th-century English woman poet\n Mary Linskill, 19th-century English woman poet, novelist and short-story writer\n\nReferences\n\n1768 births\n19th-century English writers\nEnglish women poets\n19th-century English women writers\n19th-century British writers\n1858 deaths",
"Drue Kataoka is a Japanese American visual artist, known for her Sumi-e art. In 2012, she was chosen Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum summit at Davos. She is based in Silicon Valley, California.\n\nEarly life and education \nKataoka was born in Tokyo, Japan and lived there until age 5. Her family moved to Washington D.C., then onto Seattle and later to Silicon Valley. Her father Tetsuya Kataoka is a political scientist, and research fellow at Hoover Institution, and her mother Barbara Kataoka (née Slavin) worked in the Communications department at Stanford University. She attended high school at Sacred Heart Preparatory a private school in Atherton, California and graduated high school in 1996.\n\nKataoka attended college at Stanford University, where she majored in Art History and graduated in 2000. She participated in Stanford Jazz Band, where she played the flute.\n\nShe began her art education in Sumi-e early in Japan and later in the US, earning her han (signature stamp) from Sensei, M. Iseke.\n\nArt\nKataoka's art work spans various materials and practices including brainwave installations, sculptural works such as her \"magic boxes\" and \"membranes,\" sumni-e brush work art, and paintings.\n\nA major theme in Kataoka's art is building negative space. Her artistic philosophy revolves around the idea that a piece of art materializes only during the interaction of art object and viewer. Her works intentionally leave open, unfinished elements which serve as an invitation for the viewer to fill in the blanks and begin a dialogue with the art. Kataoka's objective is to create works of art that will look different, and be rediscovered, during every interaction.\n\nEarly work\nKataoka's early works were in the canon of Sumi-e. However, early on she started experimenting with depicting modern subject matter such as sports, dance, jazz, public figures. Wynton Marsalis commissioned her to create a suite of album art for his Sony Columbia record, A Fiddler’s Tale. While at Stanford University, she completed 27 commemorative prints including the official print for the 100th anniversary of the Stanford University-California Big Game, the print for President Gerhard Casper's retirement gift, and the millennial portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.\n\nHer commemorative prints are archived in the Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries. Her painting of the Hoover carillon, I Ring for Peace is permanently installed at the Hoover Institution. She is a recipient of the 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Research & Education Institute Award.\n\nCurrent work\nIn January 2013, Kataoka unveiled a brainwave-smart glass installation in Davos. She also created a conceptual piece Up (2008) which incorporated Special Relativistic effects. Up was sent into space for the first Zero Gravity Art Exhibit at the International Space Station. She has developed techniques such as Magic Boxes and Shattered Mirrors to merge the art, its surroundings and the viewer in an artistic continuum.\n\nA conceptual piece she created for HRH Princess Takamado of Japan involved paintings on ping pong paddles which were designed to create associations with the Japanese flag.\n\nKataoka has written political commentary for CNBC in 2016.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official site\n Kataoka's exhibit at The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, 2012\n\nAmerican women artists\nAmerican artists of Japanese descent\nLiving people\nPeople from Tokyo\nJapanese emigrants to the United States\nStanford University alumni\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nArtists from California\n21st-century American women"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.",
"Where did she start her career?",
"While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract,",
"Did she create a famous piece during her early years?",
"These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband."
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | When did she get married? | 4 | When did Judy Chicago get married? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | true | [
"Kiss Mommy Goodbye is a 1981 psychological thriller novel by Joy Fielding.\n\nPlot \n\nThis novel concerns kidnappings by parents who did not get custody of their children. \n\nDonna Cressy loves her husband Victor but the love soon turns to hate when Victor starts mentally harassing her. This causes her to behave oddly owing to her trauma, and during the divorce proceedings a number of people testify that she had behaved unusually since she married Victor. However, she manages to get custody of their children Adam and Sharon. Victor is allowed weekend visits.\n\nDonna moves in with her boyfriend Dr. Segal and his daughter Annie. One day Victor arrives and on the pretext of a weekend visit, he takes Adam and Sharon away. Donna spirals into depression and begins to behave oddly again. Just when she's given up hope, she gets a telephone call from Victor, which she traces to California. When she finally finds the children, Victor almost kills them. However, with the help of Dr. Segal, she is able to get her children back and survive.\n\n1981 Canadian novels\nThriller novels\nDoubleday (publisher) books",
"Get Married 2 is a 2009 Indonesian romantic comedy directed by Hanung Bramantyo and starring Nirina Zubir and Nino Fernandez. A sequel to the 2007 hit Get Married, it details the efforts of Mae and Rendy to have children.\n\nAlthough Bramantyo initially did not intend to make a sequel, he was convinced after reading the treatment by Cassandra Massardi. The film, in which most of the original cast returned, was released on 18 September and viewed by 1.2 million persons. Critical reception was mixed, although the film did receive an award at the 2010 Bandung Film Festival. Another sequel, Get Married 3, was released in 2011.\n\nPlot\nAfter four years of marriage, Mae (Nirina Zubir) and Rendy (Nino Fernandez) are childless. Meanwhile, her best friends Eman (Aming), Guntoro (Deddy Mahendra Desta) and Beni (Ringgo Agus Rahman) have already married and had children. This makes Mae feel pressured to quickly have a child and stresses her greatly. When Rendy forgets to come to a dinner celebrating their wedding anniversary, Mae is fed up and moves in with her parents, who try and convince her to leave Rendy.\n\nMae decides to try and work out her issues with Rendy, and the two begin working incessantly towards having a child. When that is unsuccessful, Mae decides that her tomboyish appearance is causing Rendy to be infertile. As such, she decides to surprise him by visiting his office after putting on make-up. However, she sees Rendy together with another woman, Vivi (Marissa Nasution) and walks out, saying that she wants a divorce. Rendy asks his mother (Ira Wibowo) to bring Mae back. However, both families fight, leaving Mae and Rendy separated.\n\nMae feels distraught without Rendy and often cries when she thinks nobody is watching. Eman, Guntoro, and Beni unsuccessfully try to cheer her up. Mae, trying to live independently, takes a job as a valet but faints at work; she discovers that she is pregnant. Rendy, not allowed to come near her, tasks the trio with watching over her. As Mae is very demanding and watching over her is very time consuming, Eman, Guntoro, and Beni are almost divorced by their wives. Mae furtively begins meeting with Rendy, as her parents still want her to divorce him. She discovers that he has not been having an affair, and they reunite. Mae later gives birth to triplets, as both families look on happily.\n\nProduction\nThe film was directed by Hanung Bramantyo, a Yogyakarta-born director who had recently directed numerous Islamic-themed films, including the blockbuster Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love) the previous year. Bramantyo's betrothed, Zaskia Adya Mecca, worked part-time as a casting director. Bramantyo later stated that he was interested in comedies about marriage, generally considered a serious subject in Indonesia, as \"nobody understood marriage\", from the President to a pedicab driver.\n\nGet Married 2 was a sequel to Bramantyo's 2007 film, Get Married, which detailed how Mae and Rendy fell in love. The film had been a critical and commercial success, being viewed by 1.4 million people and winning Bramantyo a Citra Award for Best Director at the 2007 Indonesian Film Festival. Initially, Bramantyo did not want to make a sequel. However, when he read Cassandra Massardi's treatment, he agreed. Most of the main cast from the first film – Nirina Zubir, Ringgo Agus Rahman, Aming, and Deddy Mahendra Desta – reprised their original roles. However, the Indo actor Nino Fernandez replaced Richard Kevin as Rendy.\n\nThe rock band Slank was contracted to provide the soundtrack. Although the band had previously had negative experiences when acting in Generasi Biru (The Blue Generation; 2009), they agreed to work on Get Married 2 as they were not required to act. They recorded a total of twelve songs for the film, including two new ones.\n\nRelease and reception\nGet Married 2 was released on 18 September 2009, four days after Bramantyo's marriage with Mecca and towards the Eid ul-Fitr holidays. It was one of four Indonesian films released before the holidays, the others being Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 2 (When Love Prays 2), Preman in Love and the animated Meraih Mimpi (Chasing Dreams). Get Married 2 was a commercial success, being viewed by 1.2 million persons; it was the fourth best-selling Indonesian film of 2009, behind Ketika Cinta Bertasbih, Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 2, and Garuda di Dadaku (Garuda on My Chest). The film won Best Poster at the 2010 Bandung Film Festival.\n\nThe reviewer for the Bali Post found the film enjoyable and praised the cast's performances. The review in Suara Pembaruan found the film very similar to the first, and complained that the comedy trio of Rahman, Aming, and Desta – major characters in the first film – were underdeveloped in the sequel.\n\nGet Married 2 was followed by Get Married 3, directed by Monty Tiwa and released in 2011. It followed Mae and Rendy's struggle to raise their triplets, with both families attempting to exert control. In the third instalment, a Pribumi actor, Fedi Nuril, played Rendy.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n\n2009 romantic comedy films\n2009 films\nFilms directed by Hanung Bramantyo\nIndonesian films\nIndonesian sequel films\nIndonesian romantic comedy films"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.",
"Where did she start her career?",
"While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract,",
"Did she create a famous piece during her early years?",
"These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband.",
"When did she get married?",
"Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961."
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | Did she take on her husband's last name? | 5 | Did Judy Chicago take on her husband's last name? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | false | [
"Anna Maria Seymour or Mrs Seymour (c. 1692 – 10 July 1723) was a British actress.\n\nLife\nSeymour is first heard of in 1717 when she appeared at Drury Lane in The Scowrers. She took leading roles in Richard III and Hamlet with Lacy Ryan as well as appearing with James Quin in Othello and with him as Lady Macbeth. In 1718-19 she moved to John Rich's theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields to take leading roles.\n\nHer most noted role was as Marianne in Elijah Fenton's play of the same name. Her final appearance was with her future husband on 7 June 1723. She married Anthony Boheme who was also a leading actor in 1723 and she was said to have been lost to the profession. However the marriage did not last the year as she died in Norwich only months after her wedding. Boheme went on to marry again.\n\nReferences\n\n1692 births\n1723 deaths\nBritish stage actresses\n18th-century British actresses",
"The 2009 Kuwait wedding fire was an arson attack that occurred during a wedding ceremony in Oyoun, Jahra Governorate, Kuwait on August 15, 2009. At least 57 people were killed and about 90 others wounded when the groom's 23-year-old first wife, Nasra Yussef Mohammad al-Enezi, to take revenge for her husband taking a second wife, poured petrol on a tent where women and children were celebrating and set it on fire. Within three minutes the whole tent, which had only one exit and did not meet fire safety regulations, was engulfed in flames, trapping many inside. It was the deadliest civilian disaster in Kuwait in the last 40 years.\n\nThere was only one exit. It had been claimed that the temperature inside the tent was above 500 degrees Celsius (930 °F). Although al-Enezi recanted a confession she had given to police after her arrest, stating in court she had only sprayed the tent with cursed water, but did not set it on fire, she was found guilty of premeditated murder and starting a fire with the intent to kill and sentenced to death on March 30, 2010. She was hanged by the Kuwaiti Central Prison authorities on January 25, 2017.\n\nReferences\n\n2009 crimes in Kuwait\n2009 fires\nAugust 2009 crimes\nMass murder in 2009\nArson in Kuwait\nAttacks on weddings"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.",
"Where did she start her career?",
"While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract,",
"Did she create a famous piece during her early years?",
"These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband.",
"When did she get married?",
"Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961.",
"Did she take on her husband's last name?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | How did her husband die? | 6 | How did Judy Chicago's husband die? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | false | [
"\"The Lazy Spinner\" or \"The Lazy Spinning Woman\" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 128. It is Aarne-Thompson type 1405.\n\nSynopsis\n\nA lazy woman did not like to spin and when she did, did not wind onto a reel, but left it on the bobbin. Her husband complained, and she said she needed a reel to do that, but when he went to cut one, she sneaked after and called out that whoever cut a reel would die. This put him off cutting it, but he still complained. She then made some yarn and said it must be boiled. Then she put some tow in the pot instead and set her husband to watch. After some time, he opened the pot, saw the tow, and thought he had ruined the yarn. From then on, the husband didn't dare complain.\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Lazy Spinner\nThe Lazy Spinning Woman\n\nLazy Spinner\nTextiles in folklore",
"Alexandra Ramm-Pfemfert (31 January/12 February 1883, in Starodub – 17 January 1963, in West Berlin) was a German-Russian translator, publisher and gallery owner. She is particularly noted for her work as a translator of Leon Trotsky and her work on Die Aktion with her husband, Franz Pfemfert.\n\nYouth\nAlexandra Ramm-Pfemfert was the fifth of nine children of an Orthodox Jewish family living in Starodub, approximately 400 kilometers southwest of Moscow. Her father, Gilel, was a business man while Serafima, her mother was a housewife. Starodub belonged to the Pale of Settlement for Jews who lived there almost in complete isolation from the rest of the population. Noema Ramm, her elder sister also became a translator under the name Nadja Strasser. After her older siblings rebelled against the religiously conservative attitude of the Father, it was possible for Alexandra to attend the local girls' high school. At the age of 18, after graduation, she left home arriving in Berlin in 1901.\n\nIn Berlin\n\nAfter moving to Berlin she was active in the local leftist circles. She met Franz at the Café des Westens. After her marriage to Franz Pfemfert in 1911 they both got involved with Herwarth Walden's Expressionist journal Der Sturm. She worked with Franz when he launched Die Aktion later that year. Her sister, Maria Ramm, married Die Aktion contributor Carl Einstein in 1913.\nFrom 1917, Alexandra ran theAktions-Buch-und-Kunsthandlung (\"Aktion's book and art dealers\"), based in Kaiserallee 222 (today Bundesallee) in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.\n\nRelationship with Trotsky's family\nUnder the name Alexandra Ramm she had become a major translator of Leon Trotsky's works into German. However she never personally met Trotsky himself. Nevertheless, she did maintain an extensive correspondence with Trotsky and sent him newspapers when he was in exile in Turkey. In 1931, with her husband she helped arrange a visa for Trotsky's son Lev Sedov when he moved to Berlin in 1931. When Trotsky's daughter, Zinaida Volkova, committed suicide in Berlin in January 1933, Alexandra organised the funeral arrangements. However, when she and her husband went into exile in Mexico they arrived a few months after Trotsky's murder.\n\nWorks\n \"Zur proletarischen Kultur\", Die Aktion, 10 No. 35/36, 4 September 1920\n\nReferences\n\n1883 births\n1963 deaths"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.",
"Where did she start her career?",
"While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract,",
"Did she create a famous piece during her early years?",
"These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband.",
"When did she get married?",
"Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961.",
"Did she take on her husband's last name?",
"I don't know.",
"How did her husband die?",
"Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade."
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | What types of work her Bigamy pieces? | 7 | What types of work were Judy Chicago's Bigamy pieces? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | true | [
"Bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another.\n\nBigamy may also refer to:\n Bigamy (canon law)\n Bigamy (1922 film), a German silent drama film\n Bigamy (1927 film), a German silent drama film\n Operation Bigamy, a raid during the Second World War by the Special Air Service",
"The Bigamy Act 1604 (1 Jac 1 c 11) was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of England. It created the offence of bigamy as a capital felony. Bigamy had not previously been a temporal offence (that is to say, within the jurisdiction of the common law courts as opposed to the ecclesiastical courts).\n\nFurther provision was made by the 35 Geo 3 c 67.\n\nSection 1\n\nReferences\n\nActs of the Parliament of England\n1603 in law\n1603 in England\nRepealed English legislation\nMarriage law in the United Kingdom\nPolygamy law"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.",
"Where did she start her career?",
"While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract,",
"Did she create a famous piece during her early years?",
"These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband.",
"When did she get married?",
"Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961.",
"Did she take on her husband's last name?",
"I don't know.",
"How did her husband die?",
"Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade.",
"What types of work her Bigamy pieces?",
"One depicted an abstract penis, which was \"stopped in flight\" before it could unite with a vaginal form."
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | Did she do any other pieces in her early years? | 8 | Did Judy Chicago do any other pieces in her early years in addition to the Bigamy pieces? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | false | [
"Neide Dias de Sá (born November 2, 1940) is a Brazilian artist who spent a big portion of her life (about twenty years) teaching children art starting in the 1960s. Together with three others, she began an art movement in 1967 known as Poema/Processo. This art movement questioned the restraints that came with using words and replaced words with pictures. She did this years before pursuing a formal education in art. She did not earn her degree in graphic design until 1980.\n\nBiography \nShe was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1940 and eventually married her husband Álvaro de Sá who was a poet. With Sá, Álvaro de Sá (her husband), Wlademir Dias-Pino, and Moacy Cirne, they founded the Poema/Processo art movement in 1967 and ended in 1972 due to persecution by the U.S.-backed Brazilian dictatorship. Together, the founders of the Poema/Processo movement called into question the power of words. The did so by replacing words with pictures, paintings, drawings, etc.\nThese concepts of symbols and geometric shapes replacing words would later be reflected in her future work. Also reflected in her later work is having interactive exhibits and pieces in which the observers were able to participate. She began her series Artist's Book with a piece called Onomatopeias. This piece would lead her to eventually create over 150 pieces to add to her Artist's Book. Later, her works would shift from interactive exhibits to geometric sculptures supported by the force of magnetism. She eventually went on to put on her own solo shows like Nós e nós which made its debut in Savona, Italy, in the Galleria II Brendale. Due to times of strict U.S.-supported dictatorship in Brazil, which censored and limited everyone living under this regime, artists such as Neide Sá and many others used their work to indirectly express what this strict censorship wouldn't allow them to. is reflected in some of her work such as A Corda. She did not begin any formal art training until later in her life. She had a begun her Poema/Processo art movement in 1967 and she did not begin her art training until the mid 1970s. She didn't official get her degree in art education until 1980 when she graduated from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.\n\nEducation\n\nTeaching \nShe spent twenty years teaching art classes to children starting in the 1960s. She spent her 30s and 40s in Rio de Janeiro studying at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage as well as the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. There, she studied painting and printmaking and eventually got her degree in graphic design in 1980.\n\nEscola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage and Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro \nHere at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage as well as the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro is where she studied printmaking and painting. She attended both of these from the 1970s until the 1980s.\n\nPontifïcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro \nWhile attending the Pontifïcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro she graduated and got her degree in art education in 1980. This came about 20 years later after she started teaching art to children.\n\nInstituto Metodista Bennett \nIn 1983, three years after getting her degree in art education, she was able to complete an art education postgraduate program. The Instituto Metodista Bennett is located in Rio de Janeiro just like Pontifïcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro.\n\nArt movements\n\nPoema/Processo \nSá is a founding member of the Poema/Processo art movement that originated in Brazil. She describes her work as \"visual poems\". Artists and poets such as Lygia Pape, Judith Lauand, Haroldo de Campos, Augusto de Campos got together in 1957 and hosted what is known as the Exposición Nacional de Arte Concreta. This exposition in which artists, writers, and poets came together to create, paved the way for the Poema/Processo artists to come about. The artists that created this movement include Neide Sá, Wlademir Dias Pino, Moacy Cirne, and Álvaro de Sá. This movement popped up in multiple locations at the same time: In Rio de Janeiro and Natal. This Poema/Processo movement lasted 5 years starting in 1967 and ending in 1972. The aim of Poema/Processo was to replace the verbal structure of poems with other physical mediums. These mediums include pictures, different geometric shapes, cuts and bends in pages and other kinds of graphics.\n\nArtwork\n\nArtist's book \nSá's most prevalent medium is the artist's book. She tends to incorporate many minimalist geometric shapes. In total, Sá has produced over 150 of these minimal, geometric pieces.\n\nOnomatopeias \nThe first of her over 150 piece collection began with a project called Onomatopeias in 1969. The Onomatopeias was the first collection to be added to her signature artist's book.\n\nLivros vazados \nHer works created in her series \"Onomatopeias\" influenced her to create a new series called Livros vazados, which, when translated from Portuguese to English translates to \"hollow books\". This work was created in the early 1970s. These hollow books\" are characterized by geometric shapes that are missing from missing from sheets of paper. These sheets of paper, when manipulated in a certain way can become something completely different. Allowing the observer to manipulate the pages and books however they please.\n\nCircunferências and Prismas\nWhile creating her Livros vazados collection, she was simultaneously working on a project she called Prismas (translating to \"Prisms) and Circunferências (translating to \"Circumferences\"), both of which were created in 1973. These two series are related as they both include interactive pieces made up by metal disks supporting elements through the force of magnetism.\n\nA Corda \nA Corda (or \"The Rope\"), 1967. Consists of a clothes line strung from one end of the room to the other. Along the clothes line are different types of media attached to the line through the use of clothes pins. Hanging from these clothes pins attached to the clothes line are different pictures, painting and drawings. Not only drawings and paintings, Neide Sá also includes magazine cut outs with phrases such as \"LIBERDADE\", \"HIPPIES TEM MAIS FLÔRES\", \"Oriente\" and many others.\n\nTransparência \nTransparência (or \"transparency\") was created in 1969. This consisted of a clear, cube shaped object with symbols on the outside. Acrylic and silk screen. Fairly small made up of 7.875 inch screens all the way around.\n\nReflexível \nSá's Reflexível (or \"Reflexive\") and was created in 1977. This work is described as \"semiological poem\" because it defined and categorized body movements are reflected over mirrored surfaces. This interactive piece called for guests who went to view it to walk along a path. However, there are a set of rules guests had to follow. For example, in order to step on a circle, they had to step on the circular shapes using only their heels, in order to step on the triangular shapes, guests were only allowed to step on it with the side of their foot, and in order to step on the rectangular shapes, guests were only able to use their toes. These rules led to strange body movements and displayed hidden potential in body movements.\n\nExhibitions \n1980 Neide Sá: Livros-objeto, Galleria Il Brandale, Savona, Italy\n\n1985 Neide Sá: Livros-objeto, Galeria Macunaíma, Rio de Janeiro\n\n1993 Neide Sá: Livros-objeto, Galería Casa Jove, Barcelona\n\n1998 Neide Dias de Sá: Revelação dos rastros, Museu de Arte, Porto Alegre, Brazil\n\n2000 A ordem do caos, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro\n\nReferences \n\n1940 births\nLiving people\n20th-century Brazilian women artists\n21st-century Brazilian women artists\n21st-century Brazilian artists\nPontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro alumni\nArtists from Rio de Janeiro (city)\nArt educators",
"Kate Vannah (pen name, Kate Van Twinkle; 1855–1933) was an American organist, pianist, composer, and writer. Of her music, more was sold in her day than that of any other composer in the US, excepting Reginald De Koven.\n\nEarly years and education\nVannah was born in Gardiner, Maine and received her education in its public schools, graduating from Gardiner high school. She graduated with high honors from the St. Joseph's Academy at Emmitsburg, Maryland. She played the organ at the Catholic church in Gardiner, it being her favorite instrument. She also studied piano with Ernst Perabo of Boston, and composition with Eversmann of Baltimore, Maryland and George Washington Marston of Portland, Maine.\n\nCareer\nVannah tried her hand at journalism, writing for the Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia papers, and for several Maine papers, under the name of Kate Van Twinkle. Her poetry was superior, and was widely copied. In 1892, a book of her poems, \"Verses\", was published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., and this was followed by another book of poems in 1893, \"From Heart to Heart\".\n\nHer first songs were published when she was eighteen. Her first notable hit was the song \"Good-bye, Sweet Day\". Vannah published about fifty songs and perhaps a dozen instrumental pieces. Regarding her methods, Vannah said: \nMy work is the greatest possible pleasure to me when I am in the mood. I work like a Trojan at times. I have done six songs in ten days, but that is rather beyond my average rate. I probably write from twelve to fifteen songs a year, but I do not work constantly. Sometimes for a month I will not touch pen to paper, and then I will make up for lost time by working almost continuously for the next month. It is hard to say just how I write. I will read a little poem, perhaps, and then the melody comes, and, do you know, that particular melody is always thereafter connected with that poem. I might put the poem aside and not look at it again for a dozen years, but when I did, that same melody would leap into my mind at once.\nVannah preferred the serious love ballad to any other style of song, but she was versatile and has written various melodies. Of her music, more was sold in her day than that of any other composer in the US, excepting Reginald De Koven.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n\n1855 births\n1933 deaths\nAmerican composers\nAmerican classical organists\nAmerican classical pianists\nAmerican women pianists\nAmerican women poets\nPeople from Gardiner, Maine"
]
|
[
"Judy Chicago",
"Education and early career",
"Where did she get her education?",
"She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.",
"Where did she start her career?",
"While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract,",
"Did she create a famous piece during her early years?",
"These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband.",
"When did she get married?",
"Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961.",
"Did she take on her husband's last name?",
"I don't know.",
"How did her husband die?",
"Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade.",
"What types of work her Bigamy pieces?",
"One depicted an abstract penis, which was \"stopped in flight\" before it could unite with a vaginal form.",
"Did she do any other pieces in her early years?",
"In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles;"
]
| C_4c37740d6fb249b98e59099c42bedc54_1 | What other pieces did she do? | 9 | What other pieces did Judy Chicago do in addition to her first solo show and Bigamy work? | Judy Chicago | While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and became romantically linked with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964. While in grad school, Chicago's created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1965, Chicago displayed work in her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles; Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death. In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America noted that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys". Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape. During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation. CANNOTANSWER | Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," | Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture. During the 1970s, Chicago founded the first feminist art program in the United States at California State University Fresno (formerly Fresno State College) and acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. Her inclusion in hundreds of publications in various areas of the world showcases her influence in the worldwide art community. Additionally, many of her books have been published in other countries, making her work more accessible to international readers. Chicago's work incorporates a variety of artistic skills, such as needlework, counterbalanced with skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's most well known work is The Dinner Party, which is permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party celebrates the accomplishments of women throughout history and is widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork. Other notable art projects by Chicago include International Honor Quilt, The Birth Project, Powerplay, and The Holocaust Project. She is represented by Jessica Silverman gallery and Salon 94 gallery.
Chicago was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon. Breaking his family tradition, Arthur became a labor organizer and a Marxist. He worked nights at a post office and took care of Chicago during the day, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of workers' rights strongly influenced Chicago's own ways of thinking and belief. During the McCarthyism era in the 1950s, Arthur was investigated, which made it difficult for him to find work and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited their house. The agent began to ask the six-year-old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with her children and did not allow them to attend the funeral. Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art" and started attending classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She applied but was denied admission to the Art Institute, and instead attended UCLA on a scholarship.
Education and early career
While at UCLA, she became politically active, designing posters for the UCLA NAACP chapter and eventually became its corresponding secretary. In June 1959, she met and found romance with Jerry Gerowitz. She left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space. The couple hitchhiked to New York in 1959, just as Chicago's mother and brother moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her. The couple lived in Greenwich Village for a time before returning in 1960 from Los Angeles to Chicago so she could finish her degree. Chicago married Gerowitz in 1961. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer an identity crisis for several years. She received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In graduate school, Chicago had created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis, which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes.
In 1965, Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles. Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition at the Lytton Center, to which she answered, "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels." Chicago began working in ice sculpture, which represented "a metaphor for the preciousness of life," another reference towards her husband's death.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum exhibited a series of Chicago's spherical acrylic plastic dome sculptures and drawings in an "experimental" gallery. Art in America declared that Chicago's work was at the forefront of the conceptual art movement, and the Los Angeles Times described the work as showing no signs of "theoretical New York type art." Chicago would describe her early artwork as minimalist and as her trying to be "one of the boys." Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres," which involved flashes of colored smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.
During this time, Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.
From Cohen to Gerowitz to Chicago: name change
As Chicago made her name as an artist and came to know herself as a woman, she no longer felt connected to her last name, Cohen. This was due to her grief from the death of her father and the lost connection to her married name Gerowitz, after her husband's death. She decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage. In 1965, she married sculptor Lloyd Hamrol. (They divorced in 1979.) Gallery owner Rolf Nelson nicknamed her "Judy Chicago" because of her strong personality and thick Chicago accent. She decided this would be her new name. By legally changing her surname from the ethnically charged Gerowitz to the more neutral Chicago, she freed herself from a certain social identity. Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally. To celebrate the name change, she posed for the exhibition invitation dressed as a boxer, wearing a sweatshirt with her new last name on it. She also posted a banner across the gallery at her 1970 solo show at California State University at Fullerton, that read: "Judy Gerowitz hereby divests herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance and chooses her own name, Judy Chicago." An advertisement with the same statement was placed in Artforum's October 1970 issue.
Artistic career
The feminist art movement and the 1970s
In 1970, Chicago decided to teach full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work. At Fresno, she planned a class that would consist only of women and decided to teach off campus to escape "the presence and hence, the expectations of men." She taught the first women's art class in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College. It became the Feminist Art Program, a full 15-unit program, in the spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy, Cay Lang, Karen LeCocq, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman, Faith Wilding, Shawnee Wollenman, Nancy Youdelman, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. All of the students and Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992.
Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the Feminist art movement in Europe and the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art.
Chicago became a teacher at the California Institute for the Arts, and was a leader for their Feminist Art Program. In 1972, the program created Womanhouse, alongside Miriam Schapiro, which was the first art exhibition space to display a female point of view in art. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. This art school and exhibition space was in a structure named after a pavilion at the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition that featured art made by women from around the world. This housed the Feminist Studio Workshop, described by the founders as "an experimental program in female education in the arts. Our purpose is to develop a new concept of art, a new kind of artist and a new art community built from the lives, feelings, and needs of women." During this period, Chicago began creating spray-painted canvas, primarily abstract, with geometric forms on them. These works evolved, using the same medium, to become more centered around the meaning of the "feminine." Chicago was strongly influenced by Gerda Lerner, whose writings convinced her that women who continued to be unaware and ignorant of women's history would continue to struggle independently and collectively.
Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Womanhouse
Womanhouse was a project that involved Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. It began in the fall of 1971 and was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art. Chicago and Schapiro had just founded the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts, and selected twenty-one female students to populate the course. They wanted to start the year with a large scale collaborative project that involved woman artists who spent much of their time talking about their problems as women. They used those problems as fuel and dealt with them while working on the project. The idea for Womanhouse was sparked during a discussion they had early in the course about the home as a place with which women were traditionally associated, and they wanted to highlight the realities of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood within the home. Chicago thought that female students often approach art-making with an unwillingness to push their limits due to their lack of familiarity with tools and processes, and an inability to see themselves as working people. In this environment, women artists experimented with women's conventional roles and experiences and how these could be displayed. "The aim of the Feminist Art Program is to help women restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be artists and to help them build their art-making out of their experiences as women." Womanhouse is a "true" dramatic representation of woman's experience beginning in childhood, encompassing the struggles at home, with housework, menstruation, marriage, etc.
In 1975, Chicago's first book, Through the Flower, was published; it "chronicled her struggles to find her own identity as a woman artist."
The Dinner Party
Chicago decided to take Lerner's lesson to heart and took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete. First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings. Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists, and martyrs. Thirteen women are represented on each side, comparable with the number said to be at a traditional witches' coven and triple the number of attendees at the Last Supper. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time. Numerous other names of women are engraved in the "Heritage Floor" upon which the piece sits. The project came into fruition with the assistance of over 400 people, mainly women, who volunteered to assist in needlework, creating sculptures and other aspects of the process. When The Dinner Party was first constructed, it was a traveling exhibition. Through the Flower, her non-profit organization, was originally created to cover the expense of the creation and travel of the artwork. Jane Gerhard dedicated a book to Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party, entitled "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and The Power of Popular Feminism, 1970–2007."
Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from a personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights. This work is less of a statement and more of an honoring and a form of gratitude and inspiration. Chicago wanted the piece to teach about the struggle for power and equality women have endured in male-dominant societies. It considers the possibility of a meeting between powerful women and how this could change human history.
Many art critics, including Hilton Kramer from The New York Times, were unimpressed by her work. Mr. Kramer felt Chicago's intended vision was not conveyed through this piece and "it looked like an outrageous libel on the female imagination." Although art critics felt her work lacked depth and the dinner party was just "vaginas on plates," it was popular and captivated the general public. Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents. She reached over a million people through her artwork. Her work might not have pleased critics but its feminist message captivated the public and it honored its featured 39 historical figures and 999 other women.
In a 1981 interview Chicago said that the backlash of threats and hateful castigation in reaction to the work brought on the only period of suicide risk she'd ever experienced in her life, characterizing herself as "like a wounded animal". She stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her postal mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project. She further said,
Birth Project and PowerPlay
From 1980 until 1985, Chicago created Birth Project. It took five years to create. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother. Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world. The installation reinterpreted the Genesis creation narrative, which focused on the idea that a male god created a male human, Adam, without the involvement of a woman. Chicago described the piece as revealing a "primordial female self hidden among the recesses of my soul...the birthing woman is part of the dawn of creation." 150 needleworkers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand assisted in the project, working on 100 panels, by quilting, macrame, embroidery and other techniques. The size of the piece means it is rarely displayed in its entirety. The majority of the pieces from Birth Project are held in the collection of the Albuquerque Museum.
Chicago was not personally interested in motherhood. While she admired the women who chose this path, she did not find it right for herself. As recently as 2012, she said, "There was no way on this earth I could have had children and the career I've had."
Overlapping with Birth Project, Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982. The series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs is completely different from Birth Project. What both the series, however, have in common is that their subject matters deal with issues rarely depicted in Western art. Paradoxically, the PowerPlay series was inspired by Chicago’s trip to Italy, where she saw the masterpieces of Renaissance artists representing the Western artistic tradition. As Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiographical book: “I was to be greatly influenced by actually seeing the major Renaissance paintings. Looking at their monumental scale and clarity led me to decide to cast my examination of masculinity in the classical tradition of the heroic nude and to do so in a series of large-scale oil paintings.”
Already the titles of the works such as Crippled by the Need to Control/Blind Individuality, Pissing on Nature, Driving the World to Destruction, In the Shadow of the Handgun, Disfigured by Power, etc., indicate Chicago’s focus on male violent behaviour. However, the brightly coloured images of facial expressions and parts of male bodies express not only aggression and power but also vulnerability, such as Woe/Man, for which her husband Donald Woodman posed. While researching the nature and history of masculinity, Judy Chicago discovered that there was hardly any material, “almost as if only women were a gender to be studied and written about. And what did exist seemed not all that insightful.”
Taking into account her struggles to become a recognized successful artist in the male-dominated art world and its continual contempt for Chicago’s work, the series seems to be very relevant to her personal life. She depended “upon [her] own sense of truth, working from observation, experience, and, of course, [her] rage at how destructively so many men seem to act toward women and the world at large.”
By depicting male bodies, Chicago replaced the traditional male gaze with a female one, showing how women perceived men. As she said: “I knew that I didn’t want to keep perpetuating the use of the female body as the repository of so many emotions; it seemed as if everything – love, dread, longing, loathing, desire, and terror – was projected onto the female by both male and female artists, albeit with often differing perspectives. I wondered what feelings the male body might be made to express.”
“PowerPlay is one of Chicago’s lesser-known and probably most misunderstood bodies of work.” It is quite puzzling that this powerful series received such “little attention at the time of its first exhibition, in 1986.” However, nowadays, the series “could not be more relevant to our contemporary dialogue on the abuses of power that we are experiencing and witnessing first hand.”
A new kind of collaboration and The Holocaust Project
In the mid-1980s Chicago's interests "shifted beyond 'issues of female identity' to an exploration of masculine power and powerlessness in the context of the Holocaust." Chicago's The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light (1985–93) is a collaboration with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, whom she married on New Year's Eve 1985. Although Chicago's previous husbands were both Jewish, it wasn't until she met Woodman that she began to explore her own Jewish heritage. Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust. Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written. Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish. The piece, which documents victims of the Holocaust, was created during a time of personal loss in Chicago's life: the death of her brother Ben from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the death of her mother from cancer.
Chicago used the tragic event of the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty. To seek inspiration for the project, Chicago and Woodman watched the documentary Shoah, which comprises interviews with Holocaust survivors at Nazi concentration camps and other relevant Holocaust sites. They also explored photo archives and written pieces about the Holocaust. They spent several months touring concentration camps and visited Israel. Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War. With these subjects Chicago sought to relate contemporary issues to the moral dilemma behind the Holocaust. This aspect of the work caused controversy within the Jewish community, due to the comparison of the Holocaust to these other historical and contemporary concerns. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light consists of sixteen large scale works made of a variety of mediums including: tapestry, stained glass, metal work, wood work, photography, painting, and the sewing of Audrey Cowan. The exhibit ends with a piece that displays a Jewish couple at Sabbath. The piece comprises 3000 square feet, providing a full exhibition experience for the viewer. The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light was exhibited for the first time in October 1993 at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Most of the work from the piece is held at the Holocaust Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Over the next six years, Chicago created works that explored the experiences of concentration camp victims. Galit Mana of Jewish Renaissance magazine notes, "This shift in focus led Chicago to work on other projects with an emphasis on Jewish tradition", including Voices from the Song of Songs (1997), where Chicago "introduces feminism and female sexuality into her representation of strong biblical female characters."
Current work and life
In 1985, Chicago married photographer Donald Woodman. To celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, she created a "Renewal Ketubah" in 2010.
In 1994, Chicago started the series "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time", completed over a six year period. The artwork was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in 2000.
In 1996, Chicago and Woodman moved into the Belen Hotel, an historic railroad hotel in Belen, New Mexico which Woodman had spent three years converting into a home.
Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico. In 1999, Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College. In 2004, Chicago received a Visionary Woman Award from Moore College of Art & Design. She was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University in 2011. Jn 2012, it was reported that she lived in New Mexico. In 2011, Chicago returned to Los Angeles for the opening of the "Concurrents" exhibition at the Getty Museum and performed a firework-based installation piece in the Pomona College football field, a site where she had previously performed in the 1960s.
Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool. The Liverpool exhibition included the launch of Chicago's book about Virginia Woolf. Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career. That year, she was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.
She was interviewed for the 2018 film !Women Art Revolution.
Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass. Taking such risks is easier to do when one lives by Chicago's philosophy: "I'm not career driven. Damien Hirst's dots sold, so he made thousands of dots. I would, like, never do that! It wouldn't even occur to me."
Chicago’s artwork is held in the permanent collections of several museums including The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Getty Trust, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In an interview with Gloria Steinem in 2018, Chicago described her "goal as an artist" has been “to create images in which the female experience is the path to the universal, as opposed to learning everything through the male gaze."
In 2021, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
A major retrospective exhibition, titled Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, was displayed at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2021.
Style and work
Chicago was inspired by the "ordinary" woman, which was a focus of the early 1970s feminist movement. This inspiration bled into her work, particularly in The Dinner Party, as a fascination with textile work and craft, types of art often culturally associated with women. Chicago trained herself in "macho arts," taking classes in auto body work, boat building, and pyrotechnics. Through auto body work she learned spray painting techniques and the skill to fuse color and surface to any type of media, which would become a signature of her later work. The skills learned through boat building would be used in her sculpture work, and pyrotechnics would be used to create fireworks for performance pieces. These skills allowed Chicago to bring fiberglass and metal into her sculpture, and eventually she would become an apprentice under Mim Silinsky to learn the art of porcelain painting, which would be used to create works in The Dinner Party. Chicago also added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project. Photography became more present in Chicago's work as her relationship with photographer Donald Woodman developed. Since 2003, Chicago has been working with glass.
Collaboration is a major aspect of Chicago's installation works. Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, The Birth Project, and The Holocaust Project were all completed as a collaborative process with Chicago and hundreds of volunteer participants. Volunteer artisans skills vary, often connected to "stereotypical" women's arts such as textile arts. Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
Through the Flower
In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization. The organization seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Through the Flower also serves as the maintainer of Chicago's works, having handled the storage of The Dinner Party, before it found a permanent home at the Brooklyn Museum. The organization also maintained The Dinner Party Curriculum, which serves as a "living curriculum" for education about feminist art ideas and pedagogy. The online aspect of the curriculum was donated to Penn State University in 2011.
Teaching career
Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn't challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style – what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed "masculine", and attended motorcycle shows. This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher. While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago's teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism. Stemming from the male-dominated art community Chicago studied with for so many years, she valued art based on research, social or political views, and/or experience. She wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them. Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content," such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art. Chicago advocates the teacher as facilitator by actively listening to students in order to guide content searches and the translation of content into art. She refers to her teaching methodology as "participatory art pedagogy."
The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women's lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts, and SINsation in 1999 at Indiana University, From Theory to Practice: A Journey of Discovery at Duke University in 2000, At Home: A Kentucky Project with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman at Western Kentucky University in 2002, Envisioning the Future at California Polytechnic State University and Pomona Arts Colony in 2004, and Evoke/Invoke/Provoke at Vanderbilt University in 2005. Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.
In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts: preparation, process, and art-making. Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art.
Books by Chicago
The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1979). .
with Susan Hill. Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday (1980). .
The Birth Project. New York: Doubleday (1985). .
Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Penguin (1997). .
Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours. New York: Harper Design (2005). .
Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press (2006). .
with Frances Borzello. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face. New York: Prestel USA (2010). .
Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education. New York: The Monacelli Press (2014). .
Notes
References
Sources
Bloch, Avital (editor) and Lauri Umansky (editor). Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. New York: NYU Press (2005). .
Felder, Deborah G. and Diana Rosen. Fifty Jewish Women Who Changed the World. Yucca Valley: Citadel (2005). .
Lewis, Richard L. and Susan Ingalls Lewis. The Power of Art. Florence: Wadsworth (2008). .
Wylder, Thompson Viki D. and Lucy R. Lippard. Judy Chicago: Trials and Tributes. Tallahassee: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (1999). .
Further reading
Dickson, Rachel (ed.), with contributions by Judy Battalion, Frances Borzello, Diane Gelon, Alexandra Kokoli, Andrew Perchuk. Judy Chicago. Lund Humpries, Ben Uri (2012). .
Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Crown (2007). .
Lippard, Lucy, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Edward Lucie-Smith and Viki D. Thompson Wylder. Judy Chicago. .
Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson-Guptill (2000). .
Right Out of History: Judy Chicago. DVD. Phoenix Learning Group (2008).
External links
Judy Chicago on Through the Flower
Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State
Papers, 1947–2004 (inclusive), 1957–2004 (bulk). Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
International Honor Quilt Collection, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
Judy Chicago Visual Archive at National Museum of Women in the Arts
; interviewer Ann Stubbs, originally broadcast on WBAI and the Pacifica Network
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Oral History Interview
1939 births
Living people
20th-century American artists
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American painters
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women artists
American contemporary painters
American feminists
American installation artists
American women installation artists
American women painters
American women sculptors
American art educators
Artists from Chicago
California State University, Fresno faculty
Contemporary sculptors
Feminist artists
Jewish American artists
Jewish feminists
Jewish painters
People from Belen, New Mexico
Sculptors from Illinois
Sculptors from New Mexico
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni | true | [
"Neide Dias de Sá (born November 2, 1940) is a Brazilian artist who spent a big portion of her life (about twenty years) teaching children art starting in the 1960s. Together with three others, she began an art movement in 1967 known as Poema/Processo. This art movement questioned the restraints that came with using words and replaced words with pictures. She did this years before pursuing a formal education in art. She did not earn her degree in graphic design until 1980.\n\nBiography \nShe was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1940 and eventually married her husband Álvaro de Sá who was a poet. With Sá, Álvaro de Sá (her husband), Wlademir Dias-Pino, and Moacy Cirne, they founded the Poema/Processo art movement in 1967 and ended in 1972 due to persecution by the U.S.-backed Brazilian dictatorship. Together, the founders of the Poema/Processo movement called into question the power of words. The did so by replacing words with pictures, paintings, drawings, etc.\nThese concepts of symbols and geometric shapes replacing words would later be reflected in her future work. Also reflected in her later work is having interactive exhibits and pieces in which the observers were able to participate. She began her series Artist's Book with a piece called Onomatopeias. This piece would lead her to eventually create over 150 pieces to add to her Artist's Book. Later, her works would shift from interactive exhibits to geometric sculptures supported by the force of magnetism. She eventually went on to put on her own solo shows like Nós e nós which made its debut in Savona, Italy, in the Galleria II Brendale. Due to times of strict U.S.-supported dictatorship in Brazil, which censored and limited everyone living under this regime, artists such as Neide Sá and many others used their work to indirectly express what this strict censorship wouldn't allow them to. is reflected in some of her work such as A Corda. She did not begin any formal art training until later in her life. She had a begun her Poema/Processo art movement in 1967 and she did not begin her art training until the mid 1970s. She didn't official get her degree in art education until 1980 when she graduated from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.\n\nEducation\n\nTeaching \nShe spent twenty years teaching art classes to children starting in the 1960s. She spent her 30s and 40s in Rio de Janeiro studying at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage as well as the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. There, she studied painting and printmaking and eventually got her degree in graphic design in 1980.\n\nEscola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage and Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro \nHere at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage as well as the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro is where she studied printmaking and painting. She attended both of these from the 1970s until the 1980s.\n\nPontifïcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro \nWhile attending the Pontifïcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro she graduated and got her degree in art education in 1980. This came about 20 years later after she started teaching art to children.\n\nInstituto Metodista Bennett \nIn 1983, three years after getting her degree in art education, she was able to complete an art education postgraduate program. The Instituto Metodista Bennett is located in Rio de Janeiro just like Pontifïcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro.\n\nArt movements\n\nPoema/Processo \nSá is a founding member of the Poema/Processo art movement that originated in Brazil. She describes her work as \"visual poems\". Artists and poets such as Lygia Pape, Judith Lauand, Haroldo de Campos, Augusto de Campos got together in 1957 and hosted what is known as the Exposición Nacional de Arte Concreta. This exposition in which artists, writers, and poets came together to create, paved the way for the Poema/Processo artists to come about. The artists that created this movement include Neide Sá, Wlademir Dias Pino, Moacy Cirne, and Álvaro de Sá. This movement popped up in multiple locations at the same time: In Rio de Janeiro and Natal. This Poema/Processo movement lasted 5 years starting in 1967 and ending in 1972. The aim of Poema/Processo was to replace the verbal structure of poems with other physical mediums. These mediums include pictures, different geometric shapes, cuts and bends in pages and other kinds of graphics.\n\nArtwork\n\nArtist's book \nSá's most prevalent medium is the artist's book. She tends to incorporate many minimalist geometric shapes. In total, Sá has produced over 150 of these minimal, geometric pieces.\n\nOnomatopeias \nThe first of her over 150 piece collection began with a project called Onomatopeias in 1969. The Onomatopeias was the first collection to be added to her signature artist's book.\n\nLivros vazados \nHer works created in her series \"Onomatopeias\" influenced her to create a new series called Livros vazados, which, when translated from Portuguese to English translates to \"hollow books\". This work was created in the early 1970s. These hollow books\" are characterized by geometric shapes that are missing from missing from sheets of paper. These sheets of paper, when manipulated in a certain way can become something completely different. Allowing the observer to manipulate the pages and books however they please.\n\nCircunferências and Prismas\nWhile creating her Livros vazados collection, she was simultaneously working on a project she called Prismas (translating to \"Prisms) and Circunferências (translating to \"Circumferences\"), both of which were created in 1973. These two series are related as they both include interactive pieces made up by metal disks supporting elements through the force of magnetism.\n\nA Corda \nA Corda (or \"The Rope\"), 1967. Consists of a clothes line strung from one end of the room to the other. Along the clothes line are different types of media attached to the line through the use of clothes pins. Hanging from these clothes pins attached to the clothes line are different pictures, painting and drawings. Not only drawings and paintings, Neide Sá also includes magazine cut outs with phrases such as \"LIBERDADE\", \"HIPPIES TEM MAIS FLÔRES\", \"Oriente\" and many others.\n\nTransparência \nTransparência (or \"transparency\") was created in 1969. This consisted of a clear, cube shaped object with symbols on the outside. Acrylic and silk screen. Fairly small made up of 7.875 inch screens all the way around.\n\nReflexível \nSá's Reflexível (or \"Reflexive\") and was created in 1977. This work is described as \"semiological poem\" because it defined and categorized body movements are reflected over mirrored surfaces. This interactive piece called for guests who went to view it to walk along a path. However, there are a set of rules guests had to follow. For example, in order to step on a circle, they had to step on the circular shapes using only their heels, in order to step on the triangular shapes, guests were only allowed to step on it with the side of their foot, and in order to step on the rectangular shapes, guests were only able to use their toes. These rules led to strange body movements and displayed hidden potential in body movements.\n\nExhibitions \n1980 Neide Sá: Livros-objeto, Galleria Il Brandale, Savona, Italy\n\n1985 Neide Sá: Livros-objeto, Galeria Macunaíma, Rio de Janeiro\n\n1993 Neide Sá: Livros-objeto, Galería Casa Jove, Barcelona\n\n1998 Neide Dias de Sá: Revelação dos rastros, Museu de Arte, Porto Alegre, Brazil\n\n2000 A ordem do caos, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro\n\nReferences \n\n1940 births\nLiving people\n20th-century Brazilian women artists\n21st-century Brazilian women artists\n21st-century Brazilian artists\nPontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro alumni\nArtists from Rio de Janeiro (city)\nArt educators",
"Pam Rehm (born October 21, 1967 New Cumberland, Pennsylvania) is an American poet.\n\nLife\nHer work has appeared in Talisman, The Transcendental Friend, and The Nation.\n\nEducation\nGraduated from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania\n\nAwards\n 1994 National Poetry Series, for To Give It Up, selected by Barbara Guest\n\nWorks\n\"Indebted\", Duration Press\n\"Journey Home\", Duration Press\n\"An Empty Account\", Duration Press\n\"Acts of Love\", Poetry Foundation\n\"Acts of Vexation\", Poetry Foundation\n (chapbook)\n\nAnthologies\n\nReviews\nRehm is an iconoclast not because she is, at times, formally inventive but because she reaches for what can't be seen, that is, she strives for knowledge of \"what it means to be in relation.\" Her insurgency should, at least partly, become ours. Rehm is not the only one who must \"figure out what to believe and where to begin.\" To do this, must we open our cabinets and break open the black egg that may hide our conscious ear?\n\nThe poems in Small Works are short pieces and sequences of short pieces—small works—but \"small\" describes not only their length but the pieces' style as well. The poems are spare.\n\nJudging from the beautifully wrought poetic accomplishments of Small Works, mothering and poetry for Pam Rehm have without doubt combined to create a productive paradox, an incisive kind of linguistic and philosophical stirring into or mulling over life-as-lived, through commonplace yet uniquely employed forms of rhetorical sharing in soulful, songful contradiction.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\n1967 births\nAmerican women poets\n21st-century American poets\nPeople from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania\n21st-century American women writers"
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"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate"
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| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate? | 1 | What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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Inmates of Râmnicu Sărat prison
Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"Imperative mandate () commonly refers to a provision in the Constitution of Ukraine in which members of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) are bound by the constitution and laws of Ukraine to remain members of the parliamentary faction or bloc in which they were elected. Imperative mandate provisions were defined in the Constitution in articles Articles 78 and 81.\n\nHistory\nThe provision was introduced in the Constitution during the 2004 Constitutional Amendments on December 8, 2004.\n\nDuring the 2006 Ukrainian political crisis by President Viktor Yushchenko applied the provision while dissolving the parliament in April 2007 after members of the opposition crossed party lines to join the Alliance of National Unity to undermine his authority and reach a 300-MP constitutional majority.\n\nOn October 1, 2010 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine overturned the 2004 Constitutional Amendments, considering them unconstitutional. Several individual joined other factions already on October 5, 2010. But the Verkhovna Rada canceled the law's provision after amending the regulations of its activities on October 8, 2010; since then only 15 or more deputies can form a parliamentary faction, a lawmaker can join only one faction (the chairman and his two assistants cannot head factions of deputies) and deputies who are expelled from factions or decide to leave them become individual lawmakers; individual deputies are allowed to unite into parliamentary groups of people's deputies then again at least 15 deputies are required for the formation of such groups.\n\n2014 reinstatement\n\nOn 21 February 2014 the parliament passed a law that reinstated the December 8, 2004 amendments of the constitution. This was passed under simplified procedure without any decision of the relevant committee and was passed in the first and the second reading in one voting by 386 deputies. The law was approved by 140 MPs of the Party of Regions, 89 MPs of Batkivshchyna, 40 MPs of UDAR, 32 of the Communist Party, and 50 independent lawmakers.\n\nPetro Poroshenko Bloc MPs Mykola Tomenko and Yehor Firsov parliamentary mandates were terminated (due to a decision by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party congress) by the provision in March 2016.\n\nIn practice the Imperative mandate causes the deprivation of the mandate of deputies who leave their faction by their own initiative while deputies who are removed from their faction become an independent MP.\n\nIn June 2020, after parliament had refused his request to release him from parliament, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk left his party's (Voice) faction and he and his party terminated his parliamentary mandate through the imperative mandate.\n\nCriticism\nThe Imperative mandate provisions had been the subject of criticism by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as being undemocratic till its end. In the Assembly's 2007 report on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - Resolution 1549 (2007) Functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine (items 8 and 9) it wrote:\n\nSee also\nThe Anti-defection law in India, a similar concept\nImperative mandate\nElections in Ukraine\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Council of Europe — resolution Functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine April 19, 2007\n Council of Europe — Explanatory memorandum April 17, 2007\n Council of Europe — Venice Commission:Ukraine\n\nVerkhovna Rada\nPolitics of Ukraine\nConstitutional law\nLegal history of Ukraine\nConstitution of Ukraine",
"Sandra Božić (; born 15 October 1979) is a Serbian politician who has been serving as a member of the National Assembly of Serbia since 2018 and as the deputy leader of the For Our Children parliamentary group since 2020.\n\nEarly life and private career\nBožić was born in Pančevo, Vojvodina, in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. She holds a degree in political science and was the head of the public utility Grejanje from 2015 to 2018.\n\nPolitical career\nBožić received the 186th position on the Progressive Party's Aleksandar Vučić — Future We Believe In electoral list in the 2014 parliamentary election. The list won a majority victory with 158 out of 250 seats; Božić was not elected and did not serve in assembly that followed. She received the 144th position on the successor Aleksandar Vučić — Future We Believe In electoral list in the 2016 election. The list won 131 mandates and she was once again not immediately elected; she was, however, awarded a mandate on 6 March 2018, as a replacement for Vesna Rakonjac.\n\nDuring the 2016–20 parliament, Božić was a member of the assembly committee on the rights of the child and the committee on labour, social issues, social inclusion, and poverty reduction; a deputy member of the defence and internal affairs committee, the health and family committee, and the committee on administrative, budgetary, mandate, and immunity issues; a substitute member of Serbia's delegation to the Parliamentary Dimension of the Central European Initiative; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Austria, Azerbaijan, China, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, and the United States of America.\n\nBožić and fellow Progressive Party parliamentarian Aleksandar Martinović went on a two-day hunger strike in May 2020, to protest the inaction of Serbia's prosecution and judiciary against what they described as the violent behaviour of Dveri leader Boško Obradović. The strike ended after President Vučić urged the parliamentarians to call it off.\n\nShe was promoted to the seventeenth position on the Progressive Party's Aleksandar Vučić — For Our Children list for the 2020 Serbian parliamentary election and was elected to a second term when the list won a landslide victory with 188 mandates. After the election, she was chosen as deputy leader of the Aleksandar Vučić — For Our Children parliamentary group. She is also the chair of the culture and information committee; a full member of the committee on administrative, budgetary, mandate, and immunity issues; a deputy member of the security services control committee; a member of the European Union–Serbia stabilization and association committee; the leader of Serbia's parliamentary friendship group with the United Kingdom; and a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with China, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America.\n\nReferences\n\n1979 births\nLiving people\nSerbian women in politics\nPoliticians from Pančevo\nMembers of the National Assembly of Serbia\nSubstitute members of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Central European Initiative\nSerbian Progressive Party politicians"
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"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,"
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | Was he with other people? | 2 | Was Corneliu Zelea Coreanu with other people when touring rural regions? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"Lennart Damsbo-Andersen (born 5 October 1956 in Ovsted Parish near Skanderborg) is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. He was elected into parliament at the 2007 Danish general election.\n\nPolitical career\nDamsbo-Andersen's political career began with local politics. He was in the municipal council of Nysted Municipality from 1993 and until the municipality was merged with five other municipalities to form Guldborgsund Municipality in 2006. He was a member of the new municipality from 2006 to 2007. From 2002 to 2006 he was the mayor of Nysted Municipality.\n\nDamsbo-Andersen first ran for parliament in the 2007 general election, where he was elected with 5,731 votes. He was reelected in 2011 with 6,662 votes, in 2015 with 5,902 votes and in 2019 with 5,648 votes.\n\nExternal links \n Biography on the website of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget)\n\nReferences \n\nLiving people\n1956 births\nPeople from Skanderborg Municipality\nSocial Democrats (Denmark) politicians\nDanish municipal councillors\nMayors of places in Denmark\nMembers of the Folketing 2007–2011\nMembers of the Folketing 2011–2015\nMembers of the Folketing 2015–2019\nMembers of the Folketing 2019–2023",
"Emilio Perasso is an Argentine rugby union coach.\n\nHe was the coach of San Isidro Club for more than 25 years.\nHe was in charge of Argentina for three times, all of them in partnership with other coaches. The first was in 1974, with Carlos Villegas and Jorge Merelle, the second was from 1976 to 1977, with Carlos Villegas, and the third in 1995, with Alejandro Petra, after the disappointing elimination at the 1995 Rugby World Cup finals Pool Stage.\nPerasso was considered for head coach of Argentina once again in 1999.\nHe was also president of the Unión Argentina de Rugby, elected in 2004.\n\nExternal links\nEmilio Perasso Election as UAR President (In Spanish)\n\nArgentine rugby union coaches\nLiving people\nArgentina national rugby union team coaches\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
]
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[
"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | What did he mandate in the out law? | 3 | What did Corneliu Zelea Coreanu mandate in the out law? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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"Artur Ryszard Warzocha (born 11 November 1969 in Piotrków Trybunalski) is a Polish politician, local official, first deputy voivode of Silesia (2006–2007), Senator of the Senate of the Republic of Poland since 2015.\n\nBiography \nHe graduated from the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Pedagogical University in Częstochowa, and completed post-graduate studies at the Warsaw School of Economics. He became an academic teacher at the Institute of Political Sciences of the Jan Długosz University.\n\nIn 1998 and in 2002 he was elected to a Częstochowa City Council. In 2009, without success, he ran for the European Parliament. In 2010, he was elected a councilor of the Silesian Regional Assembly of the 4th term.\n\nHe joined Law and Justice. In 2011, he applied unsuccessfully for the Senate's mandate. In 2014, he was a candidate of Law and Justice in the elections for the office of President of Częstochowa, but he was not elected to this seat. In the parliamentary election in 2015, he was once again from the PiS party to the Senate from the district of Częstochowa, this time obtaining the mandate of a senator. \n\nIn 2018 he was once again the candidate of his party for the presidency of Częstochowa in the local elections, but he did not get a choice for this function. \n\nIn 2019 he lost the mandate of a senator in the district of Częstochowa.\n\nReferences \n\n1969 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Piotrków Trybunalski\nMembers of the Senate of Poland 2015–2019",
"California v. Texas, 593 U.S. ___ (2021), was a United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the constitutionality of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially known as Obamacare. It was the third such challenge to the ACA seen by the Supreme Court since its enactment. The case in California followed after the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the change to the tax penalty amount for Americans without required insurance that reduced the \"individual mandate\" () to zero, effective for months after December 31, 2018. The District Court of the Northern District of Texas concluded that this individual mandate was a critical provision of the ACA and that, with a penalty amount equal to zero, some or all of the ACA was potentially unconstitutional as an improper use of Congress's taxation powers. \n\nUnder the Donald Trump administration, the federal government had declined to challenge the lower court ruling, leading California and several other states to intervene and appeal the ruling, which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, but determined that the mandate might be severable from the rest of the ACA. Both California and Texas petitioned review of the Fifth's decision to the Supreme Court; the Court consolidated both California v. Texas and Texas v. California under the same case.\n\nIn a 7–2 decision issued on June 17, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that Texas and other states that initially challenged the individual mandate did not have standing, as they had not shown past or future injury related to the provision. The Supreme Court otherwise did not rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate in this case.\n\nBackground\nThe ACA (Obamacare) was passed in 2010 under Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress and signed by President Barack Obama. Among much of its provisions, it provided programs for states to provide free or low-cost health insurance to low-income residents through programs like Medicare and Medicaid. ACA encouraged all Americans to have health insurance and as part of this, created an income tax penalty for those that did not have health insurance, otherwise known as the \"individual mandate\". Passage of the ACA was controversial, and remained an issue that was divided along political lines, with Democrats seeing the law as promoting the public good and Republicans seeing it as a tax burden. The law had been challenged in courts multiple times, with the Supreme Court having seen two cases previously. Notably, in 2012, the Court ruled 5–4 in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the individual mandate was constitutional as a granted power of Congress under the Taxing and Spending Clause.\n\nIn 2016, the Republican Party held control of both the House and Senate and gained control of the Executive branch with the election of President Donald Trump. Trump had campaigned on the promise of replacing the ACA once in office, and repealing the law was one of the early targets of the Republicans, but early efforts failed by mid 2017 due to in-party disputes, specifically the deciding vote which was to come from Senator John McCain was denied the Republican Party due to the fact that a promised replacement plan was not forthcoming.\n\nCase history\n\nTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017\nBy December 2017, President Trump signed into law a large tax relief bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Among many other tax cuts, the Act eliminated the individual mandate requirement from the ACA by reducing penalty amount related to the required amount of health coverage to starting in 2019. The elimination of the penalty was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to save more than in federal spending, although it would cause premium rates to go up for some individual taxpayers. Political commentators recognized that the removal of the individual mandate penalty was a partial victory for the Republicans who were trying to repeal the ACA.\n\nDistrict Court\nIn February 2018, Texas led 19 other states in a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas challenging the constitutionality of the ACA following the removal of the individual mandate from the Internal Revenue Code. The plaintiffs in the suit, Texas v. Azar, argued that since the penalty related to the individual mandate was seen as core provision of the ACA as determined by the Supreme Court in Sebelius, its removal should make the entire law became an unconstitutional exercise of Congressional taxing power. The United States Department of Justice told the district court in June 2018 that it mostly agreed with the general basis of the lawsuit, in that without the individual mandate, certain provisions of the ACA were invalidated such as the protections it had provided for those with pre-existing conditions, and would not defend those factors in court. However, the Justice Department still believed certain provisions of the ACA were valid.\n\nOn December 14, 2018, District Judge Reed O'Connor released his opinion on the case, affirming that without the individual mandate, the whole of the ACA was unconstitutional, going farther than the Justice Department had even indicated. O'Connor wrote that the \"Individual Mandate can no longer be fairly read as an exercise of Congress's Tax Power and is still impermissible under the Interstate Commerce Clause—meaning the Individual Mandate is unconstitutional.\" He then further reasoned that the individual mandate is an essential part of the entire law, and thus was not severable, making the entire law unconstitutional. O'Connor's decision rendered the ACA unconstitutional but did not immediately overturn the law, granting a stay pending the resolution of the case on appeal. Among reaction to this decision was California and several other states, vowing to lead a challenge to the ruling.\n\nFifth Circuit\nBy early January 2019, 17 states led by California filed an appeal of O'Connor's decision to the Fifth Circuit, as the Justice Department had indicated it would not challenge the ruling. At point, it was recognized that the case was likely bound for the Supreme Court, and would land in the midst of the 2020 elections, making it a critical issue for either party. Four additional states joined California's challenge by February 2019, bringing the number to 21. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives following the 2018 election also joined in the defense. The Department of Justice filed a brief in support of the defendants (Texas et al.) in March 2019, now in full agreement with O'Connor's decision that the ACA as a whole was unconstitutional without the individual mandate, and would support Texas in defending the challenge. Briefs were also filed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, American Center for Law and Justice, Foundation for Moral Law, and Citizens United.\n\nPrior to the July 2019 oral hearings, the judges in the Fifth Circuit raised the question of whether California and the other states had standing to bring the challenge to the original suit. The oral hearings before Judges Carolyn Dineen King, Jennifer Walker Elrod, and Kurt Engelhardt focused on the constitutional challenge, the intent of Congress when they wrote and passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and on the matter of standing. Observers believed the case would be decided upholding O'Connor's ruling due to how the questioning fell, with Judges Elrod and Engelhardt, both appointed under Republican presidents, asking the bulk of the questions, while Senior Judge King, appointed under Democrat Jimmy Carter, was relatively silent.\n\nThe Fifth Circuit issued its ruling on December 18, 2019. The 2–1 decision, joined by Judges Elrod and Engelhardt, upheld in principle District Judge O'Connor's decision that with the elimination of the individual mandate, parts of the ACA were potentially unconstitutional. However, the decision remanded the case back to the district court, arguing that O'Connor's conclusion that the whole of the ACA was unconstitutional may be flawed. The Fifth Circuit decision asked the District Court to consider the concept of severability, since the individual mandate aspect was not apparently tied to other parts of the ACA like the health insurance marketplace. The Fifth Circuit also asked the District Court to consider a suggestion that the Justice Department had included in one of its briefs where the ACA may be invalid only in those states that had challenged it. As questions remained to the degree to which the ACA was unconstitutional, the ACA remained in enforcement following the decision.\n\nSupreme Court\n\n \nThe California-led group filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court by January 3, 2020 in response to the Fifth Circuit's decision. The filing asked for the case to be heard on an expedited schedule, \"because of the practical importance of the questions presented for review and the pressing need for their swift resolution by this Court\". Texas and the other states also filed a petition in February 2020 for the Supreme Court, asking them to deny the expedited review of the case as it was not ripe and allow it to proceed through the normal judicial process, but that should it accept the case, to review and affirm the ruling that the ACA is now unconstitutional.\n\nOn June 25, the Trump administration's Solicitor General of the United States, Noel J. Francisco, filed a brief arguing that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and that, because of this, the rest of the law must be struck down, too.\n\nThe Supreme Court refused to hear the case on an expedited schedule for the 2019–2020 term, but did agree, on March 2, 2020, to hear the case during the 2020–2021 term, reviewing not only the severability factors but the standing issue raised by the Fifth Circuit. The Court consolidated both California's and Texas's petitions (Dockets 19-840 and 19-1019, respectively) under California v. Texas. \n\nOral arguments were heard on November 10, 2020. Observers to the arguments believed that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, along with the three more liberal Justices, appeared to accept the severability arguments of the individual mandate that would leave the rest of the ACA in place.\n\nAfter Democrats won control of Congress through the 2020 elections (and associated runoffs in 2021), speculation arose that the Democratic-controlled Congress would follow President Joe Biden's desire to reinstate the individual mandate. This would effectively nullify any ruling against Obamacare, as the case is predicated upon a $0 individual mandate penalty. The Department of Justice under Biden did submit a new amicus brief in February 2021 following the oral hearings asserting that they now believe the ACA is constitutional and the mandate is severable from the rest of the ACA.\n\nDecision \nThe Court issued its decision on June 17, 2021. In a 7–2 ruling, the Court reversed the Fifth Circuit's ruling and remanded the case for further review. In the majority opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court concluded that Texas and other plaintiff states did not have standing to bring the initial challenge of the individual mandate, as those states could not show a past or future injury related to the mandate provision. The Court's decision did not address the constitutionality question of the individual mandate. Breyer wrote in the majority opinion that Texas and the other plaintiff states had failed to show standing as \"Unsurprisingly, the states have not demonstrated that an unenforceable mandate will cause their residents to enroll in valuable benefits programs that they would otherwise forgo\".\n\nJustice Thomas also wrote a concurring opinion. While Thomas agreed with the dissenting opinion that the Court had erred in how it handled the ACA in the past, he wrote that the decision in California was correct as Texas and the other states did not show any injury pending from the individual mandate.\n\nJustice Samuel Alito wrote the dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch. Alito stated that the individual mandate was \"clearly unconstitutional\" and criticized the majority opinion for \"judicial inventiveness\".\n\nReactions \nLegal experts believed that the decision based on lack of standing would make it difficult for any other party to challenge the ACA further. Law professor Steve Vladeck said that by avoiding the constitutional question of the individual mandate and instead deciding on standing, the Supreme Court \"made it much harder for anyone to get that issue into the courts going forward. In essence, they sucked the oxygen out of the ACA's continuing constitutional fire.\"\n\nPresident Joe Biden in a statement called the ruling \"a major victory for all Americans\", affirming that \"healthcare is a right and not a privilege\" and that \"it is time move forward and keep building on this landmark law\". HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated that “[the] decision means that all Americans continue to have a right to access affordable care, free of discrimination. Barack Obama stated that \"The principle of universal coverage has been established\", and that the law \"is here to stay\". Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also heralded the ruling, with Schumer stating \"For more than a decade, the assault on our health care law was relentless from Republicans in Congress, from the executive branch itself and from Republican attorneys general in the courts.\"\n\nTexas attorney general Ken Paxton, who had argued for the state at the Supreme Court, said that he will continue to seek legal means to challenge the ACA. \"If the government is allowed to mislead its citizens, pass a massive government takeover of healthcare, and yet still survive after Supreme Court review, this spells doom for the principles of Federalism and limited government\". Republican such as Sen. John Barrasso criticized the decision and the ACA, suggesting that Republicans would focus policymaking. In a joint statement, Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise and Elise Stefanik criticized the ACA and called on Congress to improve healthcare.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Slip opinion\n\nUnited States Constitution Article One case law\nUnited States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court\nAffordable Care Act lawsuits\n2020 in United States case law\nUnited States Commerce Clause case law\nTaxing and Spending Clause case law\nUnited States Supreme Court cases"
]
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[
"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he mandate in the out law?",
"Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache"
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | What was the result of the outlaw? | 4 | What was the result of the outlaw by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | Codreanu was acquitted in late February. | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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Christian conspiracy theorists | true | [
"Wyatt Outlaw (1820February 26, 1870) was an American politician and the first African-American to serve as Town Commissioner and Constable of the town of Graham, North Carolina. He was lynched by the White Brotherhood, a branch of the Ku Klux Klan on February 26, 1870. His death, along with the assassination of white Republican State Senator John W. Stephens at the Caswell County Courthouse, provoked Governor William Woods Holden to declare martial law in Alamance and Caswell Counties, resulting in the Kirk-Holden War of 1870.\n\nBiography \nOutlaw was apparently of mixed racial heritage. He was mentioned in a letter as being the son of a white Alamance County slave-owner Chesley F. Faucett. One source suggests he lived on the tobacco farm of Nancy Outlaw on Jordan Creek, northeast of Graham, North Carolina. Sources conflict on the question of whether Outlaw was born a slave or a free person of color.\n\nOutlaw is probably the same person enlisted as \"Wright Outlaw\" in the 2nd Regiment U. S. Colored Cavalry in 1863 who fought in various engagements in Virginia and was later stationed on the Rio Grande in Texas until mustered out in February 1866.\n\nOutlaw, whose trade was woodworking and cabinet-making, was an African-American community leader in Alamance County. In 1866 he founded or cofounded the Loyal Republican League in Alamance. In 1868, Outlaw was among a number of trustees who were deeded land for the establishment of the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Alamance County. Outlaw's Loyal Republican League was later incorporated into the Union League, a fraternal order connected to the Republican Party.\n\nOutlaw's prominent activities on behalf of African Americans in Alamance County made him a target of the White Brotherhood and the Constitutional Union Guard, both local branches of the Ku Klux Klan. As a prominent Republican in Alamance County, Outlaw was appointed to the Graham Town Council by Governor Holden and soon became one of three constables of the town - all three of whom were African Americans. On one occasion in 1869, white residents of the area who were incensed by the prospect of being policed by an all African-American constabulary organized a nighttime ride in Klan garb through the streets of Graham in an effort to frighten the African-American constables. Outlaw and another constable opened fire on the night riders, but no injuries were sustained.\n\nOutlaw's aggressive response to the night riders may have inflamed the anger of Klan sympathizers. The night of February 26, 1870, a party of unidentified men rode into Graham, dragged Outlaw from his home and hung him from an elm tree in the courthouse square in Graham, in what is now known as Sesquicentennial Park, located at . Outlaw's body bore on the chest a message from the perpetrators: \"Beware, ye guilty, both black and white.\"\n\nA local African-American man named Puryear claimed to know who was responsible for the lynching, but Puryear was soon found dead in a nearby pond.\n\nIn 1873, Guilford County Superior Court Judge Albion Tourgee advocated for re-visiting the murder of Wyatt Outlaw. That year the Grand Jury of Alamance County brought felony indictments against 63 Klansmen, including 18 murder counts, in connection with the lynching of Wyatt Outlaw. However, the Democratic-controlled state legislature repealed the laws under which most of these indictments had been brought, so the charges were dropped. No one was ever tried in connection with Outlaw's murder.\n\nNotes\n\n1820 births\n1870 deaths\n1870 murders in the United States\nAfrican-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era\nActivists for African-American civil rights\nKu Klux Klan crimes\nMurdered African-American people\nRacially motivated violence against African Americans\nPeople murdered in North Carolina\nLynching deaths in North Carolina\nPeople from Graham, North Carolina\nNorth Carolina Republicans\nAfrican Americans in the American Civil War\nUnion Army soldiers\nPeople of North Carolina in the American Civil War",
"Alexander Outlaw (1738–1826) was an American frontiersman and politician, active in the formation and early history of the State of Tennessee. A veteran of the American Revolution, he settled on the Appalachian frontier, in what is now Jefferson County, Tennessee, in the early 1780s. He served simultaneously in the assembly of the failed State of Franklin as well as the legislature of its parent state, North Carolina. He was a delegate to the North Carolina convention that ratified the United States Constitution in 1789, and to the Tennessee state constitutional convention in 1796.\n\nOutlaw represented Jefferson County in the Tennessee House of Representatives during the First General Assembly (1796). He represented Jefferson in the Tennessee Senate during the Third General Assembly (1799–1801), and was elected Speaker. After his senate term, he focused primarily on land speculation and law. He died in Dallas County, Alabama, in 1826.\n\nRural Mount, a house built by Outlaw for his son-in-law, Joseph Hamilton, still stands near Morristown, Tennessee, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Outlaw was the grandfather of U.S. Senator Alexander Outlaw Anderson.\n\nReferences\n\nPeople from Jefferson County, Tennessee\nPeople from Duplin County, North Carolina\nTennessee state senators\nMembers of the Tennessee House of Representatives\nPeople of Tennessee in the American Revolution\nPeople from the State of Franklin\n1738 births\n1826 deaths"
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"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he mandate in the out law?",
"Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache",
"What was the result of the outlaw?",
"Codreanu was acquitted in late February."
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | What form of rebellion he made? | 5 | What form of rebellion did Corneliu Zelea Coreanu make? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"Kinjikitile \"Bokero\" Ngwale (died August 4, 1905) was a Tanzanian spiritual medium and a leader of the 1905–1907 Maji Maji Rebellion against colonial rule in German East Africa (present day Tanzania).\n\nBiography\nKinjikitile was a member of the Matumbi people, living in what is now Tanzania (then German East Africa, later Tanganyika). The Matumbi practiced religious forms of folk Islam. In 1904, the then relatively unknown Kinjikitile disappeared from his home in Ngarambe. He returned after a few days and said that he had been possessed by a spirit medium called Hongo, believed to take the form of a snake. Kinjikitile claimed to have communicated with the deity Bokera through the spirit Hongo. He encouraged his followers to overlook tribal differences and unite against the Germans. He told his followers that their ancestors had commanded him to lead a rebellion against the German colonial empire. This helped start the Maji Maji Rebellion. Kinjikitile gave his people 'holy water' (\"maji\") to protect them from German bullets. After a group of Matumbi people attacked the home of a local official in July, 1905, Kinjikitile was arrested by German troops.\n\nHe was hanged for treason on August 4, 1905. His brother continued in Kinjikitile's work and the rebellion continued until 1907, with over 100,000 local people killed. Present-day Tanzanians consider the failed rebellion to have been the first stirring of nationalism, and Kinjikitile \"Bokero\" Ngwale a proto-national hero.\n\nLegacy in literature \nTanzanian playwright Ebrahim Hussein wrote a popular play in Swahili language called Kinjeketile, based on the Maji Maji Rebellion.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n \n \n\n1905 deaths\nExecuted Tanzanian people\nYear of birth missing\nPeople executed by the German Empire\nPeople executed for treason against Germany\nPeople executed by Germany by hanging\n20th-century executions by Germany",
"Frederick Vern was a German who was one of the leaders in the Eureka Rebellion. He helped form the Ballarat Reform League. Vern went into hiding after the rebellion and spent a number of months on the run.\n\nReferences\n\nAustralian rebels\nAustralian activists"
]
|
[
"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he mandate in the out law?",
"Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache",
"What was the result of the outlaw?",
"Codreanu was acquitted in late February.",
"What form of rebellion he made?",
"He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis"
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | Was he supported by any other member? | 6 | Aside from Gheorghe Mironescu and Ion Mihalache, was Corneliu Zelea Coreanu supported by any other member? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"David Narcomey is a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and an activist who was the regional director of the North Florida chapter of the American Indian Movement or AIM.\n\nNarcomey opposes colleges or universities that use American Indian symbols or representations as sports mascots or other sports related imagery.\n\nDavid Narcomey was perhaps the principal member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma who supported the proposed NCAA ban on the use of Seminole Tribe symbolism by Florida State University. Narcomey was, in the FSU matter, considered to be a leading tribe member in consultation with the NCAA while a proposed ban on the use of Seminole imagery by FSU was reviewed.\n\nLater, Narcomey was supported by the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma but a much smaller band of the tribe with promises of financial reward agreed and consequently the NCAA excluded Florida State from the nationwide ban.\n\nNarcomey's stance has been supported by a majority of American Indian tribe members at other universities that use American Indian imagery and research done by Dr. Stephanie Fryberg has found the harm exposure to Native Mascots to be measurable on Native youth. In the same area of activism David Narcomey has publicly stated that any use of American Indian imagery by non-Indians harms American Indian children and this is also supported by the American Psychological Association who in 2005 called for the immediate retirement of all American Indian mascots, symbols, images and personalities by schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams and organizations. His position has been controversial but is supported by the majority of American Indian tribes as exemplified by the campaign begun in 1968 of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest representative body of Native American tribes to eliminate the use of Native people as mascots in sports.\n\nNarcomey was instrumental in the YMCA abandoning the 76-year-old tradition of Y-Indian Guides, which he believes traumatizes American Indian children.\n\nReferences\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nNative Americans' rights activists\nSeminole Nation of Oklahoma people\n21st-century Native Americans",
"Colombia First () was a non-profit foundation and later conservative political movement in Colombia which supported the candidacy of Álvaro Uribe in the 2002 and 2006 presidential elections.\n\nThe movement was created in 2001 by Antioquia businessman Fabio Echeverri, alongside Medellín businessman José Roberto Arango and Alberto Velásquez, to support Álvaro Uribe's candidacy in the 2002 presidential election. Uribe, a member of the Colombian Liberal Party and former governor of Antioquia (1995–1997), had declined to run in the Liberal Party's internal consultations and instead sought the presidency as an independent, Liberal dissident supported by the Primero Colombia movement. Because Primero Colombia was not a recognized political party, Uribe obtained ballot access by collecting signatures. Law 130 of 1994 (Article 9) allows candidates, backed by 'significant group of citizens' (grupos significativos de ciudadanos), to obtain ballot access by collecting signatures equivalent to 20% of the number of registered voters divided by the number of seats to be filled, in no case requiring. more than 50,000 signatures. Álvaro Uribe's candidacy later received the endorsements of several other right-wing parties, including that of the Colombian Conservative Party, which officially backed Uribe's candidacy after its own candidate withdrew from the race.\n\nUribe was elected President of Colombia on 26 May 2002 with 54% of the vote by the first round. Thereafter, the Colombia First movement remained dormant, not running any candidates for any other offices (local, regional or congressional) in later elections, until it was resuscitated to support Uribe's reelection campaign, once again running as an independent by collecting over one million signatures. Nevertheless, Uribe was backed by a wide majority in Congress, and his candidacy for reelection was supported by several parties including the Conservative Party, Party of the U, Radical Change, Team Colombia and the Democratic Colombia Party. Uribe was reelected with 62.4% of the vote by the first round.\n\nIn 2009, two Uribe supporters, Luis Carlos Restrepo and Roy Barreras sought to rename the Party of the U as Colombia First to create a large uribista coalition, uniting all the President's supporters, to back Uribe's potential candidacy for a third term in 2010. However, Fabio Echeverri signalled that he had no intention of giving up his rights to the name.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFoundation Centro de Pensamiento Primero Colombia\n\nDefunct political parties in Colombia\nConservative parties in Colombia"
]
|
[
"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he mandate in the out law?",
"Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache",
"What was the result of the outlaw?",
"Codreanu was acquitted in late February.",
"What form of rebellion he made?",
"He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis",
"Was he supported by any other member?",
"it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections."
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | Did they won in the election? | 7 | Did Corneliu Zelea Coreanu's group won in the election? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
1899 births
1938 deaths
People from Huși
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni
Romanian nationalists
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Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"The municipal elections of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1990 were won by several parties. In most municipalities they organized governments in coalitions, or independently if they had a large majority.\n\nIn most municipalities with either a relative or absolute Bosniak majority, Party of Democratic Action (SDA) won a majority of the vote and the right to choose the mayor.\n\nIn most municipalities with either a relative or absolute Serbian majority, Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) won a majority of the vote and the right to choose the mayor. SDS also won elections in Doboj and Vogošća (a Bosniak relative majority).\n\nIn most municipalities with either a relative or absolute Croatian majority, Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ) won a majority of the vote and the right to choose the mayor. Only in Vareš—a municipality with a relative Croatian majority—did HDZ not win a majority of votes. HDZ also won elections in Bugojno, Fojnica, Jajce, Žepče, Stolac and Mostar (a Bosniak relative majority) and Modriča and Derventa and Kotor Varoš (a Serbian relative majority).\n\nNationally, Fikret Abdić gained the most votes to become President. He never assumed the presidency however, leaving it to Alija Izetbegović.\n\nResults by municipality:\n\nNationalistic parties did not win only in Tuzla, Vareš and Novo Sarajevo\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Election in Vitez\n Election in Busovaca\n Election in Bugojno\n Election in Mostar\n Election in Novi Travnik\n Election in Ljubuški, Čapljina and Kiseljak\n Election in Konjic\n Elections in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje\n Election in Konjic\n Election in Kakanj\n Election in Bosanski Šamac\n Election in Odžak, Modriča, Sarajevo, Maglaj,Goražde, ...\n Election in Prijedor\n Election in Prnjavor\n References to elections in Derventa\n References to elections in Bosanski Brod\n References to elections in Orašje\n References to elections in Jablanica\n References to elections in Kreševo\n References to elections in Banja Luka, Zenica and Bihać\nReferences to elections in Travnik References to elections in Travnik References to elections in Travnik\nReferences to elections in Ključ\n Overall results of elections \n\nMunicipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina\nElections in Bosnia and Herzegovina\nBosnia\nMunicipal",
"The United Farmers of Ontario entered politics by contesting a 1918 by-election which was won by UFO candidate Beniah Bowman. The next year, in the 1919 provincial election in Ontario they achieved a major political upset by winning enough seats to form a government in alliance with Labour MLAs in the Ontario legislature (also listed). The UFO did not have a leader until after the 1919 election when Ernest Charles Drury was asked by the caucus to serve as Premier of Ontario. As he did not have a seat in the legislature he had to enter via a by-election.\n\n1874 by-election\nDaniel John O'Donoghue, was the first Labour candidate elected to the Ontario legislature. He won an 1874 by-election in Ottawa. Though he supported the Liberals in the legislature he was defeated in the 1875 general election in a three way race against Conservative and Liberal opponents.\n\nPatrons of Industry (1894)\n\nThree candidates were elected under the Patrons of Industry banner in the 1894 general election:\n\n William Dynes, (Dufferin)\n James Haggerty, (Hastings North)\n David McNicol, (Grey South)\n\nTwelve Liberals and one Conservative were also elected on a joint ticket with the Patrons. The party did not elect any candidates in the 1898 election.\n\nRise and fall of UFO and Labour\n = UFO\n = Progressive\n = Independent-Progressive\n = Labour\n = Labour-United Farmers\n = Liberal-United Farmers\n = Liberal-Progressive"
]
|
[
"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he mandate in the out law?",
"Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache",
"What was the result of the outlaw?",
"Codreanu was acquitted in late February.",
"What form of rebellion he made?",
"He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis",
"Was he supported by any other member?",
"it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections.",
"Did they won in the election?",
"The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain."
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | Was Corneliu referred as a captain? | 8 | Was Corneliu Zelea Coreanu referred as a captain of the Legion? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
1899 births
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People from Huși
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni
Romanian nationalists
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Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"The Treasure () is a 2015 Romanian film directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, starring Toma Cuzin, Adrian Purcărescu and Corneliu Cozmei. It tells the story of two young men who search for lost treasure. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Prix Un Certain Talent prize.\n\nCast\n Toma Cuzin as Costi\n Adrian Purcărescu as Adrian \n Corneliu Cozmei as Cornel\n Radu Banzaru as Vanzator\n Florin Kevorkian as Sef Costi\n Iulia Ciochina as Vanzatoare\n Cristina Toma as Raluca\n Dan Chiriac as Lica\n Laurentiu Lazar as Petrescu\n Clemence Valleteau as Emma Dumont\n\nProduction\nThe film was produced through the director's company 42 km Film in collaboration with France's Les Films du Worso and Rouge International. It received grants corresponding to 350,000 euro from the Romanian National Film Center and support from Arte France Cinéma, HBO and Eurimages. With the exception of Toma Cuzin, the entire cast consists of non-professional actors. Filming took place from 15 October to 15 November 2014 in Teleorman County and Bucharest.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2015 films\nFilms directed by Corneliu Porumboiu\nFilms shot in Bucharest\nFilms shot in Romania\nRomanian films\nRomanian-language films",
"Corneliu Ciontu (born 15 November 1941) is a Romanian politician, and currently general secretary of the Great Romania Party. In November 2005, he founded the People's Party, which was blocked in justice court. In August 2006 Ciontu became the vice-president of the New Generation Party, but after one year he withdrew from the party.\n\nBefore November 2005, Ciontu was the vice-president and later President of the Greater Romania Party, where he was seen as more moderate than the party's leader, Corneliu Vadim Tudor.\n\nExternal links\n Interview with Corneliu Ciontu about the formation of the People's Party\n Personal campaign website\n\n1941 births\nLiving people\nPoliticians from Bucharest\nMembers of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania)\nGreater Romania Party politicians"
]
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[
"Corneliu Zelea Codreanu",
"First outlawing and parliamentary mandate",
"What happen in the first outlaw and parliamentary mandate?",
"Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions,",
"Was he with other people?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he mandate in the out law?",
"Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache",
"What was the result of the outlaw?",
"Codreanu was acquitted in late February.",
"What form of rebellion he made?",
"He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis",
"Was he supported by any other member?",
"it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections.",
"Did they won in the election?",
"The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain.",
"Was Corneliu referred as a captain?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_2383e4fbc90347759fb18ab5db25d31e_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 9 | In addition to The Legion, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu | Codreanu felt he had to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional Moldavian and Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramures and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists -- including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February. Having been boosted by the Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement -- including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain. He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent). CANNOTANSWER | In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of Borsa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938)—born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu—was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the Legionary Movement), an ultranationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its mystical and Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it gained prominence on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the democratic forces, and often resorting to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iași Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting pogroms in various parts of Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including Premier Ion G. Duca and his former associate Mihai Stelescu. Simultaneously, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance with Nazi Germany.
During the 1937 suffrage, his party registered its strongest showing, placing third and winning 15.8% of the vote. It was blocked out of power by King Carol II, who invited the rival fascists and fourth-place finishers of the National Christian Party to form a short-lived government, succeeded by the National Renaissance Front royal dictatorship. The rivalry between Codreanu and, on the other side, Carol and moderate politicians like Nicolae Iorga ended with Codreanu's imprisonment at Jilava and eventual assassination at the hands of the Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by Horia Sima. In 1940, under the National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far-right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the International Third Position, and various neofascist organizations in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huși to Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth (née Brunner) on 13 September 1899. His father, a teacher and himself a Romanian nationalist, would later become a political figure within his son's movement. A native of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as Zelinski; his wife was ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a Slav of Ukrainian or Polish origin contrast with the Romanian chauvinism he embraced for the rest of his life. Thus, Codreanu the elder associated with antisemitic figures such as University of Iaşi professor A. C. Cuza. Just prior to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's 1938 trial, his ethnic origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also Czechs and Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and libel Codreanu.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, Codreanu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign. His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. In 1919, after moving to Iași, Codreanu found communism as his new enemy, after he had witnessed the impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost her main ally in the October Revolution, forcing her to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar borders (see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of Socialist Party riots in Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iași and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu learned antisemitism from his father, but connected it with anticommunism, in the belief that Jews were, among other things, the primordial agents of the Soviet Union (see Jewish Bolshevism).
Codreanu's hero from his childhood until the end of his life was Stephen the Great. A vast legend was created around the womanizing Stephen's sexual powers, who had demonstrated his greatness as a man and ruler by fathering hundreds, if not thousands of children by women from all social ranks, an aspect of Stephen's life which the Romanian historian Maria Bucur observed "was never held against him, but rather used anecdotally as evidence of his greatness". Despite his vehement insistence in public of the importance of upholding traditional Eastern Orthodox values, the charismatic Codreanu, who was considered to be very attractive by many women, often followed his role model Stephen the Great with regard to them. One awestruck female follower wrote: "The Captain [Codreanu] came from a world of Good, a Prince of the Lights ... a medieval knight, a martyr and a hero." Codreanu's female followers consistently praised him as an intensely romantic, noble "white knight" figure who had come to save Romania.
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied law in Iași, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favour of racial segregation.
Historian Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times". British scholar Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, Codreanu joined the short-lived Garda Conștiinței Naționale (GCN, "Guard of National Conscience"), a group formed by the electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu had an enormous influence on Codreanu.
Pancu's movement, whose original membership did not exceed 40, attempted to revive loyalism within the proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by advocating increased labor rights). As much as other reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist trade unions, became active in crushing strike actions. Their activities did not fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a Jewish quota for higher education — this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from the University of Iași. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a diploma after his graduation.
While studying in Berlin and Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the Weimar Republic, and began praising the March on Rome and Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short after learning of the large Romanian student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete emancipation of Jews (see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu were met with lack of interest from the new National Liberal government, he and Cuza founded (4 March 1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by Ion Moța, translator of the antisemitic hoax known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of citizenship to Jews under the Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iași ghetto, led a group which petitioned the government in Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in Brătianu's executive, and who promoted the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, Codreanu was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation did not allow for prosecution of conspiracies that had not been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Ion Moța shot the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza over the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in Văcărești prison in Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honour of an Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or, more specifically, linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself. A more personal problem also divided Codreanu and Cuza, namely that Cuza's son had an affair with Codreanu's sister that left her pregnant. The couple had broken up with the younger Cuza refused his girlfriend's demand that he marry her now that she was bearing his child. Though the scandal was hushed up, the fact that his sister was having an illegitimate child was deeply humiliating for Codreanu as he liked to present his family as model members of the Orthodox church and he sought unsuccessfully to have Cuza pressure his son to marry his sister.
Back in Iași, Codreanu created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with the Frăția de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of blood brotherhood which requires sermon with a cross). It gathered on 6 May 1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student centre. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from Romanian Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval of retreating from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on 24 October, in the Iași Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint). Forensics showed that Manciu was not facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself to be acting in self-defence based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu gave himself up immediately after firing his gun, and awaited trial in custody. The police force of Iaşi was unpopular with the public due to widespread corruption, and many locals saw the murder of Manciu as a heroic act by Codreanu. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the Parliament of Romania by the Peasant Party's Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and sedition; it won the approval of the governing National Liberal Party, which, on December 19, passed the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed Minister of Justice). Its most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder: Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although Codreanu was purposely tried as far away from Iași as Turnu Severin, the authorities were unable to find a neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and an ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking leave in France.
Codreanu's wedding to Elena Ilinoiu in June 1925 in Focșani was the major social event in Romania that year; it was celebrated in lavish, pseudo-royal style and attended by thousands, attracting enormous media attention. After the wedding, Codreanu and his bride were followed by 3,000 ox-carts in a four-mile long procession of "ecstatically happy" peasants. One of Codreanu's followers wrote at the time that Romanians loved royal spectacles, especially royal weddings, but since Crown Prince Carol had eloped first to marry a commoner in 1918 in a private wedding followed by a royal wedding in Greece, Codreanu's wedding was the best substitute for the royal wedding that the Romanian people wanted to see. Codreanu's wedding was meant to change his image from the romantic, restless, Byronic hero image he had held until then to a more "settled" image of a married man, and thus allay concerns held by more conservative Romanians about his social radicalism. Before leaving Romania for Grenoble, Codreanu was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moța, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion of the Archangel Michael
Codreanu returned from Grenoble to take part in the 1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of Focșani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support now-rival Cuza). Codreanu claimed to have had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's saviour. From the beginning, a commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centrepiece of his message.
Based on the Frăția de Cruce, Codreanu designed the Legion as a selective and autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded it into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (cuiburi). Frăția endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the "Captain", as Codreanu was now known.
According to American historian Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the National Peasant Party's Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [acts of terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionnaires engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a Second Coming of Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence thrived on uncouthness and pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favour of the notion that there was no actual connection between the Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "Roman-Dacian structure of our people." The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that, from the mid-19th century onward, the Romanian intelligentsia had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values". Romania been a strongly Francophile country starting in the 19th century, and most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom, and human rights while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the intelligentsia, but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a synagogue in the city of Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of Poland, the most antisemitic country in Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, the prominent historian Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the Hungarian community). Codreanu also voiced his thoughts on the issue of Romanian expansionism, which show that he was pondering the incorporation of Soviet lands over the Dniester (in the region later annexed under the name of Transnistria) and planning a Romanian-led transnational federation centred on the Carpathians and the Danube.
In 1936, Codreanu published an essay entitled "The Resurrection of the Race", where he wrote
I will under underline this once again: we are not up against a few pathetic individuals who have landed here by chance and who now seek protection and shelter. We are up against a fully-fledged Jewish state, an entire army which has come here with its sights set on conquest. The movement of the Jewish population and its penetration into Romania are being carried out in accordance with precise plans. In all probability, the 'Great Jewish Council' is planning the creation of a new Palestine on a strip of land, starting out on the Baltic Sea, embraces a part of Poland and Czechoslovakia and half of Romania right across to the Black Sea...The worse thing that Jews and politicians have done to us, the greatest danger that they have exposed our people to, is not the way they are seizing the riches and possessions of our country, destroying the Romanian middle class, the way they swamp our schools and liberal professions, or the pernicious influence they are having on our whole political life, although these already constitute mortal dangers for a people. The greatest danger they pose to the people is rather that they are undermining us racially, that they are destroying the racial, Romano-Dacian structure of our people and call into being a type of human being that is nothing, but a racial wreck."
From early on, the movement registered significant gains among the middle-class and educated youth. However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. American historian of fascism Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centred on the "new underemployed intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders; later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an anticapitalist, Codreanu identified in Jewry the common source of economic liberalism and communism, both seen as internationalist forces manipulated by a Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of modernization and materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-Marxian form of collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
After more than two years of stagnation, Codreanu felt it necessary to amend the purpose of the movement: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of sermons, dressing up in long white mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditionally-receptive Moldavian and Bukovinian centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of pogroms in Maramureș and Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionnaires encouraged the peasant population of Borșa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews.
The Legion also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists, including Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier Gheorghe Mironescu and Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the Great Depression in Romania and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the "Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping" (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it is likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Grouping in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, signalling its first important electoral gain.
Codreanu quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as "bland and incompetent").
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became increasingly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf Hitler and Nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). Romania was traditionally one of the most Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionnaires be arrested just prior to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the Legionnaires held in custody were killed by authorities. In retaliation, Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard's Nicadori death squad on 30 December 1933. Another result was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after Nae Ionescu and allies protested against its repression.
Due to Duca's killing, Codreanu was forced into hiding, awaiting calm and delegating leadership to General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for the assassination. Legionnaire Mihai Stelescu, who would become Codreanu's adversary as head of the splinter group Crusade of Romanianism, alleged that Codreanu had been given refuge by a cousin of Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt. Despite Codreanu's attacks on the elite, at his trial in 1934 a number of respected politicians like Gheorghe I. Brătianu, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and Constantin Argetoianu testified for Codreanu as character witnesses. Codreanu was again acquitted.
As Duca had alleged, the Iron Guard did have some links to the Nazi Party's foreign office under Alfred Rosenberg, but in 1933–34 the main local beneficiary of financial support from Rosenberg was Codreanu's rival Octavian Goga, who lacked Codreanu's mass following and thus was more biddable. A further issue for the Nazis was concern over Codreanu's statements that Romania had too many minorities for its own good, which led to fears that Codreanu might persecute the volksdeutsch minority if he came to power. Though limited, the connections between the NSDAP and the Iron Guard added to the Legion's appeal as the Iron Guard was associated in the public mind with the apparently dynamic and successful society of Nazi Germany.
Some time after the start of Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and Ion Inculeț's leadership of the Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in Târgu Mureș, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of dissident Mihai Stelescu by a group called the Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade of Romanianisms anti-Legion campaign, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was politically corrupt, uncultured, a plagiarist, and hypocritical in his public display of asceticism.
1937 was marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța (by then, the movement's vice president) and Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the battle at Majadahonda. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay Pentru legionari ("For the Legionnaires" or "For My Legionnaires").
It was during this period that the Guard came to be financed by Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, a Legion branch which grouped members of the working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, Carol made an offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legionary cabinet; this offer was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Country" Party
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion was restyled into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Țară ("Everything for the Country", acronym TPȚ'''). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, TPȚ received 15.5% of the voteFinal Report, p.39-40; Brustein, p.159; Cioroianu, p.17; Jelavich, p.206; Ornea, p.312 (occasionally rounded up to 16%). Despite failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third most popular party in Romania, the only one whose popularity grew in 1937–1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he urged his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question".
The new government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion — the Lăncieri — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.
Clash with King Carol and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu (see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harboured Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
The official and semi-official press began attacking Codreanu. He was thus virulently criticized by the magazine Neamul Românesc, which was edited by Iorga. When Carol felt he had sufficient control of the situation, he ordered a brutal suppression of the Iron Guard and had Codreanu arrested on the charge of slander, based on a letter Codreanu sent to Iorga on 26 March 1938, in which he had attacked him for collaborating with Carol, calling Iorga "morally dishonest".Codreanu, in Ornea, p.315 Codreanu referred to the historian's charge that Legionary commerce was financing rebellion, and argued that this strategy had originated from Iorga's own arguments. Nicolae Iorga replied by filing a complaint with the Military TribunalOrnea, p.316 and by writing Codreanu a letter which advised him to "descend in [his] conscience to find remorse" for "the amount of blood spilled over him".
Upon being informed of the indictment, Codreanu urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity; however, he also ordered a group of Legionnaires to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. He was arrested together with 44 other prominent members of the movement, including Ion Zelea Codreanu, Gheorghe Clime, Alexandru Cristian Tell, Radu Gyr, Nae Ionescu, Șerban Milcoveanu and Mihail Polihroniade, on the evening of April 16. The crackdown coincided with the Orthodox celebration of Palm Sunday (when those targeted were known to be in their homes). After a short stay in the Romanian Police Prefecture, Codreanu was dispatched to Jilava prison, while the other prisoners were sent to Tismana Monastery (and later to concentration camps such as the one in Miercurea Ciuc).
Codreanu was tried for slander and sentenced to six months in jail, before the authorities indicted him for sedition, and for the crimes of politically organizing underage students, issuing orders inciting to violence, maintaining links with foreign organizations, and organizing fire practices. Of the people to give evidence in his favour at the trial, the best-known was General Ion Antonescu, who would later become Conducător and Premier of Romania.
The two trials were marked by irregularities, and Codreanu accused the judges and prosecutors of conducting it in a "Bolshevik" manner, because he had not been allowed to speak in his own defence. He sought the counsel of the prominent lawyers Istrate Micescu and Grigore Iunian, but was refused by both, and, as a consequence, his defence team comprised Legionary activists with little experience. They were several times prevented by the authorities from preparing their pleas. The conditions of his imprisonment were initially harsh: his cell was damp and cold, which caused him health problems.
Sentencing and death
Codreanu was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labour.Jelavich, p.207; Ornea, p.317; Veiga, p.250, 255–256 According to historian Ilarion Țiu, the trial and verdict were received with general apathy, and the only political faction believed to have organized a public rally in connection with it was the outlawed Romanian Communist Party, some of whose members gathered in front of the tribunal to express support for the conviction. The Legionary Movement itself grew disorganized, and provincial bodies of the Legion came to exercise control over the centre, which had been weakened by the arrests. As the political establishment's main branches welcomed the news of Codreanu's sentencing, the Iron Guard organized a retaliation attack targeting the National Peasant Party's Virgil Madgearu, who had become known for expressing his opposition to the movement's extremism (Madgearu managed to escape the violence unharmed).
Codreanu was moved from Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly communicate with his family and subordinates. At the time, he rejected all possibility of an escape, and ordered the Legion to refrain from violent acts. A provisional leadership team was also organized, consisting of Ion Antoniu, Ion Belgae, Radu Mironovici, Iordache Nicoara, and Horia Sima. However, the provisional leadership, against Codreanu's wishes, announced that he was faring badly in prison and threatened further retaliation, to the point where the prison staff increased security as a means to prevent a potential break-in.
In the autumn, following the successful Nazi German expansion into Central Europe which seemed to provide momentum for the Guard, and even moreso the international context provided by the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award, its clandestine leadership grew confident and published manifestos threatening King Carol. Those members of the Iron Guard who escaped persecurtion or were omitted in the first place started a violent campaign throughout Romania, meant to coincide with Carol's visit to Hitler at the Berghof, as a way to prevent the tentative approach between Romania and Nazi Germany; confident that Hitler was not determined on supporting the Legion, and irritated by the incidents, Carol ordered the decapitation of the movement.
On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison.Ornea, p.320-321; Sedgwick, p.115; Veiga, p.257 Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic"; British historian James Mayall saw the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favoured by other leaders of far-right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini.Payne, p.117 Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far-rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who states the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of "omul nou", although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fibre.
According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, the violent killing of Codreanu only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [sic, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
Under the leadership of Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power for a five-month period in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionnaires to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were then detained in the same prison. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see: Jilava Massacre). The resulting widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany: Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested and deported to the Bărăgan, where she grew close to women aviators of the Blue Squadron. She also met and married Barbu Praporgescu (son of General David Praporgescu), moving in with him in Bucharest after their liberation. Widowed for a second time, she spent her final years with her relatives in Moldavia.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the Legionnaires' Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in conflicts and infighting within the Legion and its contemporary successors: many "Codrenist" Legionnaires claim to obey Codreanu and his father Ion Zelea, but not Sima, while, at the same time, the "Simist" faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration in carrying out violent acts.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in Italy. His views and style were attested to have influenced the controversial Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of Nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to Italian Fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his Edizioni di Ar, while their follower Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick Neo-Nazi movement known as Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on Russian politician Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right Russian National Unity.
After the Romanian Revolution toppled the communist regime, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived Mișcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its Timișoara-based mouthpiece, the journal Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy.Final Report, p.365 Among the latter is Noua Dreaptă, which depicts Codreanu as a spiritual figure, often with attributes equivalent to those of a Romanian Orthodox saint. Each year around November 30, these diverse groups have been known to reunite in Tâncăbești, where they organize festivities to commemorate Codreanu's death. Mediafax, "Zelea Codreanu, comemorat de legionari", in Adevărul, November 28, 2005; retrieved February 11, 2008
In the early 2000s, Gigi Becali, a Romanian businessman, owner of the Steaua București football club, and leader of the right-wing New Generation Party, stated that he admired Codreanu and made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I shall make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky".Michael Shafir, "Profile: Gigi Becali", at Radio Free Europe, OMRI Daily Digest, December 13, 2004; retrieved February 11, 2008 The statement, used by Becali during the 2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs and was found in a much-publicized homage sent by Ion Moța to his Captain in 1937; it is also said to have been used by Codreanu himself.Tismăneanu, p.255 As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse. However, the Central Electoral Bureau rejected complaints against Becali, ruling that the slogan was not "identical" to the Legionary one. During the same period, Becali, speaking live in front of Oglinda Television cameras, called for Codreanu to be canonized. The station was fined 50 million lei by the National Audiovisual Council (around $1,223 USD in 2004).
In a poll of the Romanian public conducted by Romanian Television in 2006, Codreanu was voted 22nd among the 100 Greatest Romanians, coming in between Steaua footballer Mirel Rădoi at 21 and the interwar democratic politician Nicolae Titulescu at 23.
Cultural references
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are Vasile Marin's Crez de Generație ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roșu's Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937. After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout Prezent! ("Present!").Cioroianu, p.435 His personality cult was reflected in Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of October 6, 1940. Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime a generation later, it is possible that, in its final stage under Nicolae Ceaușescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration. The post-communist Noua Dreaptă, which publicizes portraits of Codreanu in the form of Orthodox icons, often makes use of such representation in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the Celtic cross.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Țopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ" Zalmoxis, the 15th century Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader Horea. Thus, in 1937, sociologist Ernest Bernea had authored Cartea căpitanilor ("The Book of Captains"), where the preferred comparison was between Codreanu, Horea, and Horea's 19th century counterparts Tudor Vladimirescu and Avram Iancu. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Other tribute pieces in various media came from other radical intellectuals of the period: Eliade, brothers Arșavir and Haig Acterian, Traian Brăileanu, Nichifor Crainic, N. Crevedia, Radu Gyr, Traian Herseni, Nae Ionescu, Constantin Noica, Petre P. Panaitescu, and Marietta Sadova.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his resurrection. In contrast, Codreanu's schoolmate Petre Pandrea, who spent part of his life as a Romanian Communist Party affiliate, left an unflattering memoir of their encounters, used as a preferential source in texts on Codreanu published during the communist period. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the leftist poet Tudor Arghezi is thought by some to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his poem version of the Făt-Frumos stories. Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became a notorious topic of outrage, was indicated by his disciple Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu. This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics Matei Călinescu and Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too-little evidence to support it. The neofascist Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected by Călinescu.
Notes
References
Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004.
Zeev Barbu, "Romania: The Iron Guard", in Aristotle A. Kallis (ed.), The Fascism Reader, Routledge, London, 2003, p. 195–201.
Ruth Benedict, "The History as It Appears to Rumanians", in Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (eds.), The Study of Culture at a Distance, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, 2000, p. 449–459.
Lucian Boia, Istorie și mit în conștiința românească, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1997.
William Brustein, Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003.
Christopher Catherwood, Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2002.
Adrian Cioroianu, , Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005.
Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
Renzo De Felice, Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, 1976.
Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983.
James Mayall, "Fascism and Racism", in Terence Ball (ed.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 123–150.
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Editura Fundației Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
Stanley G. Payne, Fascism, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980.
Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidenta se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Ioan Scurtu, "De la bomba din Senat la atentatul din Gara Sinaia", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press US, New York, 2004.
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iași, 2005.
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului , Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
Further reading
Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1970
Codreanu, For My Legionaries''
External links
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, A Few Remarks on Democracy, at the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies
Biography of Codreanu at Olokaustos.org
Codreanu's letter to Iorga, at the University of Bucharest
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Christian conspiracy theorists | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
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[
"Steve Irwin",
"Reactions"
]
| C_6ed6457521874ff682b7eea770f88e55_0 | What reactions does the article mean? | 1 | What reactions does the article mean in regards to Steve Irwin? | Steve Irwin | News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world. Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." Queensland's then-Premier Peter Beattie remarked that Irwin would "be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian". The Australian federal parliament opened on 5 September 2006 with condolence speeches by both Howard and the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. Flags at the Sydney Harbour Bridge were lowered to half mast in honour of Irwin. In the days following Irwin's death, reactions dominated Australian online news sources, talk-back radio programmes, and television networks. In the United States, where Irwin had appeared in over 200 Discovery Network television programmes, special tributes appeared on the Animal Planet channel, as well as on CNN and major TV talk shows. Thousands of Irwin's fans visited Australia Zoo after his death, paying their respects and bringing flowers, candles, stuffed animals and messages of support. Criticism of Irwin's career following his death came from Dan Mathews, vice-president of the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Comparing Irwin to a "cheap reality TV star", Mathews accused him of "antagonising frightened wild animals ... a very dangerous message to send to children", contrasted his methods with the behaviour of "a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau", and said it was "no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal." The son of Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau--also a producer of wildlife documentaries--took issue with Irwin's "very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things" and suggested instead that "You don't touch nature, you just look at it." Jacques Cousteau's grandson and Jean-Michel's nephew, Philippe Cousteau Jr., on the other hand, called Irwin "a remarkable individual"; describing the Ocean's Deadliest project (on which he worked along with Irwin), Philippe said, "I think why Steve was so excited about it that we were looking at these animals that people think of as, you know, dangerous and deadly monsters, and they're not. They all have an important place in the environment and in the world. And that was what his whole message was about." In the weeks following Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the beaches of Queensland, with their tails cut off, prompting speculation as to whether they might have been killed by fans of Irwin as an act of revenge, although, according to the chairman of the Queensland fishing information service, anglers regularly cut the tails off of accidentally caught stingrays to avoid being stung. Michael Hornby, a friend of Irwin and executive director of his Wildlife Warrior fund, condemned any revenge killings, saying that "We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who's taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want." CANNOTANSWER | News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world. | Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife expert and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles and was educated on them by his father Bob. He achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter (1996–2007), an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series that he co-hosted with his wife Terri. The couple also hosted the series Croc Files (1999–2001), The Crocodile Hunter Diaries (2002–2006), and New Breed Vets (2005). They also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin's parents in Beerwah, about north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane. They had two children, Bindi and Robert.
In 2006, while filming a documentary in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Irwin died after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray. His death became international news and was met with expressions of shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organizations. Numerous parks, zoos, and streets, the vessel MY Steve Irwin, the snail species Crikey steveirwini, and the asteroid have been named in his honour. He is survived by Terri and their two children, who continue to operate Australia Zoo.
Early life
Irwin was born on his mother's 20th birthday to Lyn (Hakainsson) and Bob Irwin in Upper Ferntree Gully, a suburb of Melbourne. His parents were both of English and Irish descent, with some Swedish on his mother's side. He moved with his parents as a child to Queensland in 1970, where he attended Landsborough State School and Caloundra State High School. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert interested in herpetology, while his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, Bob and Lyn Irwin started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.
Irwin became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday, he was given a scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age. Also at age nine, he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision. He worked as a volunteer for Queensland's East Coast Crocodile Management program and captured over 100 crocodiles, some of which were relocated, while others were housed at the family park. Irwin took over the management of the park in 1991 and renamed it Australia Zoo in 1998.
Career
The Crocodile Hunter and related work
Steve and his wife Terri spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles together. Film footage of their honeymoon, taken by John Stainton, became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series debuted on Australian TV screens in 1996 and made its way onto North American television the following year. The Crocodile Hunter became successful in the United States, the UK, and over 130 other countries, reaching 500 million people. Irwin's exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, signature khaki shorts, and catchphrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide. Sir David Attenborough praised Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was. He was a born communicator."
American satellite and cable television channel Animal Planet ended The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale titled "Steve's Last Adventure." The last Crocodile Hunter documentary spanned three hours with footage of Irwin's across-the-world adventure in locations including the Himalayas, the Yangtze River, Borneo, and the Kruger National Park.
After The Crocodile Hunter, Irwin went on to star in other Animal Planet documentaries, including Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries and New Breed Vets. Animal Planet also created the annual Croc Week marathon, which lasted a full week in the middle of June, every year from 2000 to 2007. During a January 2006 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Irwin announced that Discovery Kids would be developing a show for his daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin – a plan realized after his death as the series Bindi the Jungle Girl.
Other television and film work
In 1998, Irwin continued his television career, working with director Mark Strickson to present The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. He appeared on several episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A 2000 FedEx commercial with Irwin lightheartedly dealt with the possibility of occupational death from snakebite and the fanciful notion that FedEx would have saved him, if only FedEx were used.
Under Irwin's leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation (later renamed Wildlife Warriors), and the International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to the Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and Tiger Temple. Irwin mentioned that he was considering opening an Australia Zoo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and possibly at other sites around the world.
In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2, in which an alligator warns Dolittle that he knows Irwin is going to grab him and is prepared to attack when he does, but Dolittle fails to warn Irwin in time. Irwin's only starring feature film role was in 2002's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which was released to mixed reviews. In the film, Irwin (who portrayed himself and performed numerous stunts) mistakes some CIA agents for poachers. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, which, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking transmitter. The film won the Best Family Feature Film award for a comedy film at the Young Artist Awards. The film was produced on a budget of about US$12 million, and has grossed $33 million. To promote the film, Irwin was featured in an animated short produced by Animax Entertainment for Intermix.
In 2002, Irwin and his family appeared in the Wiggles video/DVD release Wiggly Safari, which was set in Australia Zoo and featured singing and dancing inspired by Australian wildlife. Irwin fronted an advertising campaign for The Ghan in 2003, a passenger train operating between Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin. A Pacific National NR class locomotive was named Steve Irwin as part of the campaign.
Environmentalism
Irwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: "I consider myself a wildlife warrior. My mission is to save the world's endangered species." Irwin bought "large tracts of land" in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as "like national parks" and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.
Irwin founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, which became an independent charity and was later renamed "Wildlife Warriors Worldwide". He also helped found International Crocodile Rescue, the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund (named in memory of his mother, who died in an automobile crash in 2000), and the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility.
Irwin urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells or shark-fin soup.
Sir David Attenborough was an inspiration to Irwin, according to his widow. When presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Attenborough after Irwin's death at the British National Television Awards on 31 October 2006, Terri Irwin said, "If there's one person who directly inspired my husband it's the person being honoured tonight.... [Steve's] real, true love was conservation – and the influence of tonight's recipient in preserving the natural world has been immense." Attenborough reciprocated by praising Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying, "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was, he was a born communicator."
Sporting activities
Irwin loved mixed martial arts competitions and trained with Greg Jackson in the fighting/grappling system of Gaidojutsu.
Like many Australians, he was an avid cricket fan. This was seen during his visit to Sri Lanka where he played cricket with some local children and said "I love cricket" and "It's a shame we have to go catch some snakes now". This was seen during the Crocodile Hunter episode "Island of the Snakes".
Having grown up in Essendon, Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League. Irwin took part in an Australian Rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of "Australia Week" in early 2006. After his death, a picture of Irwin wearing a Bombers guernsey was shown by ESPN.com in their Bottom 10 ranking of the worst Division I FBS college football teams after Week 1 of the season in tribute to him.
Having lived in Queensland most of his life, Irwin was also a fan of rugby league. As a teenager, he played for the Caloundra Sharks as a second-rower, and as an adult he was known to be a passionate Brisbane Broncos fan and was involved with the club on several occasions. On one occasion after turning up to training he asked if he could tackle the largest player, Shane Webcke. Despite being thrown to the ground and looking like he'd been crushed he was jovial about the experience. Irwin laughingly shared the experience with the Queensland State of Origin squad before the 2006 series. Irwin also supported rugby union, being a fan of the national team, the Wallabies. He once wore a Wallaby jersey during a demonstration at the zoo. A behind-the-scenes episode of The Crocodile Hunter showed Irwin and the crew finding a petrol station in a remote part of Namibia to watch the Wallabies defeat France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
Irwin was also a talented surfer.
Media campaigns
Irwin was involved in several media campaigns. He enthusiastically joined with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to promote Australia's strict quarantine/customs requirements, with advertisements and posters featuring slogans such as, "Quarantine Matters! Don't muck with it". His payments for these advertising campaigns were directed into his wildlife fund.
In 2004, Irwin was appointed ambassador for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback, when the line was extended all the way to Darwin on the northern coast that year. For some time he was sponsored by Toyota.
Irwin was a keen promoter for Australian tourism in general and Queensland tourism in particular. In 2002, the Australia Zoo was voted Queensland's top tourist attraction. His immense popularity in the United States meant he often promoted Australia as a tourist destination there. As a part of the United States' "Australia Week" celebrations in January 2006, Irwin appeared at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.
Search and rescue in Mexico
In November 2003, Irwin was filming a documentary on sea lions off the coast of Baja California Peninsula in Mexico when he heard via his boat's radio that two scuba divers were reported missing in the area. Irwin and his entire crew suspended operations to aid in the search. His team's divers searched with the rescue divers, and Irwin used his vessel to patrol the waters around the island where the incident occurred, as well as using his satellite communications system to call in a rescue plane. On the second day of the search, kayakers found one of the divers, Scott Jones, perched on a narrow rock ledge jutting out from the side of a cliff. Irwin and a crew member escorted him to Irwin's boat. The other lost diver, Katie Vrooman, was found dead by a search plane later the same day not far from Jones' location.
Personal life
Marriage and family
In 1991, Irwin met Terri Raines, an American naturalist from Eugene, Oregon, who was visiting wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Australia and had decided to visit the zoo. According to the couple, it was love at first sight. Terri said at the time, "I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy." They were engaged four months later and were married in Eugene on 4 June 1992. Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence Irwin (born 1 December 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin's favourite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Robert is named after Irwin's father Bob and Terri's father Clarence.
Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as "the reason [he] was put on the Earth." His wife once said, "The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more." Although the Irwins were happily married, they did not wear wedding rings; they believed that in their line of work, wearing jewellery could pose a hazard to them and/or the animals. Irwin frequently stated that if he was to be remembered for anything, he hoped that it was for being a good dad.
On 11 February 2000, Steve's mother Lyn was killed in a single-vehicle accident. In an online tribute, Steve called her "the most beautiful, loving, nurturing, and caring person to have ever blessed this world."
Death and funeral
Irwin died on 4 September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in the Great Barrier Reef with Philippe Cousteau Jr. The stinger penetrated his thoracic wall, causing massive trauma. He was at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, taking part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest. Irwin's death is believed to be the only fatality from a stingray captured on video. His death was met with shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organisations.
A private funeral service took place on 9 September 2006. Irwin was buried in a private ceremony at Australia Zoo later that same day. A public memorial service was held in Australia Zoo's 5,500-seat Crocoseum on 30 September 2006; this service was broadcast live and it is estimated to have been seen by over 300 million viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Posthumous movie and television appearances
Irwin provided his voice for the 2006 animated film Happy Feet, as an elephant seal named Trev. The film was dedicated to Irwin, as he died during post-production. Another, previously incomplete scene, featuring Irwin providing the voice of an albatross and essentially playing himself, was restored to the DVD release.
In 2007, a special episode of The Crocodile Hunter was made in tribute to him; Crikey! What an Adventure: An Intimate Look at the Life of Steve Irwin. The documentary features archive footage from The Crocodile Hunter. Later that year, Bindi released the documentary My Daddy, the Crocodile Hunter in Steve's memory. Steve also appears in several episodes of Bindi the Jungle Girl via archive footage.
Most recently, archive footage of Irwin has been used in the television series Crikey! It's the Irwins, which began airing in 2018.
Steve Irwin Day
Steve Irwin Day is an annual event on November 15, honouring the life and legacy of Irwin. The date was chosen because it takes place on the birthday of one of Irwin's favourite animals, a tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. Events that take place include people raising money for Wildlife Warriors to help continue Irwin's conservation work, and employees at Australia Zoo wearing khaki uniforms in Irwin's memory.
Honours
In 1997, while on a fishing trip on the coast of Queensland with his father, Irwin discovered a new species of turtle. Later given the honour of naming the newly discovered species, he named it Irwin's turtle (Elseya irwini) after his family. Another newly discovered Australian animal – a species of air-breathing land snail, Crikey steveirwini, was named after Irwin in 2009.
Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian government in 2001 for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism". In 2004, he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year. He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year but it was awarded to Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, while Irwin was named 2004 Queensland Australian of the Year. Shortly before his death, Irwin was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology. On 14 November 2007, Irwin was awarded the adjunct professorship posthumously. In 2007, Irwin was posthumously inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.
In May 2007, the government of Rwanda announced that it would name a baby gorilla after Irwin as a tribute to his work in wildlife conservation. Also in 2007, the state government of Kerala, India named the Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre at Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary in his honour; however, Terri objected that this action had been taken without her permission and asked the Kerala government in 2009 to stop using Irwin's name and images – a request with which the state government complied in mid-2009.
Irwin, after his death, was described by Mark Townend, CEO of RSPCA Queensland, as a "modern-day Noah." British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki paid tribute to Irwin, noting that "[h]umanity will not protect that which we fear or do not understand. Steve Irwin helped us understand those things that many people thought were a nuisance at best, a horror at worst. That made him a great educator and conservationist."
After his death, the vessel owned by the environmental action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was renamed . Shortly before his death, Irwin had been investigating joining Sea Shepherd's 2007–2008 voyage to Antarctica to disrupt Japanese whaling activity. Following his death, the organisation suggested renaming their vessel, and this idea was endorsed by Terri. Regarding the ship and its new name, Terri said, "If Steve were alive, he'd be aboard with them!"
Irwin was inducted in 2009 into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, recognised for international entrepreneurship both in business and wildlife conservation, significantly contributing to Queensland and its international reputation and in 2015, Irwin was a posthumous recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. In 2017 it was announced that Irwin would be posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was unveiled on 26 April 2018. On 22 February 2019, the 57th anniversary of Irwin's birth, the search engine Google released a Google Doodle commemorating him, in the form of a slideshow.
Controversies
On 2 January 2004, Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Robert, in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window. In addition, some child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Irwin apologised on the US NBC show Today. Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son was in any danger. He also showed footage of the event shot from a different angle, demonstrating that they were much farther from the crocodile than they had appeared in the publicised clip. Terri said their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action. The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.
In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming the Crocodile Hunter episode Ice Breaker in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being laid.
After questions arose in 2003 about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he was a conservationist and did not choose sides in politics. His comments describing Australian Prime Minister John Howard as the "greatest leader in the world" earned him scorn in the media.
In response to questions of Australia's problems with overgrazing, salinity, and erosion, Irwin responded: "Cows have been on our land for so long that Australia has evolved to handle those big animals." The Sydney Morning Herald concluded with the opinion that his message was confusing and amounted to "eating roos and crocs is bad for tourism, and therefore more cruel than eating other animals".
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
Profile at Australia Zoo
Ocean Treasures Memorial Library/Steve Irwin Memorial
1962 births
2006 deaths
Accidental deaths in Queensland
Australian conservationists
Australian herpetologists
Australian male voice actors
Australian naturalists
Australian people of English descent
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Swedish descent
Australian television presenters
Burials in Queensland
Deaths due to fish attacks
Filmed accidental deaths
Filmed deaths of entertainers
Steve
Logie Award winners
People from Queensland
Q150 Icons
Queensland Greats
Underwater diving deaths
Zoo owners
Discovery Channel people
20th-century Australian zoologists
20th-century naturalists | false | [
"What Does Anything Mean? Basically is the second studio album by English post-punk band the Chameleons. It was recorded in January 1985 and released 20 May 1985 by record label Statik.\n\nOne single was released from the album: \"Singing Rule Britannia (While the Walls Close In)\".\n\nRecording \nWhat Does Anything Mean? Basically was recorded in January 1985 at Highland Studios in Inverness, Scotland.\n\nRelease \nThe album's sole single, \"Singing Rule Britannia (While the Walls Close In)\", was released on 1 August 1985. This song used uncredited Lennon-McCartney lyrics, with the final passage of the song quoting key lyrics of the Beatles song \"She Said, She Said\".\n\nWhat Does Anything Mean? Basically was released 20 May 1985 on record label Statik.\n\nReception \n\nWhat Does Anything Mean? Basically has been generally well received by critics.\n\nIn his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic called it \"[a] rarity of sophomore albums, something that at once made the band all the more unique in its sound while avoiding a repetition of earlier work. [...] an astounding record.\" Trouser Press called it \"even better\" than Script of the Bridge, \"with much stronger production underscoring both the band's direct power and the ghostly atmospherics of its icy church keyboards and delay-ridden guitars\".\n\nChris Jenkins, in the book The Rough Guide to Rock, however, called it \"as half-baked as its title\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \n The Chameleons\n\n Mark Burgess – vocals, bass guitar, strings, production\n Dave Fielding – guitar, ARP String Ensemble, production\n Reg Smithies – guitar, acoustic guitar, album cover illustration, production\n John Lever – drums, production\n\n Technical\n\n Colin Richardson – production\n Ian Caple – engineering\n Martin Kay – sleeve design\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1985 albums\nThe Chameleons albums\nAlbums produced by Colin Richardson",
"This article documents the chronology of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2022, which originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Some developments may become known or fully understood only in retrospect. Reporting on this pandemic began in December 2019.\n\nReactions and measures in the United Nations\n\nReactions and measures in Africa\n\nReactions and measures in the Americas\n\nReactions and measures in the Eastern Mediterranean\n\nReactions and measures in Europe\n\nReactions and measures in South, East and Southeast Asia\n\nReactions and measures in the Western Pacific\n\nSee also \n\n Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2022\n Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic\n\nReferences"
]
|
[
"Steve Irwin",
"Reactions",
"What reactions does the article mean?",
"News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world."
]
| C_6ed6457521874ff682b7eea770f88e55_0 | How did people react? | 2 | How did people react to news of Steve Irwin's death? | Steve Irwin | News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world. Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." Queensland's then-Premier Peter Beattie remarked that Irwin would "be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian". The Australian federal parliament opened on 5 September 2006 with condolence speeches by both Howard and the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. Flags at the Sydney Harbour Bridge were lowered to half mast in honour of Irwin. In the days following Irwin's death, reactions dominated Australian online news sources, talk-back radio programmes, and television networks. In the United States, where Irwin had appeared in over 200 Discovery Network television programmes, special tributes appeared on the Animal Planet channel, as well as on CNN and major TV talk shows. Thousands of Irwin's fans visited Australia Zoo after his death, paying their respects and bringing flowers, candles, stuffed animals and messages of support. Criticism of Irwin's career following his death came from Dan Mathews, vice-president of the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Comparing Irwin to a "cheap reality TV star", Mathews accused him of "antagonising frightened wild animals ... a very dangerous message to send to children", contrasted his methods with the behaviour of "a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau", and said it was "no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal." The son of Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau--also a producer of wildlife documentaries--took issue with Irwin's "very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things" and suggested instead that "You don't touch nature, you just look at it." Jacques Cousteau's grandson and Jean-Michel's nephew, Philippe Cousteau Jr., on the other hand, called Irwin "a remarkable individual"; describing the Ocean's Deadliest project (on which he worked along with Irwin), Philippe said, "I think why Steve was so excited about it that we were looking at these animals that people think of as, you know, dangerous and deadly monsters, and they're not. They all have an important place in the environment and in the world. And that was what his whole message was about." In the weeks following Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the beaches of Queensland, with their tails cut off, prompting speculation as to whether they might have been killed by fans of Irwin as an act of revenge, although, according to the chairman of the Queensland fishing information service, anglers regularly cut the tails off of accidentally caught stingrays to avoid being stung. Michael Hornby, a friend of Irwin and executive director of his Wildlife Warrior fund, condemned any revenge killings, saying that "We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who's taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want." CANNOTANSWER | Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." | Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife expert and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles and was educated on them by his father Bob. He achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter (1996–2007), an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series that he co-hosted with his wife Terri. The couple also hosted the series Croc Files (1999–2001), The Crocodile Hunter Diaries (2002–2006), and New Breed Vets (2005). They also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin's parents in Beerwah, about north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane. They had two children, Bindi and Robert.
In 2006, while filming a documentary in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Irwin died after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray. His death became international news and was met with expressions of shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organizations. Numerous parks, zoos, and streets, the vessel MY Steve Irwin, the snail species Crikey steveirwini, and the asteroid have been named in his honour. He is survived by Terri and their two children, who continue to operate Australia Zoo.
Early life
Irwin was born on his mother's 20th birthday to Lyn (Hakainsson) and Bob Irwin in Upper Ferntree Gully, a suburb of Melbourne. His parents were both of English and Irish descent, with some Swedish on his mother's side. He moved with his parents as a child to Queensland in 1970, where he attended Landsborough State School and Caloundra State High School. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert interested in herpetology, while his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, Bob and Lyn Irwin started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.
Irwin became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday, he was given a scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age. Also at age nine, he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision. He worked as a volunteer for Queensland's East Coast Crocodile Management program and captured over 100 crocodiles, some of which were relocated, while others were housed at the family park. Irwin took over the management of the park in 1991 and renamed it Australia Zoo in 1998.
Career
The Crocodile Hunter and related work
Steve and his wife Terri spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles together. Film footage of their honeymoon, taken by John Stainton, became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series debuted on Australian TV screens in 1996 and made its way onto North American television the following year. The Crocodile Hunter became successful in the United States, the UK, and over 130 other countries, reaching 500 million people. Irwin's exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, signature khaki shorts, and catchphrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide. Sir David Attenborough praised Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was. He was a born communicator."
American satellite and cable television channel Animal Planet ended The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale titled "Steve's Last Adventure." The last Crocodile Hunter documentary spanned three hours with footage of Irwin's across-the-world adventure in locations including the Himalayas, the Yangtze River, Borneo, and the Kruger National Park.
After The Crocodile Hunter, Irwin went on to star in other Animal Planet documentaries, including Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries and New Breed Vets. Animal Planet also created the annual Croc Week marathon, which lasted a full week in the middle of June, every year from 2000 to 2007. During a January 2006 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Irwin announced that Discovery Kids would be developing a show for his daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin – a plan realized after his death as the series Bindi the Jungle Girl.
Other television and film work
In 1998, Irwin continued his television career, working with director Mark Strickson to present The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. He appeared on several episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A 2000 FedEx commercial with Irwin lightheartedly dealt with the possibility of occupational death from snakebite and the fanciful notion that FedEx would have saved him, if only FedEx were used.
Under Irwin's leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation (later renamed Wildlife Warriors), and the International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to the Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and Tiger Temple. Irwin mentioned that he was considering opening an Australia Zoo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and possibly at other sites around the world.
In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2, in which an alligator warns Dolittle that he knows Irwin is going to grab him and is prepared to attack when he does, but Dolittle fails to warn Irwin in time. Irwin's only starring feature film role was in 2002's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which was released to mixed reviews. In the film, Irwin (who portrayed himself and performed numerous stunts) mistakes some CIA agents for poachers. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, which, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking transmitter. The film won the Best Family Feature Film award for a comedy film at the Young Artist Awards. The film was produced on a budget of about US$12 million, and has grossed $33 million. To promote the film, Irwin was featured in an animated short produced by Animax Entertainment for Intermix.
In 2002, Irwin and his family appeared in the Wiggles video/DVD release Wiggly Safari, which was set in Australia Zoo and featured singing and dancing inspired by Australian wildlife. Irwin fronted an advertising campaign for The Ghan in 2003, a passenger train operating between Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin. A Pacific National NR class locomotive was named Steve Irwin as part of the campaign.
Environmentalism
Irwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: "I consider myself a wildlife warrior. My mission is to save the world's endangered species." Irwin bought "large tracts of land" in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as "like national parks" and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.
Irwin founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, which became an independent charity and was later renamed "Wildlife Warriors Worldwide". He also helped found International Crocodile Rescue, the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund (named in memory of his mother, who died in an automobile crash in 2000), and the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility.
Irwin urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells or shark-fin soup.
Sir David Attenborough was an inspiration to Irwin, according to his widow. When presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Attenborough after Irwin's death at the British National Television Awards on 31 October 2006, Terri Irwin said, "If there's one person who directly inspired my husband it's the person being honoured tonight.... [Steve's] real, true love was conservation – and the influence of tonight's recipient in preserving the natural world has been immense." Attenborough reciprocated by praising Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying, "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was, he was a born communicator."
Sporting activities
Irwin loved mixed martial arts competitions and trained with Greg Jackson in the fighting/grappling system of Gaidojutsu.
Like many Australians, he was an avid cricket fan. This was seen during his visit to Sri Lanka where he played cricket with some local children and said "I love cricket" and "It's a shame we have to go catch some snakes now". This was seen during the Crocodile Hunter episode "Island of the Snakes".
Having grown up in Essendon, Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League. Irwin took part in an Australian Rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of "Australia Week" in early 2006. After his death, a picture of Irwin wearing a Bombers guernsey was shown by ESPN.com in their Bottom 10 ranking of the worst Division I FBS college football teams after Week 1 of the season in tribute to him.
Having lived in Queensland most of his life, Irwin was also a fan of rugby league. As a teenager, he played for the Caloundra Sharks as a second-rower, and as an adult he was known to be a passionate Brisbane Broncos fan and was involved with the club on several occasions. On one occasion after turning up to training he asked if he could tackle the largest player, Shane Webcke. Despite being thrown to the ground and looking like he'd been crushed he was jovial about the experience. Irwin laughingly shared the experience with the Queensland State of Origin squad before the 2006 series. Irwin also supported rugby union, being a fan of the national team, the Wallabies. He once wore a Wallaby jersey during a demonstration at the zoo. A behind-the-scenes episode of The Crocodile Hunter showed Irwin and the crew finding a petrol station in a remote part of Namibia to watch the Wallabies defeat France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
Irwin was also a talented surfer.
Media campaigns
Irwin was involved in several media campaigns. He enthusiastically joined with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to promote Australia's strict quarantine/customs requirements, with advertisements and posters featuring slogans such as, "Quarantine Matters! Don't muck with it". His payments for these advertising campaigns were directed into his wildlife fund.
In 2004, Irwin was appointed ambassador for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback, when the line was extended all the way to Darwin on the northern coast that year. For some time he was sponsored by Toyota.
Irwin was a keen promoter for Australian tourism in general and Queensland tourism in particular. In 2002, the Australia Zoo was voted Queensland's top tourist attraction. His immense popularity in the United States meant he often promoted Australia as a tourist destination there. As a part of the United States' "Australia Week" celebrations in January 2006, Irwin appeared at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.
Search and rescue in Mexico
In November 2003, Irwin was filming a documentary on sea lions off the coast of Baja California Peninsula in Mexico when he heard via his boat's radio that two scuba divers were reported missing in the area. Irwin and his entire crew suspended operations to aid in the search. His team's divers searched with the rescue divers, and Irwin used his vessel to patrol the waters around the island where the incident occurred, as well as using his satellite communications system to call in a rescue plane. On the second day of the search, kayakers found one of the divers, Scott Jones, perched on a narrow rock ledge jutting out from the side of a cliff. Irwin and a crew member escorted him to Irwin's boat. The other lost diver, Katie Vrooman, was found dead by a search plane later the same day not far from Jones' location.
Personal life
Marriage and family
In 1991, Irwin met Terri Raines, an American naturalist from Eugene, Oregon, who was visiting wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Australia and had decided to visit the zoo. According to the couple, it was love at first sight. Terri said at the time, "I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy." They were engaged four months later and were married in Eugene on 4 June 1992. Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence Irwin (born 1 December 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin's favourite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Robert is named after Irwin's father Bob and Terri's father Clarence.
Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as "the reason [he] was put on the Earth." His wife once said, "The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more." Although the Irwins were happily married, they did not wear wedding rings; they believed that in their line of work, wearing jewellery could pose a hazard to them and/or the animals. Irwin frequently stated that if he was to be remembered for anything, he hoped that it was for being a good dad.
On 11 February 2000, Steve's mother Lyn was killed in a single-vehicle accident. In an online tribute, Steve called her "the most beautiful, loving, nurturing, and caring person to have ever blessed this world."
Death and funeral
Irwin died on 4 September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in the Great Barrier Reef with Philippe Cousteau Jr. The stinger penetrated his thoracic wall, causing massive trauma. He was at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, taking part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest. Irwin's death is believed to be the only fatality from a stingray captured on video. His death was met with shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organisations.
A private funeral service took place on 9 September 2006. Irwin was buried in a private ceremony at Australia Zoo later that same day. A public memorial service was held in Australia Zoo's 5,500-seat Crocoseum on 30 September 2006; this service was broadcast live and it is estimated to have been seen by over 300 million viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Posthumous movie and television appearances
Irwin provided his voice for the 2006 animated film Happy Feet, as an elephant seal named Trev. The film was dedicated to Irwin, as he died during post-production. Another, previously incomplete scene, featuring Irwin providing the voice of an albatross and essentially playing himself, was restored to the DVD release.
In 2007, a special episode of The Crocodile Hunter was made in tribute to him; Crikey! What an Adventure: An Intimate Look at the Life of Steve Irwin. The documentary features archive footage from The Crocodile Hunter. Later that year, Bindi released the documentary My Daddy, the Crocodile Hunter in Steve's memory. Steve also appears in several episodes of Bindi the Jungle Girl via archive footage.
Most recently, archive footage of Irwin has been used in the television series Crikey! It's the Irwins, which began airing in 2018.
Steve Irwin Day
Steve Irwin Day is an annual event on November 15, honouring the life and legacy of Irwin. The date was chosen because it takes place on the birthday of one of Irwin's favourite animals, a tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. Events that take place include people raising money for Wildlife Warriors to help continue Irwin's conservation work, and employees at Australia Zoo wearing khaki uniforms in Irwin's memory.
Honours
In 1997, while on a fishing trip on the coast of Queensland with his father, Irwin discovered a new species of turtle. Later given the honour of naming the newly discovered species, he named it Irwin's turtle (Elseya irwini) after his family. Another newly discovered Australian animal – a species of air-breathing land snail, Crikey steveirwini, was named after Irwin in 2009.
Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian government in 2001 for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism". In 2004, he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year. He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year but it was awarded to Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, while Irwin was named 2004 Queensland Australian of the Year. Shortly before his death, Irwin was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology. On 14 November 2007, Irwin was awarded the adjunct professorship posthumously. In 2007, Irwin was posthumously inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.
In May 2007, the government of Rwanda announced that it would name a baby gorilla after Irwin as a tribute to his work in wildlife conservation. Also in 2007, the state government of Kerala, India named the Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre at Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary in his honour; however, Terri objected that this action had been taken without her permission and asked the Kerala government in 2009 to stop using Irwin's name and images – a request with which the state government complied in mid-2009.
Irwin, after his death, was described by Mark Townend, CEO of RSPCA Queensland, as a "modern-day Noah." British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki paid tribute to Irwin, noting that "[h]umanity will not protect that which we fear or do not understand. Steve Irwin helped us understand those things that many people thought were a nuisance at best, a horror at worst. That made him a great educator and conservationist."
After his death, the vessel owned by the environmental action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was renamed . Shortly before his death, Irwin had been investigating joining Sea Shepherd's 2007–2008 voyage to Antarctica to disrupt Japanese whaling activity. Following his death, the organisation suggested renaming their vessel, and this idea was endorsed by Terri. Regarding the ship and its new name, Terri said, "If Steve were alive, he'd be aboard with them!"
Irwin was inducted in 2009 into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, recognised for international entrepreneurship both in business and wildlife conservation, significantly contributing to Queensland and its international reputation and in 2015, Irwin was a posthumous recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. In 2017 it was announced that Irwin would be posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was unveiled on 26 April 2018. On 22 February 2019, the 57th anniversary of Irwin's birth, the search engine Google released a Google Doodle commemorating him, in the form of a slideshow.
Controversies
On 2 January 2004, Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Robert, in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window. In addition, some child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Irwin apologised on the US NBC show Today. Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son was in any danger. He also showed footage of the event shot from a different angle, demonstrating that they were much farther from the crocodile than they had appeared in the publicised clip. Terri said their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action. The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.
In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming the Crocodile Hunter episode Ice Breaker in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being laid.
After questions arose in 2003 about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he was a conservationist and did not choose sides in politics. His comments describing Australian Prime Minister John Howard as the "greatest leader in the world" earned him scorn in the media.
In response to questions of Australia's problems with overgrazing, salinity, and erosion, Irwin responded: "Cows have been on our land for so long that Australia has evolved to handle those big animals." The Sydney Morning Herald concluded with the opinion that his message was confusing and amounted to "eating roos and crocs is bad for tourism, and therefore more cruel than eating other animals".
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
Profile at Australia Zoo
Ocean Treasures Memorial Library/Steve Irwin Memorial
1962 births
2006 deaths
Accidental deaths in Queensland
Australian conservationists
Australian herpetologists
Australian male voice actors
Australian naturalists
Australian people of English descent
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Swedish descent
Australian television presenters
Burials in Queensland
Deaths due to fish attacks
Filmed accidental deaths
Filmed deaths of entertainers
Steve
Logie Award winners
People from Queensland
Q150 Icons
Queensland Greats
Underwater diving deaths
Zoo owners
Discovery Channel people
20th-century Australian zoologists
20th-century naturalists | false | [
"React is a media franchise used by the Fine Brothers consisting of several online series centering on a group of individuals reacting to viral videos, trends, video games, film trailers, or music videos. The franchise was launched with the YouTube debut of Kids React in October 2010, and then grew to encompass four more series uploaded on the Fine Brothers' primary YouTube channel, a separate YouTube channel with various reaction-related content, as well as a television series titled React to That.\n\nIn 2016, the duo announced React World, a program and channel in which they would license the format of their React shows to creators, which led to widespread negative reception from viewers and fellow content creators, as well as confusion about what their format is. This eventually lead to the Fine Brothers removing all videos related to React World, essentially pulling the plug on the React World program.\n\nYouTube series\n\nKids React\nBenny and Rafi Fine launched a series titled Kids React on October 16, 2010, the first video being \"Kids React to Viral Videos (Double Rainbow, Obama Fail, Twin Rabbits, Snickers Halloween)\". The Kids React series features The Fine Brothers (and one of the staff members since 2016), off-camera, showing kids ages 4–14 (7-13 as of September 2016, 7-11 as of October 2016) several viral videos or popular YouTubers and having the kids react to the videos.\n\nThe most popular Kids React episode to date is “Kids React to Gay Marriage\", with over 40.2 million views as of September 2, 2018. The popularity of Kids React made it possible for the online series to win a special Emmy Award at the 39th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2012. The Emmy Award, that was given in cooperation with AOL, was awarded to the Fine Brothers for \"Best Viral Video Series\". After their Emmy win, the brothers explained, \"Not a lot has changed [after winning the Emmy] other than realizing that there are shows on YouTube like React that can get similar if not better viewership than mainstream entertainment can.\"\n\nVideos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to by the kids include Smosh (who later reacted to the kids' reactions), planking and President Obama addressing the death of Osama bin Laden, among several other topics. Kids React has been compared to Kids Say the Darndest Things. In October 2012, the kids of the show were shown videos of the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. Kids React won the Streamy Award for Best Non-Fiction or Reality Series in 2013.\n\nTeens React\nDue to the popularity of Kids React, The Fine Brothers spawned a spin-off dubbed Teens React on November 17, 2011 with \"TEENS REACT TO TWILIGHT\". The show has a similar premise to Kids React, however the younger stars are replaced with high school teenagers aged 14-18, some of whom have aged out of the Kids React series. Due to this, the Fine Brothers are able to show more mature and less \"kid-friendly\" videos such as videos on topics like Toddlers & Tiaras, Rick Perry's Strong commercial, Amanda Todd's death, and the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. Other viral videos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to include Salad Fingers, the Overly Attached Girlfriend, \"Gangnam Style\", The Hunger Games trailer, Shane Dawson, and One Direction, among other topics. Later on, The Fine Brothers launched a series titled Teens React: Gaming consisting videos of teenagers reacting to popular games such as Mario Kart 64, Flappy Bird, Rocket League, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Teens React launched the career of Lia Marie Johnson, it also featured some \"famous\" 'reactors' as guest stars, including Lisa Cimorelli, Amy Cimorelli, Lucas Cruikshank (who later appears in YouTubers React), Alex Steele, Jake Short, and Maisie Williams.\n\nElders React\nElders React was debuted in 2012 and it included seniors over the age of 55. In 2021, it became a subseries for Adults React.\n\nYouTubers React\nYouTubers React was debuted in 2012 and it included famous YouTubers. On November 2020, it is retitled Creators React due to the success of other social medias and is currently airing its one-off episodes as of June 2021.\n\nAdults React\nOn May 30, 2015, the Fine Brothers announced Adults React, which premiered on July 16 later that year. It consists of people ages 20 to 55, including former stars of Teens React that have aged out of the series. Depending on the video or topic, Adults React will be specific of which type of adults are going to be reacting, such as parents or college kids.\n\nParents React\n\nThe first episode of Parents React premiered on August 6, 2015 with “Parents React to Don’t Stay At School”. This series involves parents reacting to stuff that kids were getting into.\n\nCollege Kids React\nThe first episode of College Kids React premiered on June 23, 2016 with \"College Kids React to The 1975\". This series includes stars who have aged out of Teens React along with new stars, as well as stars that have not yet aged out of Teens React but have begun college. The content of College Kids React is similar to the content found in Teens React but more mature.\n\nOne-off episodes\nIn April 2014, as an April Fools joke, the Fine Brothers teamed up with Friskies and released Cats React, which went viral. In July 2016 they released another part of Cats React.\n\nIn August 2014, they released Celebrities React to Viral Videos, and now re-released yearly.\n\nIn April 2018, in another April Fools joke, they released \"Teens React to Nothing\" where they showed the teenagers on a blank screen. The following year, they released a sequel, \"nothing reacts to teens react to nothing.\", which featured the original video being played in an empty studio.\n\nReact YouTube channel\nAfter creating four individual successful React series on their primary YouTube channel, the Fine Brothers launched a separate YouTube channel in 2014, for reaction-related content, simply dubbed \"React\". With the intent of running programming five days a week, the channel launched with five series: React Gaming (a Let's Play-style series with real youths from their primary React series), Advice (a series featuring real youths respond to questions from viewers), React Remix (musical remixes of past React footage), People Vs. Foods (originally Kids Vs. Food until 2016) (a series featuring Reactors taste-test \"Weird\" or international foods), and Lyric Breakdown (a series in which Reactors break down the meaning of various songs). The channel launched with a teenage-focused playthrough of Goat Simulator.\nFrom September 18th 2020 to May 31st 2021, the React YouTube channel was retitled to \"REPLAY\", following the renaming of the main FBE channel to \"REACT\" in the wake of FBE's distancing from Benny and Rafi Fine as a consequence of the scandal in Summer 2020 that led to many reactors leaving the channel.\nOn June 1st 2021, REPLAY is retitled \"PEOPLE VS FOOD\" and moved all the non-food videos to REACT.\n\nReact to That\nIn early 2014, it was announced that the Fine Brothers made a deal with NCredible Entertainment, a production studio founded by Nick Cannon to develop a television series for Nickelodeon. The series, dubbed React to That, was \"entirely re-envisioned for television,\" as the reactors \"not only watch and respond to viral videos, but pop out of the reaction room and into showdowns where the clips come to life as each reactor is confronted with a challenge based on the video they just watched.\" Following the announcement of the series, Benny Fine explained, \"All these viewers now watching are also pioneering what it is to be a viewer of content. They follow us through all of our different endeavors, all our different series, and now will have the opportunity to follow us to another medium.\" Nickelodeon ordered 13 episodes to be produced, but only 12 were made and aired.\n\nReact World\n\nBackground\nIn July 2015, the Fine Brothers filed for trademark protection on \"React\" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The trademark was filed for \"Entertainment services, namely, providing an ongoing series of programs and webisodes via the internet in the field of observing and interviewing various groups of people.\" The USPTO approved for a 30-day opposition period which was set to begin on February 2, 2016; if no parties filed an opposition to the Fines' trademark request, it would have proceeded through the process. The brothers had recently filed for and been granted trademark registrations for \"Elders React\" and \"Teens React\" in 2013 as well as \"Kids React\" in 2012.\n\nAnnouncement details\nOn January 26, 2016, the Fines announced that they would be launching React World, a way to grant content creators the license to create their own versions of the React shows. Specifically, the Fine Brothers explained they were going to license the format of their React shows. A Variety report detailed that React World would \"aggregate videos in a channel to launch later this year to promote, support and feature fan-produced programming based on their shows.\" The brothers' company, Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) explained they would be working with YouTube and ChannelMeter on the launch of React World. FBE also expressed they would be able to monetize React-style videos uploaded under their license. On monetization, Digital Trends detailed \"Although licenses are free, React World creators must agree to share 20 percent of AdSense revenue and 30 percent of premium brand deals with FBE.\" Additionally, the Fines explained they would provide ongoing production guidance, creative guidelines, format bibles, and other resources, as well as promotional and technical support to those creators who participated with the brothers on React World.\n\nReception\nAlthough YouTube's VP on content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, originally proclaimed \"This is brand-building in the YouTube age — rising media companies building their brands through collaborations with creators around the world,\" the Fine Brothers were met with overwhelmingly negative reception to their React World announcement. BBC News reported that \"critics of the Fine Brothers have expressed concern they may use the trademarks to stifle competition,\" and quoted one YouTuber who detailed \"People don't trust them because a few years ago when Ellen DeGeneres did a similar video—not that similar, it didn't have the same format or branding—they claimed it was their format.\" Viewers and fellow content creators alike condemned the Fines for their announcement, with The Daily Dot reporting, \"Backlash poured in on Reddit and social media, and other YouTubers posted their own reactions and parodies of the enthusiastically corporate React World announcement video.\" The backlash led to a dramatic drop in subscribers, with upwards of 675,000 accounts collectively unsubscribing from the React and Fine Bros Entertainment channels as well as recent videos getting many dislikes in protest as of February 22, 2016. Mashable described that one Reddit post \"ignited a thread of haters, defenders and overall discussion about whether what Fine Brothers Entertainment is doing is fair.\" Ryan Morrison, a gamer, lawyer and Reddit user, declared that he would file a legal challenge to the Fine Brothers' trademark request on \"React\", writing \"These guys didn’t come up with the idea of filming funny reactions from kids. And they certainly don’t own an entire genre of YouTube videos. It wasn’t their idea, and it’s not theirs to own or police.\"\n\nThough there was an overwhelmingly negative response to the React World announcement, other personalities expressed milder opinions; Internet personality Hank Green wrote \"This could actually be a very cool project if it could be divorced from the idea of two very powerful creators attempting to control a very popular YouTube video format. Franchising one of YouTube's biggest shows? Yeah, I’d love to see how that goes.\" New York reporter Jay Hathaway wrote \"The trademark and React World are dead. And that's a shame, because it was an interesting idea that suffered from tone-deaf execution.\"\n\nResponses and discontinuation by the Fine Brothers\nAfter seeing the initial backlash from their announcement, The Fine Brothers posted comments on various social media websites including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and the comment section of their YouTube announcement video. On Facebook the Fines wrote, \"We do not own the idea or copyright for reaction videos overall, nor did we ever say we did. You don’t need anyone’s permission to make these kinds of videos, and we’re not coming after anyone\", adding \"We are in no way claiming reaction content in general is our intellectual property. This is purely a voluntary program for people wanting direct support from us, and we continue to be so excited to work with all of you who may want to participate\". They additionally tweeted \"We're not saying we hold a copyright on reaction videos overall, no one can. We're licensing our specific shows, like TV has done for years\". The brothers also explained they would \"not be trying to take revenue from other types of reaction videos, and will not be copyright-striking\". However, other YouTubers have reported multiple copyright related video takedowns. The Guardian also reported that unrelated channels featuring diverse groups of people reacting to videos were also removed after takedown requests from the Fine Brothers; the \"Seniors React\" video was noted to be released prior to the Fines launching their Elders React series. The Fines also posted an update video in response to what they described as \"confusion and negative response\" to React World, in which they try to clear up confusion on what their format encompasses, as well as inviting viewers to e-mail them about any further questions.\n\nUltimately, the Fine Brothers removed all React World videos, and posted a statement on Medium, declaring they have filed the paperwork to rescind all their \"React\" trademarks and applications, will discontinue the React World program, and will release all past Content ID claims. In their post, the brothers expressed \"It makes perfect sense for people to distrust our motives here, but we are confident that our actions will speak louder than these words moving forward\". Reaction to this Medium post was negative on Reddit, where users were reported commenting they would not forgive the Fine Brothers.\n\nAccolades\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nSources\n\nFootnotes\n\nSee also \n Reaction video\n\n2010 web series debuts\nFullscreen (company) channels\nFullscreen Media franchises\nYouTube original programming",
"\"React\" is a song by American hip hop group Onyx. It was released on June 2, 1998 by JMJ Records, Rush Associated Labels and Def Jam as the third single from Onyx's third album, Shut 'Em Down. The song featured Onyx affiliates X1, Bonifucco and Still Livin' and a then unknown 50 Cent in his first official appearance on a song.\n\nProduced by Bud'da, React was successful on the R&B and rap charts, peaking at 62 on the US Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and 44 on the US Hot Rap Singles.\n\nAllmusic highlighted the song itself when they reviewed the album.\n\nBackground\n50 Cent mentioned Jam Master Jay as the man who put him on a song, during his book From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside, Queens:\n\"...Jam Master Jay got me on a song called \"React\". At the time we did a song, no one expected it to be a single. They just put me on the song as a favor to Jay because I was the new nigga in his camp.\n\nMusic video\n\"React\" was the first music video directed by Director X; and it premiered on \"Rap City\" aired on BET on June 13, 1998. The video concept called for rappers to be hockey players. 50 Cent spoke on his appearance in the video \"React\" when asked about the last time he went ice-skating.\"...It actually was the Onyx video. I had to learn for the video. I didn't know why. I was like 'What the—?' I asked them to put me in the box. Like an actual [penalty box]\".\n\nThe video can be found on the 2008's DVD Onyx: 15 Years Of Videos, History And Violence.\n\nControversy\nThe beef between Onyx and 50 Cent started on Def Jam's \"Survival Of The Illest\" concert at the legendary world-famous Apollo Theater. The concert was held on July 18, 1998. During performing the song \"React\" rapper Scarred 4 Life (also known as Clay Da Raider) performed 50 Cent's verse. Later, 50 would diss Sticky Fingaz on a number of mixtapes, including 50's underground hit \"How To Rob\". Then he would fight with Fredro at the rehearsal for the 2003 VIBE Awards. In a 2008 interview for AllHipHop Fredro Starr made a comment about 50 Cent:\"...50 is a smart businessman and at the end of the day we gave him respect. We put him on records when we was at the top of the game. He didn't even have a car. We gave him respect on the strength of Jam Master Jay. What did we get in return? Someone talking slick on mixtapes? Swinging on n****s?\"\n\nReleases\n\n12\" vinyl single track listing\nA-Side:\n\"React\" (Radio Edit) - 4:25 (Featuring 50 Cent, Bonifucco, Still Livin, X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Broke Willies\" (Radio Edit) - 4:08 (Featuring X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Shut 'Em Down\" (Remix)- 4:07 (Featuring Big Pun, Noreaga)\n\nB-Side:\n\"React\" (TV track)- 4:26\n\"Broke Willies\" (TV Track) - 4:09\n\"Shut 'Em Down\" (Remix) (TV Track) - 4:07\n\nCD promo single track listing\n\"React\" (Radio Edit)- 4:26 (Featuring 50 Cent, Bonifucco, Still Livin, X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Broke Willies\" (Radio Edit)- 4:11 (Featuring X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\" (Radio Edit)- 4:02 (Featuring Big Pun, Noreaga)\n\nNotes\n The single version of \"Broke Willies\" is very different in music from the album version.\n\nSamples\n\"Eastside Connection\" by Frisco Disco\n\nNotes\n LL Cool J is the first rap artist who used the same sample in his 1985 song \"You'll Rock\" (Remix) produced by Rick Rubin.\n\nPersonnel \n Onyx - performer, vocals, co-producer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Fredro Starr - performer, vocals\n Sticky Fingaz - performer, vocals\n Sonny Seeza - performer, vocals\n Bud'da - producer (\"React\")\n Keith Horne - producer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Don Elliot - engineer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Self - producer (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Ken \"DURO\" Ifill - engineer, mixing\n DJ LS One - engineer, mixing, scratches\n Patrick Viala - remixing (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Tony Black - mixing, remixing (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Tom Coyne - mastering\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nReact at Discogs\nReact at RapGenius\n\n1998 singles\nJMJ Records singles\n50 Cent songs\nOnyx (group) songs\nSongs written by 50 Cent\nMusic videos directed by Director X\nPosse cuts"
]
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[
"Steve Irwin",
"Reactions",
"What reactions does the article mean?",
"News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world.",
"How did people react?",
"Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed \"shock and distress\" at the death, saying that \"Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son.\""
]
| C_6ed6457521874ff682b7eea770f88e55_0 | Did John Howard participate in any memorial services? | 3 | Did John Howard participate in any memorial services for Steve Irwin? | Steve Irwin | News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world. Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." Queensland's then-Premier Peter Beattie remarked that Irwin would "be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian". The Australian federal parliament opened on 5 September 2006 with condolence speeches by both Howard and the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. Flags at the Sydney Harbour Bridge were lowered to half mast in honour of Irwin. In the days following Irwin's death, reactions dominated Australian online news sources, talk-back radio programmes, and television networks. In the United States, where Irwin had appeared in over 200 Discovery Network television programmes, special tributes appeared on the Animal Planet channel, as well as on CNN and major TV talk shows. Thousands of Irwin's fans visited Australia Zoo after his death, paying their respects and bringing flowers, candles, stuffed animals and messages of support. Criticism of Irwin's career following his death came from Dan Mathews, vice-president of the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Comparing Irwin to a "cheap reality TV star", Mathews accused him of "antagonising frightened wild animals ... a very dangerous message to send to children", contrasted his methods with the behaviour of "a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau", and said it was "no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal." The son of Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau--also a producer of wildlife documentaries--took issue with Irwin's "very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things" and suggested instead that "You don't touch nature, you just look at it." Jacques Cousteau's grandson and Jean-Michel's nephew, Philippe Cousteau Jr., on the other hand, called Irwin "a remarkable individual"; describing the Ocean's Deadliest project (on which he worked along with Irwin), Philippe said, "I think why Steve was so excited about it that we were looking at these animals that people think of as, you know, dangerous and deadly monsters, and they're not. They all have an important place in the environment and in the world. And that was what his whole message was about." In the weeks following Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the beaches of Queensland, with their tails cut off, prompting speculation as to whether they might have been killed by fans of Irwin as an act of revenge, although, according to the chairman of the Queensland fishing information service, anglers regularly cut the tails off of accidentally caught stingrays to avoid being stung. Michael Hornby, a friend of Irwin and executive director of his Wildlife Warrior fund, condemned any revenge killings, saying that "We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who's taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want." CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife expert and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles and was educated on them by his father Bob. He achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter (1996–2007), an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series that he co-hosted with his wife Terri. The couple also hosted the series Croc Files (1999–2001), The Crocodile Hunter Diaries (2002–2006), and New Breed Vets (2005). They also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin's parents in Beerwah, about north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane. They had two children, Bindi and Robert.
In 2006, while filming a documentary in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Irwin died after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray. His death became international news and was met with expressions of shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organizations. Numerous parks, zoos, and streets, the vessel MY Steve Irwin, the snail species Crikey steveirwini, and the asteroid have been named in his honour. He is survived by Terri and their two children, who continue to operate Australia Zoo.
Early life
Irwin was born on his mother's 20th birthday to Lyn (Hakainsson) and Bob Irwin in Upper Ferntree Gully, a suburb of Melbourne. His parents were both of English and Irish descent, with some Swedish on his mother's side. He moved with his parents as a child to Queensland in 1970, where he attended Landsborough State School and Caloundra State High School. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert interested in herpetology, while his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, Bob and Lyn Irwin started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.
Irwin became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday, he was given a scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age. Also at age nine, he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision. He worked as a volunteer for Queensland's East Coast Crocodile Management program and captured over 100 crocodiles, some of which were relocated, while others were housed at the family park. Irwin took over the management of the park in 1991 and renamed it Australia Zoo in 1998.
Career
The Crocodile Hunter and related work
Steve and his wife Terri spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles together. Film footage of their honeymoon, taken by John Stainton, became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series debuted on Australian TV screens in 1996 and made its way onto North American television the following year. The Crocodile Hunter became successful in the United States, the UK, and over 130 other countries, reaching 500 million people. Irwin's exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, signature khaki shorts, and catchphrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide. Sir David Attenborough praised Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was. He was a born communicator."
American satellite and cable television channel Animal Planet ended The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale titled "Steve's Last Adventure." The last Crocodile Hunter documentary spanned three hours with footage of Irwin's across-the-world adventure in locations including the Himalayas, the Yangtze River, Borneo, and the Kruger National Park.
After The Crocodile Hunter, Irwin went on to star in other Animal Planet documentaries, including Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries and New Breed Vets. Animal Planet also created the annual Croc Week marathon, which lasted a full week in the middle of June, every year from 2000 to 2007. During a January 2006 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Irwin announced that Discovery Kids would be developing a show for his daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin – a plan realized after his death as the series Bindi the Jungle Girl.
Other television and film work
In 1998, Irwin continued his television career, working with director Mark Strickson to present The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. He appeared on several episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A 2000 FedEx commercial with Irwin lightheartedly dealt with the possibility of occupational death from snakebite and the fanciful notion that FedEx would have saved him, if only FedEx were used.
Under Irwin's leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation (later renamed Wildlife Warriors), and the International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to the Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and Tiger Temple. Irwin mentioned that he was considering opening an Australia Zoo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and possibly at other sites around the world.
In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2, in which an alligator warns Dolittle that he knows Irwin is going to grab him and is prepared to attack when he does, but Dolittle fails to warn Irwin in time. Irwin's only starring feature film role was in 2002's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which was released to mixed reviews. In the film, Irwin (who portrayed himself and performed numerous stunts) mistakes some CIA agents for poachers. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, which, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking transmitter. The film won the Best Family Feature Film award for a comedy film at the Young Artist Awards. The film was produced on a budget of about US$12 million, and has grossed $33 million. To promote the film, Irwin was featured in an animated short produced by Animax Entertainment for Intermix.
In 2002, Irwin and his family appeared in the Wiggles video/DVD release Wiggly Safari, which was set in Australia Zoo and featured singing and dancing inspired by Australian wildlife. Irwin fronted an advertising campaign for The Ghan in 2003, a passenger train operating between Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin. A Pacific National NR class locomotive was named Steve Irwin as part of the campaign.
Environmentalism
Irwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: "I consider myself a wildlife warrior. My mission is to save the world's endangered species." Irwin bought "large tracts of land" in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as "like national parks" and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.
Irwin founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, which became an independent charity and was later renamed "Wildlife Warriors Worldwide". He also helped found International Crocodile Rescue, the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund (named in memory of his mother, who died in an automobile crash in 2000), and the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility.
Irwin urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells or shark-fin soup.
Sir David Attenborough was an inspiration to Irwin, according to his widow. When presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Attenborough after Irwin's death at the British National Television Awards on 31 October 2006, Terri Irwin said, "If there's one person who directly inspired my husband it's the person being honoured tonight.... [Steve's] real, true love was conservation – and the influence of tonight's recipient in preserving the natural world has been immense." Attenborough reciprocated by praising Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying, "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was, he was a born communicator."
Sporting activities
Irwin loved mixed martial arts competitions and trained with Greg Jackson in the fighting/grappling system of Gaidojutsu.
Like many Australians, he was an avid cricket fan. This was seen during his visit to Sri Lanka where he played cricket with some local children and said "I love cricket" and "It's a shame we have to go catch some snakes now". This was seen during the Crocodile Hunter episode "Island of the Snakes".
Having grown up in Essendon, Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League. Irwin took part in an Australian Rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of "Australia Week" in early 2006. After his death, a picture of Irwin wearing a Bombers guernsey was shown by ESPN.com in their Bottom 10 ranking of the worst Division I FBS college football teams after Week 1 of the season in tribute to him.
Having lived in Queensland most of his life, Irwin was also a fan of rugby league. As a teenager, he played for the Caloundra Sharks as a second-rower, and as an adult he was known to be a passionate Brisbane Broncos fan and was involved with the club on several occasions. On one occasion after turning up to training he asked if he could tackle the largest player, Shane Webcke. Despite being thrown to the ground and looking like he'd been crushed he was jovial about the experience. Irwin laughingly shared the experience with the Queensland State of Origin squad before the 2006 series. Irwin also supported rugby union, being a fan of the national team, the Wallabies. He once wore a Wallaby jersey during a demonstration at the zoo. A behind-the-scenes episode of The Crocodile Hunter showed Irwin and the crew finding a petrol station in a remote part of Namibia to watch the Wallabies defeat France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
Irwin was also a talented surfer.
Media campaigns
Irwin was involved in several media campaigns. He enthusiastically joined with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to promote Australia's strict quarantine/customs requirements, with advertisements and posters featuring slogans such as, "Quarantine Matters! Don't muck with it". His payments for these advertising campaigns were directed into his wildlife fund.
In 2004, Irwin was appointed ambassador for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback, when the line was extended all the way to Darwin on the northern coast that year. For some time he was sponsored by Toyota.
Irwin was a keen promoter for Australian tourism in general and Queensland tourism in particular. In 2002, the Australia Zoo was voted Queensland's top tourist attraction. His immense popularity in the United States meant he often promoted Australia as a tourist destination there. As a part of the United States' "Australia Week" celebrations in January 2006, Irwin appeared at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.
Search and rescue in Mexico
In November 2003, Irwin was filming a documentary on sea lions off the coast of Baja California Peninsula in Mexico when he heard via his boat's radio that two scuba divers were reported missing in the area. Irwin and his entire crew suspended operations to aid in the search. His team's divers searched with the rescue divers, and Irwin used his vessel to patrol the waters around the island where the incident occurred, as well as using his satellite communications system to call in a rescue plane. On the second day of the search, kayakers found one of the divers, Scott Jones, perched on a narrow rock ledge jutting out from the side of a cliff. Irwin and a crew member escorted him to Irwin's boat. The other lost diver, Katie Vrooman, was found dead by a search plane later the same day not far from Jones' location.
Personal life
Marriage and family
In 1991, Irwin met Terri Raines, an American naturalist from Eugene, Oregon, who was visiting wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Australia and had decided to visit the zoo. According to the couple, it was love at first sight. Terri said at the time, "I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy." They were engaged four months later and were married in Eugene on 4 June 1992. Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence Irwin (born 1 December 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin's favourite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Robert is named after Irwin's father Bob and Terri's father Clarence.
Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as "the reason [he] was put on the Earth." His wife once said, "The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more." Although the Irwins were happily married, they did not wear wedding rings; they believed that in their line of work, wearing jewellery could pose a hazard to them and/or the animals. Irwin frequently stated that if he was to be remembered for anything, he hoped that it was for being a good dad.
On 11 February 2000, Steve's mother Lyn was killed in a single-vehicle accident. In an online tribute, Steve called her "the most beautiful, loving, nurturing, and caring person to have ever blessed this world."
Death and funeral
Irwin died on 4 September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in the Great Barrier Reef with Philippe Cousteau Jr. The stinger penetrated his thoracic wall, causing massive trauma. He was at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, taking part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest. Irwin's death is believed to be the only fatality from a stingray captured on video. His death was met with shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organisations.
A private funeral service took place on 9 September 2006. Irwin was buried in a private ceremony at Australia Zoo later that same day. A public memorial service was held in Australia Zoo's 5,500-seat Crocoseum on 30 September 2006; this service was broadcast live and it is estimated to have been seen by over 300 million viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Posthumous movie and television appearances
Irwin provided his voice for the 2006 animated film Happy Feet, as an elephant seal named Trev. The film was dedicated to Irwin, as he died during post-production. Another, previously incomplete scene, featuring Irwin providing the voice of an albatross and essentially playing himself, was restored to the DVD release.
In 2007, a special episode of The Crocodile Hunter was made in tribute to him; Crikey! What an Adventure: An Intimate Look at the Life of Steve Irwin. The documentary features archive footage from The Crocodile Hunter. Later that year, Bindi released the documentary My Daddy, the Crocodile Hunter in Steve's memory. Steve also appears in several episodes of Bindi the Jungle Girl via archive footage.
Most recently, archive footage of Irwin has been used in the television series Crikey! It's the Irwins, which began airing in 2018.
Steve Irwin Day
Steve Irwin Day is an annual event on November 15, honouring the life and legacy of Irwin. The date was chosen because it takes place on the birthday of one of Irwin's favourite animals, a tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. Events that take place include people raising money for Wildlife Warriors to help continue Irwin's conservation work, and employees at Australia Zoo wearing khaki uniforms in Irwin's memory.
Honours
In 1997, while on a fishing trip on the coast of Queensland with his father, Irwin discovered a new species of turtle. Later given the honour of naming the newly discovered species, he named it Irwin's turtle (Elseya irwini) after his family. Another newly discovered Australian animal – a species of air-breathing land snail, Crikey steveirwini, was named after Irwin in 2009.
Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian government in 2001 for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism". In 2004, he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year. He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year but it was awarded to Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, while Irwin was named 2004 Queensland Australian of the Year. Shortly before his death, Irwin was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology. On 14 November 2007, Irwin was awarded the adjunct professorship posthumously. In 2007, Irwin was posthumously inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.
In May 2007, the government of Rwanda announced that it would name a baby gorilla after Irwin as a tribute to his work in wildlife conservation. Also in 2007, the state government of Kerala, India named the Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre at Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary in his honour; however, Terri objected that this action had been taken without her permission and asked the Kerala government in 2009 to stop using Irwin's name and images – a request with which the state government complied in mid-2009.
Irwin, after his death, was described by Mark Townend, CEO of RSPCA Queensland, as a "modern-day Noah." British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki paid tribute to Irwin, noting that "[h]umanity will not protect that which we fear or do not understand. Steve Irwin helped us understand those things that many people thought were a nuisance at best, a horror at worst. That made him a great educator and conservationist."
After his death, the vessel owned by the environmental action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was renamed . Shortly before his death, Irwin had been investigating joining Sea Shepherd's 2007–2008 voyage to Antarctica to disrupt Japanese whaling activity. Following his death, the organisation suggested renaming their vessel, and this idea was endorsed by Terri. Regarding the ship and its new name, Terri said, "If Steve were alive, he'd be aboard with them!"
Irwin was inducted in 2009 into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, recognised for international entrepreneurship both in business and wildlife conservation, significantly contributing to Queensland and its international reputation and in 2015, Irwin was a posthumous recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. In 2017 it was announced that Irwin would be posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was unveiled on 26 April 2018. On 22 February 2019, the 57th anniversary of Irwin's birth, the search engine Google released a Google Doodle commemorating him, in the form of a slideshow.
Controversies
On 2 January 2004, Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Robert, in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window. In addition, some child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Irwin apologised on the US NBC show Today. Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son was in any danger. He also showed footage of the event shot from a different angle, demonstrating that they were much farther from the crocodile than they had appeared in the publicised clip. Terri said their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action. The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.
In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming the Crocodile Hunter episode Ice Breaker in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being laid.
After questions arose in 2003 about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he was a conservationist and did not choose sides in politics. His comments describing Australian Prime Minister John Howard as the "greatest leader in the world" earned him scorn in the media.
In response to questions of Australia's problems with overgrazing, salinity, and erosion, Irwin responded: "Cows have been on our land for so long that Australia has evolved to handle those big animals." The Sydney Morning Herald concluded with the opinion that his message was confusing and amounted to "eating roos and crocs is bad for tourism, and therefore more cruel than eating other animals".
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
Profile at Australia Zoo
Ocean Treasures Memorial Library/Steve Irwin Memorial
1962 births
2006 deaths
Accidental deaths in Queensland
Australian conservationists
Australian herpetologists
Australian male voice actors
Australian naturalists
Australian people of English descent
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Swedish descent
Australian television presenters
Burials in Queensland
Deaths due to fish attacks
Filmed accidental deaths
Filmed deaths of entertainers
Steve
Logie Award winners
People from Queensland
Q150 Icons
Queensland Greats
Underwater diving deaths
Zoo owners
Discovery Channel people
20th-century Australian zoologists
20th-century naturalists | false | [
"The National Emergency Services Memorial is a memorial located on the northern shore of Lake Burley Griffin at the southern end of Anzac Parade in Canberra, the national capital of Australia. It was dedicated in July 2004.\n\nThe overall memorial was designed by Aspect Melbourne Pty Ltd. The frieze bas relief was created by artist Charles Anderson. The outdoor sculpture was created by artist Darryl Cowie.\n\nQuote\n\"Honouring the thousands of men and women who serve and have served in Australia's emergency services. The memorial provides a place to reflect on those who have fallen or perished while carrying out their duties for the benefit of the wider Australian community. \nDedicated by The Hon. John Howard MP, Prime Minister of Australia, 12 July 2004\".\n\nSee also\n\nReferences\n\nLandmarks in Canberra\nEmergency Services\nOutdoor sculptures in Australia\n2004 sculptures\n2004 establishments in Australia\nEmergency services in Australia\nStone sculptures in Australia\nTourist attractions in Canberra",
"The 'Not happy, John!' campaign was an Australian political campaign to oppose the re-election of Prime Minister John Howard as member for Bennelong in the 2004 Australian federal election. The title of the campaign is based on the popular television commercial, Not happy, Jan! and the book Not Happy, John by Margo Kingston.\n\nThe campaign did not promote any specific candidate, but called for votes for any other candidate standing against Howard. The campaign was unsuccessful, in that Howard was returned as member, but had some success in that it reduced Howard's majority by 3% in the face of a 2% swing to Howard's Liberal Party and he did lose the seat as sitting Prime Minister in the subsequent election.\n\nSupporters of the campaign included Margo Kingston (journalist), John Valder (previous president of Howard's Liberal party), Brian Deegan (former magistrate, who stood against Alexander Downer), Andrew Wilkie (Greens candidate), Alex Broun playwright and Nicole Campbell (Australian Labor Party candidate). The campaign was launched on 22 June 2004 and continued until the election on 9 October.\n\nThere was a small Not Happy John Campaign for the 2007 election based on the philosophy behind the original campaign.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Kingston, Margo. Not Happy, John! defending Australia's democracy. Paperback, 240 pages. Published June 2004 by Penguin. .\n\nExternal links \n Not Happy John Campaign site\n\n2004 elections in Australia"
]
|
[
"Steve Irwin",
"Reactions",
"What reactions does the article mean?",
"News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world.",
"How did people react?",
"Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed \"shock and distress\" at the death, saying that \"Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son.\"",
"Did John Howard participate in any memorial services?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_6ed6457521874ff682b7eea770f88e55_0 | How did fans react? | 4 | How did fans react to news of Steve Irwin's death? | Steve Irwin | News of Irwin's death prompted reactions around the world. Then-Prime Minister John Howard expressed "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." Queensland's then-Premier Peter Beattie remarked that Irwin would "be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian". The Australian federal parliament opened on 5 September 2006 with condolence speeches by both Howard and the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. Flags at the Sydney Harbour Bridge were lowered to half mast in honour of Irwin. In the days following Irwin's death, reactions dominated Australian online news sources, talk-back radio programmes, and television networks. In the United States, where Irwin had appeared in over 200 Discovery Network television programmes, special tributes appeared on the Animal Planet channel, as well as on CNN and major TV talk shows. Thousands of Irwin's fans visited Australia Zoo after his death, paying their respects and bringing flowers, candles, stuffed animals and messages of support. Criticism of Irwin's career following his death came from Dan Mathews, vice-president of the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Comparing Irwin to a "cheap reality TV star", Mathews accused him of "antagonising frightened wild animals ... a very dangerous message to send to children", contrasted his methods with the behaviour of "a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau", and said it was "no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal." The son of Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau--also a producer of wildlife documentaries--took issue with Irwin's "very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things" and suggested instead that "You don't touch nature, you just look at it." Jacques Cousteau's grandson and Jean-Michel's nephew, Philippe Cousteau Jr., on the other hand, called Irwin "a remarkable individual"; describing the Ocean's Deadliest project (on which he worked along with Irwin), Philippe said, "I think why Steve was so excited about it that we were looking at these animals that people think of as, you know, dangerous and deadly monsters, and they're not. They all have an important place in the environment and in the world. And that was what his whole message was about." In the weeks following Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the beaches of Queensland, with their tails cut off, prompting speculation as to whether they might have been killed by fans of Irwin as an act of revenge, although, according to the chairman of the Queensland fishing information service, anglers regularly cut the tails off of accidentally caught stingrays to avoid being stung. Michael Hornby, a friend of Irwin and executive director of his Wildlife Warrior fund, condemned any revenge killings, saying that "We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who's taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want." CANNOTANSWER | In the weeks following Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the beaches of Queensland, | Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife expert and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles and was educated on them by his father Bob. He achieved worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter (1996–2007), an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series that he co-hosted with his wife Terri. The couple also hosted the series Croc Files (1999–2001), The Crocodile Hunter Diaries (2002–2006), and New Breed Vets (2005). They also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin's parents in Beerwah, about north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane. They had two children, Bindi and Robert.
In 2006, while filming a documentary in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Irwin died after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray. His death became international news and was met with expressions of shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organizations. Numerous parks, zoos, and streets, the vessel MY Steve Irwin, the snail species Crikey steveirwini, and the asteroid have been named in his honour. He is survived by Terri and their two children, who continue to operate Australia Zoo.
Early life
Irwin was born on his mother's 20th birthday to Lyn (Hakainsson) and Bob Irwin in Upper Ferntree Gully, a suburb of Melbourne. His parents were both of English and Irish descent, with some Swedish on his mother's side. He moved with his parents as a child to Queensland in 1970, where he attended Landsborough State School and Caloundra State High School. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert interested in herpetology, while his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, Bob and Lyn Irwin started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.
Irwin became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday, he was given a scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age. Also at age nine, he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision. He worked as a volunteer for Queensland's East Coast Crocodile Management program and captured over 100 crocodiles, some of which were relocated, while others were housed at the family park. Irwin took over the management of the park in 1991 and renamed it Australia Zoo in 1998.
Career
The Crocodile Hunter and related work
Steve and his wife Terri spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles together. Film footage of their honeymoon, taken by John Stainton, became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series debuted on Australian TV screens in 1996 and made its way onto North American television the following year. The Crocodile Hunter became successful in the United States, the UK, and over 130 other countries, reaching 500 million people. Irwin's exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, signature khaki shorts, and catchphrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide. Sir David Attenborough praised Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was. He was a born communicator."
American satellite and cable television channel Animal Planet ended The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale titled "Steve's Last Adventure." The last Crocodile Hunter documentary spanned three hours with footage of Irwin's across-the-world adventure in locations including the Himalayas, the Yangtze River, Borneo, and the Kruger National Park.
After The Crocodile Hunter, Irwin went on to star in other Animal Planet documentaries, including Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries and New Breed Vets. Animal Planet also created the annual Croc Week marathon, which lasted a full week in the middle of June, every year from 2000 to 2007. During a January 2006 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Irwin announced that Discovery Kids would be developing a show for his daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin – a plan realized after his death as the series Bindi the Jungle Girl.
Other television and film work
In 1998, Irwin continued his television career, working with director Mark Strickson to present The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. He appeared on several episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. A 2000 FedEx commercial with Irwin lightheartedly dealt with the possibility of occupational death from snakebite and the fanciful notion that FedEx would have saved him, if only FedEx were used.
Under Irwin's leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation (later renamed Wildlife Warriors), and the International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to the Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and Tiger Temple. Irwin mentioned that he was considering opening an Australia Zoo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and possibly at other sites around the world.
In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2, in which an alligator warns Dolittle that he knows Irwin is going to grab him and is prepared to attack when he does, but Dolittle fails to warn Irwin in time. Irwin's only starring feature film role was in 2002's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which was released to mixed reviews. In the film, Irwin (who portrayed himself and performed numerous stunts) mistakes some CIA agents for poachers. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, which, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking transmitter. The film won the Best Family Feature Film award for a comedy film at the Young Artist Awards. The film was produced on a budget of about US$12 million, and has grossed $33 million. To promote the film, Irwin was featured in an animated short produced by Animax Entertainment for Intermix.
In 2002, Irwin and his family appeared in the Wiggles video/DVD release Wiggly Safari, which was set in Australia Zoo and featured singing and dancing inspired by Australian wildlife. Irwin fronted an advertising campaign for The Ghan in 2003, a passenger train operating between Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin. A Pacific National NR class locomotive was named Steve Irwin as part of the campaign.
Environmentalism
Irwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: "I consider myself a wildlife warrior. My mission is to save the world's endangered species." Irwin bought "large tracts of land" in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as "like national parks" and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.
Irwin founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, which became an independent charity and was later renamed "Wildlife Warriors Worldwide". He also helped found International Crocodile Rescue, the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund (named in memory of his mother, who died in an automobile crash in 2000), and the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Facility.
Irwin urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells or shark-fin soup.
Sir David Attenborough was an inspiration to Irwin, according to his widow. When presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Attenborough after Irwin's death at the British National Television Awards on 31 October 2006, Terri Irwin said, "If there's one person who directly inspired my husband it's the person being honoured tonight.... [Steve's] real, true love was conservation – and the influence of tonight's recipient in preserving the natural world has been immense." Attenborough reciprocated by praising Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying, "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was, he was a born communicator."
Sporting activities
Irwin loved mixed martial arts competitions and trained with Greg Jackson in the fighting/grappling system of Gaidojutsu.
Like many Australians, he was an avid cricket fan. This was seen during his visit to Sri Lanka where he played cricket with some local children and said "I love cricket" and "It's a shame we have to go catch some snakes now". This was seen during the Crocodile Hunter episode "Island of the Snakes".
Having grown up in Essendon, Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League. Irwin took part in an Australian Rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of "Australia Week" in early 2006. After his death, a picture of Irwin wearing a Bombers guernsey was shown by ESPN.com in their Bottom 10 ranking of the worst Division I FBS college football teams after Week 1 of the season in tribute to him.
Having lived in Queensland most of his life, Irwin was also a fan of rugby league. As a teenager, he played for the Caloundra Sharks as a second-rower, and as an adult he was known to be a passionate Brisbane Broncos fan and was involved with the club on several occasions. On one occasion after turning up to training he asked if he could tackle the largest player, Shane Webcke. Despite being thrown to the ground and looking like he'd been crushed he was jovial about the experience. Irwin laughingly shared the experience with the Queensland State of Origin squad before the 2006 series. Irwin also supported rugby union, being a fan of the national team, the Wallabies. He once wore a Wallaby jersey during a demonstration at the zoo. A behind-the-scenes episode of The Crocodile Hunter showed Irwin and the crew finding a petrol station in a remote part of Namibia to watch the Wallabies defeat France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final.
Irwin was also a talented surfer.
Media campaigns
Irwin was involved in several media campaigns. He enthusiastically joined with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to promote Australia's strict quarantine/customs requirements, with advertisements and posters featuring slogans such as, "Quarantine Matters! Don't muck with it". His payments for these advertising campaigns were directed into his wildlife fund.
In 2004, Irwin was appointed ambassador for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback, when the line was extended all the way to Darwin on the northern coast that year. For some time he was sponsored by Toyota.
Irwin was a keen promoter for Australian tourism in general and Queensland tourism in particular. In 2002, the Australia Zoo was voted Queensland's top tourist attraction. His immense popularity in the United States meant he often promoted Australia as a tourist destination there. As a part of the United States' "Australia Week" celebrations in January 2006, Irwin appeared at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California.
Search and rescue in Mexico
In November 2003, Irwin was filming a documentary on sea lions off the coast of Baja California Peninsula in Mexico when he heard via his boat's radio that two scuba divers were reported missing in the area. Irwin and his entire crew suspended operations to aid in the search. His team's divers searched with the rescue divers, and Irwin used his vessel to patrol the waters around the island where the incident occurred, as well as using his satellite communications system to call in a rescue plane. On the second day of the search, kayakers found one of the divers, Scott Jones, perched on a narrow rock ledge jutting out from the side of a cliff. Irwin and a crew member escorted him to Irwin's boat. The other lost diver, Katie Vrooman, was found dead by a search plane later the same day not far from Jones' location.
Personal life
Marriage and family
In 1991, Irwin met Terri Raines, an American naturalist from Eugene, Oregon, who was visiting wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Australia and had decided to visit the zoo. According to the couple, it was love at first sight. Terri said at the time, "I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy." They were engaged four months later and were married in Eugene on 4 June 1992. Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence Irwin (born 1 December 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin's favourite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Robert is named after Irwin's father Bob and Terri's father Clarence.
Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as "the reason [he] was put on the Earth." His wife once said, "The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more." Although the Irwins were happily married, they did not wear wedding rings; they believed that in their line of work, wearing jewellery could pose a hazard to them and/or the animals. Irwin frequently stated that if he was to be remembered for anything, he hoped that it was for being a good dad.
On 11 February 2000, Steve's mother Lyn was killed in a single-vehicle accident. In an online tribute, Steve called her "the most beautiful, loving, nurturing, and caring person to have ever blessed this world."
Death and funeral
Irwin died on 4 September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in the Great Barrier Reef with Philippe Cousteau Jr. The stinger penetrated his thoracic wall, causing massive trauma. He was at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, taking part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest. Irwin's death is believed to be the only fatality from a stingray captured on video. His death was met with shock and grief by fans, the media, governments and non-profit organisations.
A private funeral service took place on 9 September 2006. Irwin was buried in a private ceremony at Australia Zoo later that same day. A public memorial service was held in Australia Zoo's 5,500-seat Crocoseum on 30 September 2006; this service was broadcast live and it is estimated to have been seen by over 300 million viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Posthumous movie and television appearances
Irwin provided his voice for the 2006 animated film Happy Feet, as an elephant seal named Trev. The film was dedicated to Irwin, as he died during post-production. Another, previously incomplete scene, featuring Irwin providing the voice of an albatross and essentially playing himself, was restored to the DVD release.
In 2007, a special episode of The Crocodile Hunter was made in tribute to him; Crikey! What an Adventure: An Intimate Look at the Life of Steve Irwin. The documentary features archive footage from The Crocodile Hunter. Later that year, Bindi released the documentary My Daddy, the Crocodile Hunter in Steve's memory. Steve also appears in several episodes of Bindi the Jungle Girl via archive footage.
Most recently, archive footage of Irwin has been used in the television series Crikey! It's the Irwins, which began airing in 2018.
Steve Irwin Day
Steve Irwin Day is an annual event on November 15, honouring the life and legacy of Irwin. The date was chosen because it takes place on the birthday of one of Irwin's favourite animals, a tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. Events that take place include people raising money for Wildlife Warriors to help continue Irwin's conservation work, and employees at Australia Zoo wearing khaki uniforms in Irwin's memory.
Honours
In 1997, while on a fishing trip on the coast of Queensland with his father, Irwin discovered a new species of turtle. Later given the honour of naming the newly discovered species, he named it Irwin's turtle (Elseya irwini) after his family. Another newly discovered Australian animal – a species of air-breathing land snail, Crikey steveirwini, was named after Irwin in 2009.
Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian government in 2001 for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism". In 2004, he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year. He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year but it was awarded to Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, while Irwin was named 2004 Queensland Australian of the Year. Shortly before his death, Irwin was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology. On 14 November 2007, Irwin was awarded the adjunct professorship posthumously. In 2007, Irwin was posthumously inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.
In May 2007, the government of Rwanda announced that it would name a baby gorilla after Irwin as a tribute to his work in wildlife conservation. Also in 2007, the state government of Kerala, India named the Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre at Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary in his honour; however, Terri objected that this action had been taken without her permission and asked the Kerala government in 2009 to stop using Irwin's name and images – a request with which the state government complied in mid-2009.
Irwin, after his death, was described by Mark Townend, CEO of RSPCA Queensland, as a "modern-day Noah." British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki paid tribute to Irwin, noting that "[h]umanity will not protect that which we fear or do not understand. Steve Irwin helped us understand those things that many people thought were a nuisance at best, a horror at worst. That made him a great educator and conservationist."
After his death, the vessel owned by the environmental action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was renamed . Shortly before his death, Irwin had been investigating joining Sea Shepherd's 2007–2008 voyage to Antarctica to disrupt Japanese whaling activity. Following his death, the organisation suggested renaming their vessel, and this idea was endorsed by Terri. Regarding the ship and its new name, Terri said, "If Steve were alive, he'd be aboard with them!"
Irwin was inducted in 2009 into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, recognised for international entrepreneurship both in business and wildlife conservation, significantly contributing to Queensland and its international reputation and in 2015, Irwin was a posthumous recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. In 2017 it was announced that Irwin would be posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was unveiled on 26 April 2018. On 22 February 2019, the 57th anniversary of Irwin's birth, the search engine Google released a Google Doodle commemorating him, in the form of a slideshow.
Controversies
On 2 January 2004, Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Robert, in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window. In addition, some child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Irwin apologised on the US NBC show Today. Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son was in any danger. He also showed footage of the event shot from a different angle, demonstrating that they were much farther from the crocodile than they had appeared in the publicised clip. Terri said their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action. The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.
In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming the Crocodile Hunter episode Ice Breaker in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being laid.
After questions arose in 2003 about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he was a conservationist and did not choose sides in politics. His comments describing Australian Prime Minister John Howard as the "greatest leader in the world" earned him scorn in the media.
In response to questions of Australia's problems with overgrazing, salinity, and erosion, Irwin responded: "Cows have been on our land for so long that Australia has evolved to handle those big animals." The Sydney Morning Herald concluded with the opinion that his message was confusing and amounted to "eating roos and crocs is bad for tourism, and therefore more cruel than eating other animals".
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
Profile at Australia Zoo
Ocean Treasures Memorial Library/Steve Irwin Memorial
1962 births
2006 deaths
Accidental deaths in Queensland
Australian conservationists
Australian herpetologists
Australian male voice actors
Australian naturalists
Australian people of English descent
Australian people of Irish descent
Australian people of Swedish descent
Australian television presenters
Burials in Queensland
Deaths due to fish attacks
Filmed accidental deaths
Filmed deaths of entertainers
Steve
Logie Award winners
People from Queensland
Q150 Icons
Queensland Greats
Underwater diving deaths
Zoo owners
Discovery Channel people
20th-century Australian zoologists
20th-century naturalists | false | [
"React is a media franchise used by the Fine Brothers consisting of several online series centering on a group of individuals reacting to viral videos, trends, video games, film trailers, or music videos. The franchise was launched with the YouTube debut of Kids React in October 2010, and then grew to encompass four more series uploaded on the Fine Brothers' primary YouTube channel, a separate YouTube channel with various reaction-related content, as well as a television series titled React to That.\n\nIn 2016, the duo announced React World, a program and channel in which they would license the format of their React shows to creators, which led to widespread negative reception from viewers and fellow content creators, as well as confusion about what their format is. This eventually lead to the Fine Brothers removing all videos related to React World, essentially pulling the plug on the React World program.\n\nYouTube series\n\nKids React\nBenny and Rafi Fine launched a series titled Kids React on October 16, 2010, the first video being \"Kids React to Viral Videos (Double Rainbow, Obama Fail, Twin Rabbits, Snickers Halloween)\". The Kids React series features The Fine Brothers (and one of the staff members since 2016), off-camera, showing kids ages 4–14 (7-13 as of September 2016, 7-11 as of October 2016) several viral videos or popular YouTubers and having the kids react to the videos.\n\nThe most popular Kids React episode to date is “Kids React to Gay Marriage\", with over 40.2 million views as of September 2, 2018. The popularity of Kids React made it possible for the online series to win a special Emmy Award at the 39th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2012. The Emmy Award, that was given in cooperation with AOL, was awarded to the Fine Brothers for \"Best Viral Video Series\". After their Emmy win, the brothers explained, \"Not a lot has changed [after winning the Emmy] other than realizing that there are shows on YouTube like React that can get similar if not better viewership than mainstream entertainment can.\"\n\nVideos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to by the kids include Smosh (who later reacted to the kids' reactions), planking and President Obama addressing the death of Osama bin Laden, among several other topics. Kids React has been compared to Kids Say the Darndest Things. In October 2012, the kids of the show were shown videos of the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. Kids React won the Streamy Award for Best Non-Fiction or Reality Series in 2013.\n\nTeens React\nDue to the popularity of Kids React, The Fine Brothers spawned a spin-off dubbed Teens React on November 17, 2011 with \"TEENS REACT TO TWILIGHT\". The show has a similar premise to Kids React, however the younger stars are replaced with high school teenagers aged 14-18, some of whom have aged out of the Kids React series. Due to this, the Fine Brothers are able to show more mature and less \"kid-friendly\" videos such as videos on topics like Toddlers & Tiaras, Rick Perry's Strong commercial, Amanda Todd's death, and the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. Other viral videos and YouTube stars that have been reacted to include Salad Fingers, the Overly Attached Girlfriend, \"Gangnam Style\", The Hunger Games trailer, Shane Dawson, and One Direction, among other topics. Later on, The Fine Brothers launched a series titled Teens React: Gaming consisting videos of teenagers reacting to popular games such as Mario Kart 64, Flappy Bird, Rocket League, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Teens React launched the career of Lia Marie Johnson, it also featured some \"famous\" 'reactors' as guest stars, including Lisa Cimorelli, Amy Cimorelli, Lucas Cruikshank (who later appears in YouTubers React), Alex Steele, Jake Short, and Maisie Williams.\n\nElders React\nElders React was debuted in 2012 and it included seniors over the age of 55. In 2021, it became a subseries for Adults React.\n\nYouTubers React\nYouTubers React was debuted in 2012 and it included famous YouTubers. On November 2020, it is retitled Creators React due to the success of other social medias and is currently airing its one-off episodes as of June 2021.\n\nAdults React\nOn May 30, 2015, the Fine Brothers announced Adults React, which premiered on July 16 later that year. It consists of people ages 20 to 55, including former stars of Teens React that have aged out of the series. Depending on the video or topic, Adults React will be specific of which type of adults are going to be reacting, such as parents or college kids.\n\nParents React\n\nThe first episode of Parents React premiered on August 6, 2015 with “Parents React to Don’t Stay At School”. This series involves parents reacting to stuff that kids were getting into.\n\nCollege Kids React\nThe first episode of College Kids React premiered on June 23, 2016 with \"College Kids React to The 1975\". This series includes stars who have aged out of Teens React along with new stars, as well as stars that have not yet aged out of Teens React but have begun college. The content of College Kids React is similar to the content found in Teens React but more mature.\n\nOne-off episodes\nIn April 2014, as an April Fools joke, the Fine Brothers teamed up with Friskies and released Cats React, which went viral. In July 2016 they released another part of Cats React.\n\nIn August 2014, they released Celebrities React to Viral Videos, and now re-released yearly.\n\nIn April 2018, in another April Fools joke, they released \"Teens React to Nothing\" where they showed the teenagers on a blank screen. The following year, they released a sequel, \"nothing reacts to teens react to nothing.\", which featured the original video being played in an empty studio.\n\nReact YouTube channel\nAfter creating four individual successful React series on their primary YouTube channel, the Fine Brothers launched a separate YouTube channel in 2014, for reaction-related content, simply dubbed \"React\". With the intent of running programming five days a week, the channel launched with five series: React Gaming (a Let's Play-style series with real youths from their primary React series), Advice (a series featuring real youths respond to questions from viewers), React Remix (musical remixes of past React footage), People Vs. Foods (originally Kids Vs. Food until 2016) (a series featuring Reactors taste-test \"Weird\" or international foods), and Lyric Breakdown (a series in which Reactors break down the meaning of various songs). The channel launched with a teenage-focused playthrough of Goat Simulator.\nFrom September 18th 2020 to May 31st 2021, the React YouTube channel was retitled to \"REPLAY\", following the renaming of the main FBE channel to \"REACT\" in the wake of FBE's distancing from Benny and Rafi Fine as a consequence of the scandal in Summer 2020 that led to many reactors leaving the channel.\nOn June 1st 2021, REPLAY is retitled \"PEOPLE VS FOOD\" and moved all the non-food videos to REACT.\n\nReact to That\nIn early 2014, it was announced that the Fine Brothers made a deal with NCredible Entertainment, a production studio founded by Nick Cannon to develop a television series for Nickelodeon. The series, dubbed React to That, was \"entirely re-envisioned for television,\" as the reactors \"not only watch and respond to viral videos, but pop out of the reaction room and into showdowns where the clips come to life as each reactor is confronted with a challenge based on the video they just watched.\" Following the announcement of the series, Benny Fine explained, \"All these viewers now watching are also pioneering what it is to be a viewer of content. They follow us through all of our different endeavors, all our different series, and now will have the opportunity to follow us to another medium.\" Nickelodeon ordered 13 episodes to be produced, but only 12 were made and aired.\n\nReact World\n\nBackground\nIn July 2015, the Fine Brothers filed for trademark protection on \"React\" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The trademark was filed for \"Entertainment services, namely, providing an ongoing series of programs and webisodes via the internet in the field of observing and interviewing various groups of people.\" The USPTO approved for a 30-day opposition period which was set to begin on February 2, 2016; if no parties filed an opposition to the Fines' trademark request, it would have proceeded through the process. The brothers had recently filed for and been granted trademark registrations for \"Elders React\" and \"Teens React\" in 2013 as well as \"Kids React\" in 2012.\n\nAnnouncement details\nOn January 26, 2016, the Fines announced that they would be launching React World, a way to grant content creators the license to create their own versions of the React shows. Specifically, the Fine Brothers explained they were going to license the format of their React shows. A Variety report detailed that React World would \"aggregate videos in a channel to launch later this year to promote, support and feature fan-produced programming based on their shows.\" The brothers' company, Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) explained they would be working with YouTube and ChannelMeter on the launch of React World. FBE also expressed they would be able to monetize React-style videos uploaded under their license. On monetization, Digital Trends detailed \"Although licenses are free, React World creators must agree to share 20 percent of AdSense revenue and 30 percent of premium brand deals with FBE.\" Additionally, the Fines explained they would provide ongoing production guidance, creative guidelines, format bibles, and other resources, as well as promotional and technical support to those creators who participated with the brothers on React World.\n\nReception\nAlthough YouTube's VP on content partnerships, Kelly Merryman, originally proclaimed \"This is brand-building in the YouTube age — rising media companies building their brands through collaborations with creators around the world,\" the Fine Brothers were met with overwhelmingly negative reception to their React World announcement. BBC News reported that \"critics of the Fine Brothers have expressed concern they may use the trademarks to stifle competition,\" and quoted one YouTuber who detailed \"People don't trust them because a few years ago when Ellen DeGeneres did a similar video—not that similar, it didn't have the same format or branding—they claimed it was their format.\" Viewers and fellow content creators alike condemned the Fines for their announcement, with The Daily Dot reporting, \"Backlash poured in on Reddit and social media, and other YouTubers posted their own reactions and parodies of the enthusiastically corporate React World announcement video.\" The backlash led to a dramatic drop in subscribers, with upwards of 675,000 accounts collectively unsubscribing from the React and Fine Bros Entertainment channels as well as recent videos getting many dislikes in protest as of February 22, 2016. Mashable described that one Reddit post \"ignited a thread of haters, defenders and overall discussion about whether what Fine Brothers Entertainment is doing is fair.\" Ryan Morrison, a gamer, lawyer and Reddit user, declared that he would file a legal challenge to the Fine Brothers' trademark request on \"React\", writing \"These guys didn’t come up with the idea of filming funny reactions from kids. And they certainly don’t own an entire genre of YouTube videos. It wasn’t their idea, and it’s not theirs to own or police.\"\n\nThough there was an overwhelmingly negative response to the React World announcement, other personalities expressed milder opinions; Internet personality Hank Green wrote \"This could actually be a very cool project if it could be divorced from the idea of two very powerful creators attempting to control a very popular YouTube video format. Franchising one of YouTube's biggest shows? Yeah, I’d love to see how that goes.\" New York reporter Jay Hathaway wrote \"The trademark and React World are dead. And that's a shame, because it was an interesting idea that suffered from tone-deaf execution.\"\n\nResponses and discontinuation by the Fine Brothers\nAfter seeing the initial backlash from their announcement, The Fine Brothers posted comments on various social media websites including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and the comment section of their YouTube announcement video. On Facebook the Fines wrote, \"We do not own the idea or copyright for reaction videos overall, nor did we ever say we did. You don’t need anyone’s permission to make these kinds of videos, and we’re not coming after anyone\", adding \"We are in no way claiming reaction content in general is our intellectual property. This is purely a voluntary program for people wanting direct support from us, and we continue to be so excited to work with all of you who may want to participate\". They additionally tweeted \"We're not saying we hold a copyright on reaction videos overall, no one can. We're licensing our specific shows, like TV has done for years\". The brothers also explained they would \"not be trying to take revenue from other types of reaction videos, and will not be copyright-striking\". However, other YouTubers have reported multiple copyright related video takedowns. The Guardian also reported that unrelated channels featuring diverse groups of people reacting to videos were also removed after takedown requests from the Fine Brothers; the \"Seniors React\" video was noted to be released prior to the Fines launching their Elders React series. The Fines also posted an update video in response to what they described as \"confusion and negative response\" to React World, in which they try to clear up confusion on what their format encompasses, as well as inviting viewers to e-mail them about any further questions.\n\nUltimately, the Fine Brothers removed all React World videos, and posted a statement on Medium, declaring they have filed the paperwork to rescind all their \"React\" trademarks and applications, will discontinue the React World program, and will release all past Content ID claims. In their post, the brothers expressed \"It makes perfect sense for people to distrust our motives here, but we are confident that our actions will speak louder than these words moving forward\". Reaction to this Medium post was negative on Reddit, where users were reported commenting they would not forgive the Fine Brothers.\n\nAccolades\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nSources\n\nFootnotes\n\nSee also \n Reaction video\n\n2010 web series debuts\nFullscreen (company) channels\nFullscreen Media franchises\nYouTube original programming",
"\"React\" is a song by American hip hop group Onyx. It was released on June 2, 1998 by JMJ Records, Rush Associated Labels and Def Jam as the third single from Onyx's third album, Shut 'Em Down. The song featured Onyx affiliates X1, Bonifucco and Still Livin' and a then unknown 50 Cent in his first official appearance on a song.\n\nProduced by Bud'da, React was successful on the R&B and rap charts, peaking at 62 on the US Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and 44 on the US Hot Rap Singles.\n\nAllmusic highlighted the song itself when they reviewed the album.\n\nBackground\n50 Cent mentioned Jam Master Jay as the man who put him on a song, during his book From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside, Queens:\n\"...Jam Master Jay got me on a song called \"React\". At the time we did a song, no one expected it to be a single. They just put me on the song as a favor to Jay because I was the new nigga in his camp.\n\nMusic video\n\"React\" was the first music video directed by Director X; and it premiered on \"Rap City\" aired on BET on June 13, 1998. The video concept called for rappers to be hockey players. 50 Cent spoke on his appearance in the video \"React\" when asked about the last time he went ice-skating.\"...It actually was the Onyx video. I had to learn for the video. I didn't know why. I was like 'What the—?' I asked them to put me in the box. Like an actual [penalty box]\".\n\nThe video can be found on the 2008's DVD Onyx: 15 Years Of Videos, History And Violence.\n\nControversy\nThe beef between Onyx and 50 Cent started on Def Jam's \"Survival Of The Illest\" concert at the legendary world-famous Apollo Theater. The concert was held on July 18, 1998. During performing the song \"React\" rapper Scarred 4 Life (also known as Clay Da Raider) performed 50 Cent's verse. Later, 50 would diss Sticky Fingaz on a number of mixtapes, including 50's underground hit \"How To Rob\". Then he would fight with Fredro at the rehearsal for the 2003 VIBE Awards. In a 2008 interview for AllHipHop Fredro Starr made a comment about 50 Cent:\"...50 is a smart businessman and at the end of the day we gave him respect. We put him on records when we was at the top of the game. He didn't even have a car. We gave him respect on the strength of Jam Master Jay. What did we get in return? Someone talking slick on mixtapes? Swinging on n****s?\"\n\nReleases\n\n12\" vinyl single track listing\nA-Side:\n\"React\" (Radio Edit) - 4:25 (Featuring 50 Cent, Bonifucco, Still Livin, X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Broke Willies\" (Radio Edit) - 4:08 (Featuring X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Shut 'Em Down\" (Remix)- 4:07 (Featuring Big Pun, Noreaga)\n\nB-Side:\n\"React\" (TV track)- 4:26\n\"Broke Willies\" (TV Track) - 4:09\n\"Shut 'Em Down\" (Remix) (TV Track) - 4:07\n\nCD promo single track listing\n\"React\" (Radio Edit)- 4:26 (Featuring 50 Cent, Bonifucco, Still Livin, X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Broke Willies\" (Radio Edit)- 4:11 (Featuring X1 [Uncredited])\n\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\" (Radio Edit)- 4:02 (Featuring Big Pun, Noreaga)\n\nNotes\n The single version of \"Broke Willies\" is very different in music from the album version.\n\nSamples\n\"Eastside Connection\" by Frisco Disco\n\nNotes\n LL Cool J is the first rap artist who used the same sample in his 1985 song \"You'll Rock\" (Remix) produced by Rick Rubin.\n\nPersonnel \n Onyx - performer, vocals, co-producer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Fredro Starr - performer, vocals\n Sticky Fingaz - performer, vocals\n Sonny Seeza - performer, vocals\n Bud'da - producer (\"React\")\n Keith Horne - producer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Don Elliot - engineer (\"Broke Willies\")\n Self - producer (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Ken \"DURO\" Ifill - engineer, mixing\n DJ LS One - engineer, mixing, scratches\n Patrick Viala - remixing (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Tony Black - mixing, remixing (\"Shut 'Em Down (Remix)\")\n Tom Coyne - mastering\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nReact at Discogs\nReact at RapGenius\n\n1998 singles\nJMJ Records singles\n50 Cent songs\nOnyx (group) songs\nSongs written by 50 Cent\nMusic videos directed by Director X\nPosse cuts"
]
|
[
"Jon Krakauer",
"Into Thin Air"
]
| C_ca3d364fd9a54bb99dd22615a6f86a12_1 | What is Into Thin Air? | 1 | What is Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer? | Jon Krakauer | In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into what has become his best-known book, Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall--the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport." Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners. In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormakur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormakur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot. CANNOTANSWER | The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. | Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven; and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest.
Early life
Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the third of five children of Carol Ann (née Jones) and Lewis Joseph Krakauer. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Unitarian, of Scandinavian descent. He was raised in Corvallis, Oregon, from the age of two. His father introduced the young Krakauer to mountaineering at the age of eight. His father was "relentlessly competitive and ambitious in the extreme" and placed high expectations on Krakauer, wishing for his son to attend Harvard Medical School and become a doctor, "life's one sure path to meaningful success and lasting happiness." He competed in tennis at Corvallis High School, and graduated in 1972. He went on to study at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where in 1976 he received his degree in Environmental Studies. In 1977, he met former climber Linda Mariam Moore, and they married in 1980. They lived in Seattle, Washington, but moved to Boulder, Colorado, after the release of Krakauer's book Into Thin Air.
Mountaineering
After graduating from college, Krakauer spent five weeks alone in the wilderness of the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska and climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb, an experience he described in Eiger Dreams and in Into the Wild. In 1992, he made his way to Cerro Torre in the Andes of Patagonia—a sheer granite peak considered to be one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
In 1996, Krakauer took part in a guided ascent of Mount Everest. His group was one of those caught in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a violent storm trapped a number of climbers high on the slopes of the mountain. Krakauer reached the peak and returned to camp, but four of his teammates (including group leader Rob Hall) died while making their descent in the storm.
A candid recollection of the event was published in Outside magazine and, later, in the book Into Thin Air. By the end of the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people had died on the mountain, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history to that point. This has since been exceeded by the sixteen deaths in the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche, and the 2015 earthquake avalanche disaster in which twenty-two people were killed. Krakauer has publicly criticized the commercialization of Mount Everest.
Journalism
Much of Krakauer's popularity as a writer came from his work as a journalist for Outside. In November 1983, he was able to give up his part-time work as a fisherman and carpenter to become a full-time writer. In addition to his work on mountain climbing, the topics he covered as a freelance writer varied greatly; his writing has also appeared in Architectural Digest, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Smithsonian. Krakauer's 1992 book Eiger Dreams collects some of his articles written between 1982 and 1989.
On assignment for Outside, Krakauer wrote an article focusing on two parties during his ascent of Mt. Everest: the one he was in, led by Rob Hall, and the one led by Scott Fischer, both of whom successfully guided clients to the summit but experienced severe difficulty during the descent. The storm, and, in his estimation, irresponsible choices by guides of both parties, led to a number of deaths, including both head guides. Krakauer felt the short account did not accurately cover the event, and clarified his initial statements—especially those regarding the death of Andy Harris—in Into Thin Air, which also includes extensive interviews with fellow survivors.
In 1999, he received an Arts and Letters award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Books
Eiger Dreams
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990) is a non-fiction collection of articles and essays by Jon Krakauer on mountaineering and rock climbing. It concerns a variety of topics, from ascending the Eiger Nordwand in the Swiss Alps, Denali in Alaska or K2 in the Karakoram, to the well-known rock climbers Krakauer has met on his trips, such as John Gill.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild was published in 1996 and spent two years on The New York Times Best Seller List. The book employs a non-linear narrative that documents the travels of Christopher McCandless, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family who, in 1990, after graduating from Emory University, donated all of the money ($24,000) in his bank account to the humanitarian charity Oxfam, renamed himself "Alexander Supertramp", and began a journey in the American West. McCandless' remains were found in September 1992; he had died of starvation in Alaska on the Stampede Trail at near Lake Wentitika in Denali National Park and Preserve. In the book, Krakauer draws parallels between McCandless' experiences and his own, and the experiences of other adventurers. Into The Wild was adapted into a film of the same name, which was released on September 21, 2007.
Into Thin Air
In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall—the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport."
Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners.
In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormákur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormákur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot.
In the book, Krakauer noted that Russian-Kazakhstani guide Anatoli Boukreev, Scott Fischer's top guide on the expedition, ascended the summit without supplemental oxygen, "which didn't seem to be in [the] clients' best interest". He also wrote that Boukreev descended from the summit several hours ahead of his clients, and that this was "extremely unorthodox behavior for a guide". He noted however that, once he had descended to the top camp, Boukreev was heroic in his tireless attempts to rescue the missing climbers. Five months after Into Thin Air was published, Boukreev gave his own account of the Everest disaster in the book The Climb, co-written with G. Weston DeWalt.
Differences centered on what experienced mountaineers thought about the facts of Boukreev's performance. As Galen Rowell from the American Alpine Journal wrote to Krakauer, "the fact that every one of Boukreev's clients survived without major injuries while the clients who died or received major injuries were members of your party. Could you explain how Anatoli [Boukreev]'s shortcomings as a guide led to the survival of his clients…?" In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Rowell cited numerous inconsistencies in Krakauer's narrative, observing that Krakauer was sleeping in his tent while Boukreev was rescuing other climbers. Rowell argued that Boukreev's actions were nothing short of heroic, and his judgment prescient: "[Boukreev] foresaw problems with clients nearing camp, noted five other guides on the peak [Everest], and positioned himself to be rested and hydrated enough to respond to an emergency. His heroism was not a fluke." Conversely, Scott Fischer, the leader of Boukreev's team who died on the mountain, had complained continuously about Boukreev's shirking responsibility and his inability to meet the demands put upon him as the top guide—complaints documented in transcripts of radio transmissions between Fischer and his base-camp managers. After the publication of Into Thin Air and The Climb, DeWalt, Boukreev, and Krakauer became embroiled in disagreements about Krakauer's portrayal of Boukreev. Krakauer had reached a détente with Boukreev in November 1997, but the Russian climber was killed by an avalanche only a few weeks later while climbing Annapurna.
Under the Banner of Heaven
In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller. The book examines extremes of religious belief, specifically fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism. Krakauer looks at the practice of polygamy in these offshoots and scrutinizes it in the context of the Latter Day Saints religion throughout its history. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the name of their fundamentalist faith.
In 2006, Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula produced a documentary inspired by the book, Damned to Heaven.
Robert Millet, Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, an LDS institution, reviewed the book and described it as confusing, poorly organized, misleading, erroneous, prejudicial and insulting. Mike Otterson, Director of Media Relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), told the Associated Press, "This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. His basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things."
In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church hierarchy, citing the opinion of D. Michael Quinn, a historian who was excommunicated in 1993, who wrote that "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials". Krakauer wrote, "I happen to share Dr. Quinn's perspective".
As of June, 2021, a limited series of Under the Banner of Heaven is under development by FX and Dustin Lance Black.
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
In the October 25, 2007, season premiere of Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel, Krakauer mentioned being deeply embroiled in the writing of a new book, but did not reveal the title, subject, or expected date of completion. Doubleday Publishing originally planned to release the book in the fall of 2008, but postponed the launch in June of that year, announcing that Krakauer was "unhappy with the manuscript".
The book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, was released by Doubleday on September 15, 2009. It draws on the journals and letters of Pat Tillman, an NFL professional football player and U.S. Army Ranger whose death in Afghanistan made him a symbol of American sacrifice and heroism, though it also became a subject of controversy because of the U.S. Army's cover-up of the fact that Tillman died by friendly fire, that is, he was killed by another U.S. soldier. The book draws on the journals and letters of Tillman, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and research Krakauer performed in Afghanistan. It also serves in part as a historical narrative, providing a general history of the civil wars in Afghanistan.
Writing about the book in the New York Times book review, Dexter Filkins said that "too many of the details of Tillman’s life recounted here are mostly banal and inconsequential", but also stated, concerning Tillman's death, "While most of the facts have been reported before, Krakauer performs a valuable service by bringing them all together—particularly those about the cover-up. The details, even five years later, are nauseating to read". In his review in the Los Angeles Times, Dan Neil wrote that the book is "a beautiful bit of reporting" and "the definitive version of events surrounding Tillman's death".
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way
Three Cups of Deceit is a 2011 e-book that made claims of mismanagement and accounting fraud by Greg Mortenson, a humanitarian who built schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan; and his charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI). It was later released in paperback by Anchor Books.
The book—and a related 60 Minutes interview broadcast the day before the book's release—were controversial. Some CAI donors filed a class-action lawsuit against Mortenson for having allegedly defrauded them with false claims in his books. The suit was eventually rejected. In December 2011, CAI produced a comprehensive list of projects completed over a period of years and projects CAI is currently working on.
Mortenson and CAI were investigated by the Montana Attorney General, who determined that they had made financial "missteps", and the Attorney General reached a settlement for restitution from Mortenson to CAI in excess of $1 million.
The 2016 documentary 3000 Cups of Tea by Jennifer Jordan and Jeff Rhoads claims that the accusations against Mortenson put forward by 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer are largely untrue. Jordan said in 2014: "We are still investigating this story. So far, our findings are indicating that the majority of the allegations are grossly misrepresented to make him appear in the worst possible light, or are outright false. Yes, Greg is a bad manager and accountant, and he is the first to admit that, but he is also a tireless humanitarian with a crucially important mission."
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) explores how rape is handled by colleges and the criminal justice system. The book follows several case studies of women raped in Missoula, Montana, many of them linked in some way to the University of Montana. Krakauer attempts to illuminate why many victims do not want to report their rapes to the police, and he criticizes the justice system for giving the benefit of the doubt to assailants but not to victims. Krakauer was inspired to write the book when a friend of his, a young woman, revealed to him that she had been raped.
Emily Bazelon, writing for the New York Times Book Review, gave the book a lukewarm review, criticizing it for not fully exploring its characters or appreciating the difficulty colleges face in handling and trying to prevent sexual assault. "Instead of delving deeply into questions of fairness as universities try to fulfill a recent government mandate to conduct their own investigations and hearings – apart from the police and the courts – Krakauer settles for bromides," Bazelon wrote. "University procedures should 'swiftly identify student offenders and prevent them from reoffending, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of the accused,' he writes, asserting that this 'will be difficult, but it's not rocket science".
As editor
, Krakauer edits the Exploration series of the Modern Library.
Selected bibliography
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990)
Into the Wild (1996)
Into Thin Air (1997) (expanded from an article in Outside magazine)
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009)
Three Cups of Deceit (2011)
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015)
Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk (2019)
References
Sources
External links
1954 births
20th-century American writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Jewish American journalists
American male journalists
American mountain climbers
American non-fiction outdoors writers
American summiters of Mount Everest
American people of Scandinavian descent
Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni
Hampshire College alumni
Jewish American writers
Journalists from Oregon
Living people
Male feminists
Mormon studies scholars
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
People from Corvallis, Oregon
Writers from Boulder, Colorado
Writers from Oregon
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Into Thin Air is a 1997 book by Jon Krakauer.\n\nInto Thin Air may also refer to:\n\n Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, a 1997 American TV movie based on Krakauer's book\n Into Thin Air (TV series), a 2005 Hong Kong drama series\n \"Into Thin Air\" (Alfred Hitchcock Presents), an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents\n \"Into Thin Air\", an episode of Astro Boy\n Into Thin Air, a novel by Caroline Leavitt\n Into Thin Air, a 2004 collected edition of the comics series The Pulse\n Into Thin Air, a mystery novel by Thomas Zigal\n Into Thin Air, a song by Trickside\n\nSee also \n Thin Air (disambiguation)",
"Electrostatic–pneumatic activation is an actuation method for shaping thin membranes for microelectromechanical and microoptoelectromechanical systems. This method benefits from operation at high speed and low power consumption. It can also cause large deflection on thin membranes. Electrostatic-pneumatic MEMS devices usually consist of two membranes with a sealed cavity in between. One membrane calling actuator deflects into cavity by electrostatic pressure to compress air and increase air pressure. Elevated pressure pushes the other membrane and cause dome shape. With direct electrostatic actuation on membrane, a concave shape is achieved.\n\nThis method is used in MEMS deformable mirrors\n to create convex and concave mirrors. Electrostatic-pneumatic actuation can double maximum displacement of a thin membrane compared to only electrostatic actuated membrane.\n\nMoreover, mechanical advantage is possible by use of electrostatic-pneumatic actuation. Since the cavity is filled with air, mechanical amplification is lower than hydraulic machinery with a non-compressible fluid.\n\nReferences \n\nMirrors\nMicrotechnology"
]
|
[
"Jon Krakauer",
"Into Thin Air",
"What is Into Thin Air?",
"The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time."
]
| C_ca3d364fd9a54bb99dd22615a6f86a12_1 | What is significant about this book? | 2 | What is significant about Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer? | Jon Krakauer | In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into what has become his best-known book, Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall--the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport." Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners. In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormakur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormakur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot. CANNOTANSWER | The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, | Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven; and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest.
Early life
Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the third of five children of Carol Ann (née Jones) and Lewis Joseph Krakauer. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Unitarian, of Scandinavian descent. He was raised in Corvallis, Oregon, from the age of two. His father introduced the young Krakauer to mountaineering at the age of eight. His father was "relentlessly competitive and ambitious in the extreme" and placed high expectations on Krakauer, wishing for his son to attend Harvard Medical School and become a doctor, "life's one sure path to meaningful success and lasting happiness." He competed in tennis at Corvallis High School, and graduated in 1972. He went on to study at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where in 1976 he received his degree in Environmental Studies. In 1977, he met former climber Linda Mariam Moore, and they married in 1980. They lived in Seattle, Washington, but moved to Boulder, Colorado, after the release of Krakauer's book Into Thin Air.
Mountaineering
After graduating from college, Krakauer spent five weeks alone in the wilderness of the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska and climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb, an experience he described in Eiger Dreams and in Into the Wild. In 1992, he made his way to Cerro Torre in the Andes of Patagonia—a sheer granite peak considered to be one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
In 1996, Krakauer took part in a guided ascent of Mount Everest. His group was one of those caught in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a violent storm trapped a number of climbers high on the slopes of the mountain. Krakauer reached the peak and returned to camp, but four of his teammates (including group leader Rob Hall) died while making their descent in the storm.
A candid recollection of the event was published in Outside magazine and, later, in the book Into Thin Air. By the end of the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people had died on the mountain, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history to that point. This has since been exceeded by the sixteen deaths in the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche, and the 2015 earthquake avalanche disaster in which twenty-two people were killed. Krakauer has publicly criticized the commercialization of Mount Everest.
Journalism
Much of Krakauer's popularity as a writer came from his work as a journalist for Outside. In November 1983, he was able to give up his part-time work as a fisherman and carpenter to become a full-time writer. In addition to his work on mountain climbing, the topics he covered as a freelance writer varied greatly; his writing has also appeared in Architectural Digest, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Smithsonian. Krakauer's 1992 book Eiger Dreams collects some of his articles written between 1982 and 1989.
On assignment for Outside, Krakauer wrote an article focusing on two parties during his ascent of Mt. Everest: the one he was in, led by Rob Hall, and the one led by Scott Fischer, both of whom successfully guided clients to the summit but experienced severe difficulty during the descent. The storm, and, in his estimation, irresponsible choices by guides of both parties, led to a number of deaths, including both head guides. Krakauer felt the short account did not accurately cover the event, and clarified his initial statements—especially those regarding the death of Andy Harris—in Into Thin Air, which also includes extensive interviews with fellow survivors.
In 1999, he received an Arts and Letters award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Books
Eiger Dreams
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990) is a non-fiction collection of articles and essays by Jon Krakauer on mountaineering and rock climbing. It concerns a variety of topics, from ascending the Eiger Nordwand in the Swiss Alps, Denali in Alaska or K2 in the Karakoram, to the well-known rock climbers Krakauer has met on his trips, such as John Gill.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild was published in 1996 and spent two years on The New York Times Best Seller List. The book employs a non-linear narrative that documents the travels of Christopher McCandless, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family who, in 1990, after graduating from Emory University, donated all of the money ($24,000) in his bank account to the humanitarian charity Oxfam, renamed himself "Alexander Supertramp", and began a journey in the American West. McCandless' remains were found in September 1992; he had died of starvation in Alaska on the Stampede Trail at near Lake Wentitika in Denali National Park and Preserve. In the book, Krakauer draws parallels between McCandless' experiences and his own, and the experiences of other adventurers. Into The Wild was adapted into a film of the same name, which was released on September 21, 2007.
Into Thin Air
In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall—the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport."
Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners.
In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormákur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormákur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot.
In the book, Krakauer noted that Russian-Kazakhstani guide Anatoli Boukreev, Scott Fischer's top guide on the expedition, ascended the summit without supplemental oxygen, "which didn't seem to be in [the] clients' best interest". He also wrote that Boukreev descended from the summit several hours ahead of his clients, and that this was "extremely unorthodox behavior for a guide". He noted however that, once he had descended to the top camp, Boukreev was heroic in his tireless attempts to rescue the missing climbers. Five months after Into Thin Air was published, Boukreev gave his own account of the Everest disaster in the book The Climb, co-written with G. Weston DeWalt.
Differences centered on what experienced mountaineers thought about the facts of Boukreev's performance. As Galen Rowell from the American Alpine Journal wrote to Krakauer, "the fact that every one of Boukreev's clients survived without major injuries while the clients who died or received major injuries were members of your party. Could you explain how Anatoli [Boukreev]'s shortcomings as a guide led to the survival of his clients…?" In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Rowell cited numerous inconsistencies in Krakauer's narrative, observing that Krakauer was sleeping in his tent while Boukreev was rescuing other climbers. Rowell argued that Boukreev's actions were nothing short of heroic, and his judgment prescient: "[Boukreev] foresaw problems with clients nearing camp, noted five other guides on the peak [Everest], and positioned himself to be rested and hydrated enough to respond to an emergency. His heroism was not a fluke." Conversely, Scott Fischer, the leader of Boukreev's team who died on the mountain, had complained continuously about Boukreev's shirking responsibility and his inability to meet the demands put upon him as the top guide—complaints documented in transcripts of radio transmissions between Fischer and his base-camp managers. After the publication of Into Thin Air and The Climb, DeWalt, Boukreev, and Krakauer became embroiled in disagreements about Krakauer's portrayal of Boukreev. Krakauer had reached a détente with Boukreev in November 1997, but the Russian climber was killed by an avalanche only a few weeks later while climbing Annapurna.
Under the Banner of Heaven
In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller. The book examines extremes of religious belief, specifically fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism. Krakauer looks at the practice of polygamy in these offshoots and scrutinizes it in the context of the Latter Day Saints religion throughout its history. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the name of their fundamentalist faith.
In 2006, Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula produced a documentary inspired by the book, Damned to Heaven.
Robert Millet, Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, an LDS institution, reviewed the book and described it as confusing, poorly organized, misleading, erroneous, prejudicial and insulting. Mike Otterson, Director of Media Relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), told the Associated Press, "This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. His basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things."
In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church hierarchy, citing the opinion of D. Michael Quinn, a historian who was excommunicated in 1993, who wrote that "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials". Krakauer wrote, "I happen to share Dr. Quinn's perspective".
As of June, 2021, a limited series of Under the Banner of Heaven is under development by FX and Dustin Lance Black.
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
In the October 25, 2007, season premiere of Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel, Krakauer mentioned being deeply embroiled in the writing of a new book, but did not reveal the title, subject, or expected date of completion. Doubleday Publishing originally planned to release the book in the fall of 2008, but postponed the launch in June of that year, announcing that Krakauer was "unhappy with the manuscript".
The book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, was released by Doubleday on September 15, 2009. It draws on the journals and letters of Pat Tillman, an NFL professional football player and U.S. Army Ranger whose death in Afghanistan made him a symbol of American sacrifice and heroism, though it also became a subject of controversy because of the U.S. Army's cover-up of the fact that Tillman died by friendly fire, that is, he was killed by another U.S. soldier. The book draws on the journals and letters of Tillman, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and research Krakauer performed in Afghanistan. It also serves in part as a historical narrative, providing a general history of the civil wars in Afghanistan.
Writing about the book in the New York Times book review, Dexter Filkins said that "too many of the details of Tillman’s life recounted here are mostly banal and inconsequential", but also stated, concerning Tillman's death, "While most of the facts have been reported before, Krakauer performs a valuable service by bringing them all together—particularly those about the cover-up. The details, even five years later, are nauseating to read". In his review in the Los Angeles Times, Dan Neil wrote that the book is "a beautiful bit of reporting" and "the definitive version of events surrounding Tillman's death".
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way
Three Cups of Deceit is a 2011 e-book that made claims of mismanagement and accounting fraud by Greg Mortenson, a humanitarian who built schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan; and his charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI). It was later released in paperback by Anchor Books.
The book—and a related 60 Minutes interview broadcast the day before the book's release—were controversial. Some CAI donors filed a class-action lawsuit against Mortenson for having allegedly defrauded them with false claims in his books. The suit was eventually rejected. In December 2011, CAI produced a comprehensive list of projects completed over a period of years and projects CAI is currently working on.
Mortenson and CAI were investigated by the Montana Attorney General, who determined that they had made financial "missteps", and the Attorney General reached a settlement for restitution from Mortenson to CAI in excess of $1 million.
The 2016 documentary 3000 Cups of Tea by Jennifer Jordan and Jeff Rhoads claims that the accusations against Mortenson put forward by 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer are largely untrue. Jordan said in 2014: "We are still investigating this story. So far, our findings are indicating that the majority of the allegations are grossly misrepresented to make him appear in the worst possible light, or are outright false. Yes, Greg is a bad manager and accountant, and he is the first to admit that, but he is also a tireless humanitarian with a crucially important mission."
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) explores how rape is handled by colleges and the criminal justice system. The book follows several case studies of women raped in Missoula, Montana, many of them linked in some way to the University of Montana. Krakauer attempts to illuminate why many victims do not want to report their rapes to the police, and he criticizes the justice system for giving the benefit of the doubt to assailants but not to victims. Krakauer was inspired to write the book when a friend of his, a young woman, revealed to him that she had been raped.
Emily Bazelon, writing for the New York Times Book Review, gave the book a lukewarm review, criticizing it for not fully exploring its characters or appreciating the difficulty colleges face in handling and trying to prevent sexual assault. "Instead of delving deeply into questions of fairness as universities try to fulfill a recent government mandate to conduct their own investigations and hearings – apart from the police and the courts – Krakauer settles for bromides," Bazelon wrote. "University procedures should 'swiftly identify student offenders and prevent them from reoffending, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of the accused,' he writes, asserting that this 'will be difficult, but it's not rocket science".
As editor
, Krakauer edits the Exploration series of the Modern Library.
Selected bibliography
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990)
Into the Wild (1996)
Into Thin Air (1997) (expanded from an article in Outside magazine)
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009)
Three Cups of Deceit (2011)
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015)
Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk (2019)
References
Sources
External links
1954 births
20th-century American writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Jewish American journalists
American male journalists
American mountain climbers
American non-fiction outdoors writers
American summiters of Mount Everest
American people of Scandinavian descent
Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni
Hampshire College alumni
Jewish American writers
Journalists from Oregon
Living people
Male feminists
Mormon studies scholars
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
People from Corvallis, Oregon
Writers from Boulder, Colorado
Writers from Oregon
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Till We Win: India's Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic, published by Penguin Books in 2020, is a book on the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It has been coauthored by three leading doctors/scientists and health system experts of India. Co-written by Chandrakant Lahariya, Randeep Guleria, and Gagandeep Kang, this book managed to garner significant critical attention from book reviewers and reputed media across the country.\n\nReception \nMumbai Mirror wrote: \"Dedicated to frontline healthcare workers, the book provides insights into how the pandemic emerged and grew, what was done to combat the virus, what continues to be done, and what the future holds for us. Dr Kang is, of course, one of the country’s leading medical scientist, Dr. Lahariya is a public health practitioner and public policy strategist, who has coordinated the World Health Organization's work in India on new vaccines, and Dr. Guleria is the director of All India Institutes of Medical Sciences.\"\n\nRamya Kannan from The Hindu stated that Till We Win is a valiant attempt by three scientists who together wrote a book to provide the much needed clarity about the pandemic. About the book, she further wrote that: \"It touches on all key aspects of the crisis, including the nature of viruses, the corona virus family, a timeline, the country’s state of unpreparedness, upgradation of health infrastructure, health systems and funding, treatment protocols that constantly evolved, raises and answers questions about quarantine, safety protocols, vaccines, based on scientific prudence at that point of time, hoping to address the gaps in communication that exist despite the carpet bombing of information on COVID.\"\n\nThe New Indian Express's review of the book stated that: \"Overall, the book is for the people, political leaders, policymakers and physicians, with the promise and potential to transform public health and strengthen Indian healthcare system. The book focuses as much about staying safe in the pandemic, providing information on vaccines and therapies.\"\n\nSee also \n\n Randeep Guleria\n Chandrakant Lahariya\n Gagandeep Kang\n COVID-19 pandemic in India\n\nReferences \n\n2020 non-fiction books\nBooks about the COVID-19 pandemic\nPenguin Books India books\nCOVID-19 pandemic in India",
"Significant form refers to an aesthetic theory developed by English art critic Clive Bell which specified a set of criteria for what qualified as a work of art. In his 1914 Book Art, Bell postulated that for an object to be deemed a work of art it required potential to provoke aesthetic emotion in its viewer, a quality he termed \"significant form.\" Bell's definition explicitly separated significant form from beauty; in order to possess significant form, an object need not be attractive as long as it elicits an emotional response.\n\nAs Bell put it succinctly: \"The important thing about a picture, however, is not how it is painted, but whether it provokes aesthetic emotion.\"\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n Text of Art Gutenberg Project\n\nConcepts in aesthetics\nArt criticism"
]
|
[
"Jon Krakauer",
"Into Thin Air",
"What is Into Thin Air?",
"The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time.",
"What is significant about this book?",
"The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as \"Book of the Year\" by Time magazine,"
]
| C_ca3d364fd9a54bb99dd22615a6f86a12_1 | Did this book win any other awards? | 3 | Did Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer win any other awards besides reaching the top of The New York Times' non fiction bestseller list and being honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine? | Jon Krakauer | In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into what has become his best-known book, Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall--the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport." Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners. In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormakur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormakur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot. CANNOTANSWER | The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, | Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven; and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest.
Early life
Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the third of five children of Carol Ann (née Jones) and Lewis Joseph Krakauer. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Unitarian, of Scandinavian descent. He was raised in Corvallis, Oregon, from the age of two. His father introduced the young Krakauer to mountaineering at the age of eight. His father was "relentlessly competitive and ambitious in the extreme" and placed high expectations on Krakauer, wishing for his son to attend Harvard Medical School and become a doctor, "life's one sure path to meaningful success and lasting happiness." He competed in tennis at Corvallis High School, and graduated in 1972. He went on to study at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where in 1976 he received his degree in Environmental Studies. In 1977, he met former climber Linda Mariam Moore, and they married in 1980. They lived in Seattle, Washington, but moved to Boulder, Colorado, after the release of Krakauer's book Into Thin Air.
Mountaineering
After graduating from college, Krakauer spent five weeks alone in the wilderness of the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska and climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb, an experience he described in Eiger Dreams and in Into the Wild. In 1992, he made his way to Cerro Torre in the Andes of Patagonia—a sheer granite peak considered to be one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
In 1996, Krakauer took part in a guided ascent of Mount Everest. His group was one of those caught in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a violent storm trapped a number of climbers high on the slopes of the mountain. Krakauer reached the peak and returned to camp, but four of his teammates (including group leader Rob Hall) died while making their descent in the storm.
A candid recollection of the event was published in Outside magazine and, later, in the book Into Thin Air. By the end of the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people had died on the mountain, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history to that point. This has since been exceeded by the sixteen deaths in the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche, and the 2015 earthquake avalanche disaster in which twenty-two people were killed. Krakauer has publicly criticized the commercialization of Mount Everest.
Journalism
Much of Krakauer's popularity as a writer came from his work as a journalist for Outside. In November 1983, he was able to give up his part-time work as a fisherman and carpenter to become a full-time writer. In addition to his work on mountain climbing, the topics he covered as a freelance writer varied greatly; his writing has also appeared in Architectural Digest, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Smithsonian. Krakauer's 1992 book Eiger Dreams collects some of his articles written between 1982 and 1989.
On assignment for Outside, Krakauer wrote an article focusing on two parties during his ascent of Mt. Everest: the one he was in, led by Rob Hall, and the one led by Scott Fischer, both of whom successfully guided clients to the summit but experienced severe difficulty during the descent. The storm, and, in his estimation, irresponsible choices by guides of both parties, led to a number of deaths, including both head guides. Krakauer felt the short account did not accurately cover the event, and clarified his initial statements—especially those regarding the death of Andy Harris—in Into Thin Air, which also includes extensive interviews with fellow survivors.
In 1999, he received an Arts and Letters award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Books
Eiger Dreams
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990) is a non-fiction collection of articles and essays by Jon Krakauer on mountaineering and rock climbing. It concerns a variety of topics, from ascending the Eiger Nordwand in the Swiss Alps, Denali in Alaska or K2 in the Karakoram, to the well-known rock climbers Krakauer has met on his trips, such as John Gill.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild was published in 1996 and spent two years on The New York Times Best Seller List. The book employs a non-linear narrative that documents the travels of Christopher McCandless, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family who, in 1990, after graduating from Emory University, donated all of the money ($24,000) in his bank account to the humanitarian charity Oxfam, renamed himself "Alexander Supertramp", and began a journey in the American West. McCandless' remains were found in September 1992; he had died of starvation in Alaska on the Stampede Trail at near Lake Wentitika in Denali National Park and Preserve. In the book, Krakauer draws parallels between McCandless' experiences and his own, and the experiences of other adventurers. Into The Wild was adapted into a film of the same name, which was released on September 21, 2007.
Into Thin Air
In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall—the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport."
Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners.
In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormákur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormákur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot.
In the book, Krakauer noted that Russian-Kazakhstani guide Anatoli Boukreev, Scott Fischer's top guide on the expedition, ascended the summit without supplemental oxygen, "which didn't seem to be in [the] clients' best interest". He also wrote that Boukreev descended from the summit several hours ahead of his clients, and that this was "extremely unorthodox behavior for a guide". He noted however that, once he had descended to the top camp, Boukreev was heroic in his tireless attempts to rescue the missing climbers. Five months after Into Thin Air was published, Boukreev gave his own account of the Everest disaster in the book The Climb, co-written with G. Weston DeWalt.
Differences centered on what experienced mountaineers thought about the facts of Boukreev's performance. As Galen Rowell from the American Alpine Journal wrote to Krakauer, "the fact that every one of Boukreev's clients survived without major injuries while the clients who died or received major injuries were members of your party. Could you explain how Anatoli [Boukreev]'s shortcomings as a guide led to the survival of his clients…?" In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Rowell cited numerous inconsistencies in Krakauer's narrative, observing that Krakauer was sleeping in his tent while Boukreev was rescuing other climbers. Rowell argued that Boukreev's actions were nothing short of heroic, and his judgment prescient: "[Boukreev] foresaw problems with clients nearing camp, noted five other guides on the peak [Everest], and positioned himself to be rested and hydrated enough to respond to an emergency. His heroism was not a fluke." Conversely, Scott Fischer, the leader of Boukreev's team who died on the mountain, had complained continuously about Boukreev's shirking responsibility and his inability to meet the demands put upon him as the top guide—complaints documented in transcripts of radio transmissions between Fischer and his base-camp managers. After the publication of Into Thin Air and The Climb, DeWalt, Boukreev, and Krakauer became embroiled in disagreements about Krakauer's portrayal of Boukreev. Krakauer had reached a détente with Boukreev in November 1997, but the Russian climber was killed by an avalanche only a few weeks later while climbing Annapurna.
Under the Banner of Heaven
In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller. The book examines extremes of religious belief, specifically fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism. Krakauer looks at the practice of polygamy in these offshoots and scrutinizes it in the context of the Latter Day Saints religion throughout its history. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the name of their fundamentalist faith.
In 2006, Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula produced a documentary inspired by the book, Damned to Heaven.
Robert Millet, Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, an LDS institution, reviewed the book and described it as confusing, poorly organized, misleading, erroneous, prejudicial and insulting. Mike Otterson, Director of Media Relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), told the Associated Press, "This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. His basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things."
In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church hierarchy, citing the opinion of D. Michael Quinn, a historian who was excommunicated in 1993, who wrote that "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials". Krakauer wrote, "I happen to share Dr. Quinn's perspective".
As of June, 2021, a limited series of Under the Banner of Heaven is under development by FX and Dustin Lance Black.
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
In the October 25, 2007, season premiere of Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel, Krakauer mentioned being deeply embroiled in the writing of a new book, but did not reveal the title, subject, or expected date of completion. Doubleday Publishing originally planned to release the book in the fall of 2008, but postponed the launch in June of that year, announcing that Krakauer was "unhappy with the manuscript".
The book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, was released by Doubleday on September 15, 2009. It draws on the journals and letters of Pat Tillman, an NFL professional football player and U.S. Army Ranger whose death in Afghanistan made him a symbol of American sacrifice and heroism, though it also became a subject of controversy because of the U.S. Army's cover-up of the fact that Tillman died by friendly fire, that is, he was killed by another U.S. soldier. The book draws on the journals and letters of Tillman, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and research Krakauer performed in Afghanistan. It also serves in part as a historical narrative, providing a general history of the civil wars in Afghanistan.
Writing about the book in the New York Times book review, Dexter Filkins said that "too many of the details of Tillman’s life recounted here are mostly banal and inconsequential", but also stated, concerning Tillman's death, "While most of the facts have been reported before, Krakauer performs a valuable service by bringing them all together—particularly those about the cover-up. The details, even five years later, are nauseating to read". In his review in the Los Angeles Times, Dan Neil wrote that the book is "a beautiful bit of reporting" and "the definitive version of events surrounding Tillman's death".
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way
Three Cups of Deceit is a 2011 e-book that made claims of mismanagement and accounting fraud by Greg Mortenson, a humanitarian who built schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan; and his charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI). It was later released in paperback by Anchor Books.
The book—and a related 60 Minutes interview broadcast the day before the book's release—were controversial. Some CAI donors filed a class-action lawsuit against Mortenson for having allegedly defrauded them with false claims in his books. The suit was eventually rejected. In December 2011, CAI produced a comprehensive list of projects completed over a period of years and projects CAI is currently working on.
Mortenson and CAI were investigated by the Montana Attorney General, who determined that they had made financial "missteps", and the Attorney General reached a settlement for restitution from Mortenson to CAI in excess of $1 million.
The 2016 documentary 3000 Cups of Tea by Jennifer Jordan and Jeff Rhoads claims that the accusations against Mortenson put forward by 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer are largely untrue. Jordan said in 2014: "We are still investigating this story. So far, our findings are indicating that the majority of the allegations are grossly misrepresented to make him appear in the worst possible light, or are outright false. Yes, Greg is a bad manager and accountant, and he is the first to admit that, but he is also a tireless humanitarian with a crucially important mission."
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) explores how rape is handled by colleges and the criminal justice system. The book follows several case studies of women raped in Missoula, Montana, many of them linked in some way to the University of Montana. Krakauer attempts to illuminate why many victims do not want to report their rapes to the police, and he criticizes the justice system for giving the benefit of the doubt to assailants but not to victims. Krakauer was inspired to write the book when a friend of his, a young woman, revealed to him that she had been raped.
Emily Bazelon, writing for the New York Times Book Review, gave the book a lukewarm review, criticizing it for not fully exploring its characters or appreciating the difficulty colleges face in handling and trying to prevent sexual assault. "Instead of delving deeply into questions of fairness as universities try to fulfill a recent government mandate to conduct their own investigations and hearings – apart from the police and the courts – Krakauer settles for bromides," Bazelon wrote. "University procedures should 'swiftly identify student offenders and prevent them from reoffending, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of the accused,' he writes, asserting that this 'will be difficult, but it's not rocket science".
As editor
, Krakauer edits the Exploration series of the Modern Library.
Selected bibliography
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990)
Into the Wild (1996)
Into Thin Air (1997) (expanded from an article in Outside magazine)
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009)
Three Cups of Deceit (2011)
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015)
Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk (2019)
References
Sources
External links
1954 births
20th-century American writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Jewish American journalists
American male journalists
American mountain climbers
American non-fiction outdoors writers
American summiters of Mount Everest
American people of Scandinavian descent
Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni
Hampshire College alumni
Jewish American writers
Journalists from Oregon
Living people
Male feminists
Mormon studies scholars
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
People from Corvallis, Oregon
Writers from Boulder, Colorado
Writers from Oregon
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Set in Stone is a children's fantasy novel written by Linda Newbery. It won the Costa Children's Book of the Year Prize for 2006, and was nominated for the 2007 Carnegie Medal.\n\nPlot summary\nSamuel Godwin, an aspiring artist, is forced to drop out of art school following his father's death. Without any qualifications, he contemplates what to do for work. Wealthy businessman Ernest Farrow advertises for an art tutor for his two daughters, and Godwin successfully applies for the position.\n\nHe moves into Farrow's mansion, Fourwinds, with adequate time to pursue his own art. Godwin becomes infatuated with Farrow's youngest daughter, Marianne, but questions remain unanswered. Marianne wanders the grounds at night, while her sister, Juliana, is always quiet and sad. Godwin discovers the previous art tutor, a talented sculptor, was sent away from Fourwinds before he finished his masterpiece.\n\nMajor themes\nAlthough written as a children's book and nominated in awards categories for eight- to fourteen-year-olds, critics have said that it should not be read by under fourteen-year-olds due to the themes of incest in the book. The author, Linda Newbery, considers the book to be young adult fiction rather than specifically for children.\n\nThe novel is set in 19th-century England, influenced by Wilkie Collins and Charlotte Brontë, with hints of Victorian gothic. The book alternates between the point of view of two different characters, in alternating chapters.\n\nReception\nNorah Piehl reviewed the book for TeenReads.com. She described the plot as \"sensational\" which \"will keep readers wide awake and shivering late into the night\". Two children who read the book on behalf of the BBC One's Newsround Press Pack whilst on the Costa Book Awards panel did not like the book compared to others on the shortlist. One did not think it was his type of book, while the other preferred a different shortlisted book, The Diamond of Drury Lane.\n\nAwards and nominations\nSet in Stone won the 2006 Costa Book Awards prize for Best Children's Book. The other shortlisted books were David Almond's Clay, Julia Golding's The Diamond of Drury Lane and Meg Rosoff's Just in Case. Following that win, the book was placed on the shortlist for Book of the Year, but that ultimately went to Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves which had qualified for the list by winning the First Novel award. The novel was also nominated for the 2007 Carnegie Medal.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nLinda Newbery official website\n\nBritish children's novels\n2006 British novels\n2006 children's books\nNovels about artists",
"This is a list of films with performances that have been nominated in all of the Academy Award acting categories.\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annually bestows Academy Awards for acting performances in the following four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.\n\nFilms \n\nAs of the 93rd Academy Awards (2020), there have been fifteen films containing at least one nominated performance in each of the four Academy Award acting categories. \n\nIn the following list, award winners are listed in bold with gold background; others listed are nominees who did not win. No film has ever won all four awards.\n\nSuperlatives \n\nNo film has won all four awards.\n\nTwo films won three awards: \n\n A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) \n Network (1976)\n\nFour films hold a total of five nominations, each with an additional nomination within one of the four categories:\n\n Mrs. Miniver (1942) – two nominations for Best Supporting Actress\n From Here to Eternity (1953) – two nominations for Best Actor\n Bonnie and Clyde (1968) – two nominations for Best Supporting Actor\n Network (1976) – two nominations for Best Actor\n\nThree of the nominated films failed to win any of the four awards: \n\n My Man Godfrey (1936) – also failed to win any other Academy Awards\n Sunset Boulevard (1950)\n American Hustle (2013) – also failed to win any other Academy Awards\n\nOnly two of the nominated films won Best Picture:\n\n Mrs. Miniver (1942)\n From Here to Eternity (1953)\n\nOnly one of the nominated films was not nominated for Best Picture:\n\n My Man Godfrey (1936)\n\nFive performers were nominated for their work in two different films that received nominations in all acting categories (winners in bold):\n\n William Holden (Sunset Boulevard, Network)\n Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde, Reds)\n Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde, Network)\n Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle)\n Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle)\n\nOnly one director has directed two films that received nominations in all four categories:\n\n David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle)\n\nThe 40th Academy Awards (1967) was the only ceremony in which multiple films held at least one nomination in all four acting categories:\n\n Bonnie and Clyde\n Guess Who's Coming to Dinner\n\nAll of the films, except My Man Godfrey and For Whom the Bell Tolls, were also nominated for the \"Big Five\" categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)).\n\nSee also \n\n List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees\n List of films with two or more Academy Awards in an acting category\n\nActing nom"
]
|
[
"Jon Krakauer",
"Into Thin Air",
"What is Into Thin Air?",
"The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time.",
"What is significant about this book?",
"The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as \"Book of the Year\" by Time magazine,",
"Did this book win any other awards?",
"The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work,"
]
| C_ca3d364fd9a54bb99dd22615a6f86a12_1 | What other awards did he win? | 4 | What other awards did Jon Krakauer win for Into Thin Air besides reaching the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, being honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and being given an Academy Award in Literature by The American Academy of Arts and Letters? | Jon Krakauer | In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into what has become his best-known book, Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall--the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport." Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners. In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormakur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormakur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot. CANNOTANSWER | was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. | Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954) is an American writer and mountaineer. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild; Into Thin Air; Under the Banner of Heaven; and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest.
Early life
Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, as the third of five children of Carol Ann (née Jones) and Lewis Joseph Krakauer. His father was Jewish and his mother was a Unitarian, of Scandinavian descent. He was raised in Corvallis, Oregon, from the age of two. His father introduced the young Krakauer to mountaineering at the age of eight. His father was "relentlessly competitive and ambitious in the extreme" and placed high expectations on Krakauer, wishing for his son to attend Harvard Medical School and become a doctor, "life's one sure path to meaningful success and lasting happiness." He competed in tennis at Corvallis High School, and graduated in 1972. He went on to study at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where in 1976 he received his degree in Environmental Studies. In 1977, he met former climber Linda Mariam Moore, and they married in 1980. They lived in Seattle, Washington, but moved to Boulder, Colorado, after the release of Krakauer's book Into Thin Air.
Mountaineering
After graduating from college, Krakauer spent five weeks alone in the wilderness of the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska and climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb, an experience he described in Eiger Dreams and in Into the Wild. In 1992, he made his way to Cerro Torre in the Andes of Patagonia—a sheer granite peak considered to be one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
In 1996, Krakauer took part in a guided ascent of Mount Everest. His group was one of those caught in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a violent storm trapped a number of climbers high on the slopes of the mountain. Krakauer reached the peak and returned to camp, but four of his teammates (including group leader Rob Hall) died while making their descent in the storm.
A candid recollection of the event was published in Outside magazine and, later, in the book Into Thin Air. By the end of the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people had died on the mountain, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history to that point. This has since been exceeded by the sixteen deaths in the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche, and the 2015 earthquake avalanche disaster in which twenty-two people were killed. Krakauer has publicly criticized the commercialization of Mount Everest.
Journalism
Much of Krakauer's popularity as a writer came from his work as a journalist for Outside. In November 1983, he was able to give up his part-time work as a fisherman and carpenter to become a full-time writer. In addition to his work on mountain climbing, the topics he covered as a freelance writer varied greatly; his writing has also appeared in Architectural Digest, National Geographic Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Smithsonian. Krakauer's 1992 book Eiger Dreams collects some of his articles written between 1982 and 1989.
On assignment for Outside, Krakauer wrote an article focusing on two parties during his ascent of Mt. Everest: the one he was in, led by Rob Hall, and the one led by Scott Fischer, both of whom successfully guided clients to the summit but experienced severe difficulty during the descent. The storm, and, in his estimation, irresponsible choices by guides of both parties, led to a number of deaths, including both head guides. Krakauer felt the short account did not accurately cover the event, and clarified his initial statements—especially those regarding the death of Andy Harris—in Into Thin Air, which also includes extensive interviews with fellow survivors.
In 1999, he received an Arts and Letters award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Books
Eiger Dreams
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990) is a non-fiction collection of articles and essays by Jon Krakauer on mountaineering and rock climbing. It concerns a variety of topics, from ascending the Eiger Nordwand in the Swiss Alps, Denali in Alaska or K2 in the Karakoram, to the well-known rock climbers Krakauer has met on his trips, such as John Gill.
Into the Wild
Into the Wild was published in 1996 and spent two years on The New York Times Best Seller List. The book employs a non-linear narrative that documents the travels of Christopher McCandless, a young man from a well-to-do East Coast family who, in 1990, after graduating from Emory University, donated all of the money ($24,000) in his bank account to the humanitarian charity Oxfam, renamed himself "Alexander Supertramp", and began a journey in the American West. McCandless' remains were found in September 1992; he had died of starvation in Alaska on the Stampede Trail at near Lake Wentitika in Denali National Park and Preserve. In the book, Krakauer draws parallels between McCandless' experiences and his own, and the experiences of other adventurers. Into The Wild was adapted into a film of the same name, which was released on September 21, 2007.
Into Thin Air
In 1997, Krakauer expanded his September 1996 Outside article into Into Thin Air. The book describes the climbing parties' experiences and the general state of Everest mountaineering at the time. Hired as a journalist by the magazine, Krakauer had participated as a client of the 1996 Everest climbing team led by Rob Hall—the team which ended up suffering the greatest casualties in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
The book reached the top of The New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list, was honored as "Book of the Year" by Time magazine, and was among three books considered for the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize in 1998. The American Academy of Arts and Letters gave Krakauer an Academy Award in Literature in 1999 for his work, commenting that the writer "combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport."
Krakauer has contributed royalties from this book to the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation, which he founded as a tribute to his deceased climbing partners.
In a TV-movie version of the book, Krakauer was played by Christopher McDonald. Everest, a feature film based on the events of the disaster directed by Baltasar Kormákur, was released in 2015. In the film, Krakauer is portrayed by Michael Kelly. Krakauer denounced the movie, saying some of its details were fabricated and defamatory. He also expressed regret regarding Sony's rapid acquisition of the rights to the book. Director Baltasar Kormákur responded, claiming Krakauer's first-person account was not used as source material for the film, and alleged that his version of events conflicted with the plot.
In the book, Krakauer noted that Russian-Kazakhstani guide Anatoli Boukreev, Scott Fischer's top guide on the expedition, ascended the summit without supplemental oxygen, "which didn't seem to be in [the] clients' best interest". He also wrote that Boukreev descended from the summit several hours ahead of his clients, and that this was "extremely unorthodox behavior for a guide". He noted however that, once he had descended to the top camp, Boukreev was heroic in his tireless attempts to rescue the missing climbers. Five months after Into Thin Air was published, Boukreev gave his own account of the Everest disaster in the book The Climb, co-written with G. Weston DeWalt.
Differences centered on what experienced mountaineers thought about the facts of Boukreev's performance. As Galen Rowell from the American Alpine Journal wrote to Krakauer, "the fact that every one of Boukreev's clients survived without major injuries while the clients who died or received major injuries were members of your party. Could you explain how Anatoli [Boukreev]'s shortcomings as a guide led to the survival of his clients…?" In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Rowell cited numerous inconsistencies in Krakauer's narrative, observing that Krakauer was sleeping in his tent while Boukreev was rescuing other climbers. Rowell argued that Boukreev's actions were nothing short of heroic, and his judgment prescient: "[Boukreev] foresaw problems with clients nearing camp, noted five other guides on the peak [Everest], and positioned himself to be rested and hydrated enough to respond to an emergency. His heroism was not a fluke." Conversely, Scott Fischer, the leader of Boukreev's team who died on the mountain, had complained continuously about Boukreev's shirking responsibility and his inability to meet the demands put upon him as the top guide—complaints documented in transcripts of radio transmissions between Fischer and his base-camp managers. After the publication of Into Thin Air and The Climb, DeWalt, Boukreev, and Krakauer became embroiled in disagreements about Krakauer's portrayal of Boukreev. Krakauer had reached a détente with Boukreev in November 1997, but the Russian climber was killed by an avalanche only a few weeks later while climbing Annapurna.
Under the Banner of Heaven
In 2003, Under the Banner of Heaven became Krakauer's third non-fiction bestseller. The book examines extremes of religious belief, specifically fundamentalist offshoots of Mormonism. Krakauer looks at the practice of polygamy in these offshoots and scrutinizes it in the context of the Latter Day Saints religion throughout its history. Much of the focus of the book is on the Lafferty brothers, who murdered in the name of their fundamentalist faith.
In 2006, Tom Elliott and Pawel Gula produced a documentary inspired by the book, Damned to Heaven.
Robert Millet, Professor of Religious Understanding at Brigham Young University, an LDS institution, reviewed the book and described it as confusing, poorly organized, misleading, erroneous, prejudicial and insulting. Mike Otterson, Director of Media Relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), told the Associated Press, "This book is not history, and Krakauer is no historian. He is a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good. His basic thesis appears to be that people who are religious are irrational, and that irrational people do strange things."
In response, Krakauer criticized the LDS Church hierarchy, citing the opinion of D. Michael Quinn, a historian who was excommunicated in 1993, who wrote that "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials". Krakauer wrote, "I happen to share Dr. Quinn's perspective".
As of June, 2021, a limited series of Under the Banner of Heaven is under development by FX and Dustin Lance Black.
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
In the October 25, 2007, season premiere of Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel, Krakauer mentioned being deeply embroiled in the writing of a new book, but did not reveal the title, subject, or expected date of completion. Doubleday Publishing originally planned to release the book in the fall of 2008, but postponed the launch in June of that year, announcing that Krakauer was "unhappy with the manuscript".
The book, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, was released by Doubleday on September 15, 2009. It draws on the journals and letters of Pat Tillman, an NFL professional football player and U.S. Army Ranger whose death in Afghanistan made him a symbol of American sacrifice and heroism, though it also became a subject of controversy because of the U.S. Army's cover-up of the fact that Tillman died by friendly fire, that is, he was killed by another U.S. soldier. The book draws on the journals and letters of Tillman, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and research Krakauer performed in Afghanistan. It also serves in part as a historical narrative, providing a general history of the civil wars in Afghanistan.
Writing about the book in the New York Times book review, Dexter Filkins said that "too many of the details of Tillman’s life recounted here are mostly banal and inconsequential", but also stated, concerning Tillman's death, "While most of the facts have been reported before, Krakauer performs a valuable service by bringing them all together—particularly those about the cover-up. The details, even five years later, are nauseating to read". In his review in the Los Angeles Times, Dan Neil wrote that the book is "a beautiful bit of reporting" and "the definitive version of events surrounding Tillman's death".
Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way
Three Cups of Deceit is a 2011 e-book that made claims of mismanagement and accounting fraud by Greg Mortenson, a humanitarian who built schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan; and his charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI). It was later released in paperback by Anchor Books.
The book—and a related 60 Minutes interview broadcast the day before the book's release—were controversial. Some CAI donors filed a class-action lawsuit against Mortenson for having allegedly defrauded them with false claims in his books. The suit was eventually rejected. In December 2011, CAI produced a comprehensive list of projects completed over a period of years and projects CAI is currently working on.
Mortenson and CAI were investigated by the Montana Attorney General, who determined that they had made financial "missteps", and the Attorney General reached a settlement for restitution from Mortenson to CAI in excess of $1 million.
The 2016 documentary 3000 Cups of Tea by Jennifer Jordan and Jeff Rhoads claims that the accusations against Mortenson put forward by 60 Minutes and Jon Krakauer are largely untrue. Jordan said in 2014: "We are still investigating this story. So far, our findings are indicating that the majority of the allegations are grossly misrepresented to make him appear in the worst possible light, or are outright false. Yes, Greg is a bad manager and accountant, and he is the first to admit that, but he is also a tireless humanitarian with a crucially important mission."
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) explores how rape is handled by colleges and the criminal justice system. The book follows several case studies of women raped in Missoula, Montana, many of them linked in some way to the University of Montana. Krakauer attempts to illuminate why many victims do not want to report their rapes to the police, and he criticizes the justice system for giving the benefit of the doubt to assailants but not to victims. Krakauer was inspired to write the book when a friend of his, a young woman, revealed to him that she had been raped.
Emily Bazelon, writing for the New York Times Book Review, gave the book a lukewarm review, criticizing it for not fully exploring its characters or appreciating the difficulty colleges face in handling and trying to prevent sexual assault. "Instead of delving deeply into questions of fairness as universities try to fulfill a recent government mandate to conduct their own investigations and hearings – apart from the police and the courts – Krakauer settles for bromides," Bazelon wrote. "University procedures should 'swiftly identify student offenders and prevent them from reoffending, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of the accused,' he writes, asserting that this 'will be difficult, but it's not rocket science".
As editor
, Krakauer edits the Exploration series of the Modern Library.
Selected bibliography
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains (1990)
Into the Wild (1996)
Into Thin Air (1997) (expanded from an article in Outside magazine)
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003)
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009)
Three Cups of Deceit (2011)
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015)
Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk (2019)
References
Sources
External links
1954 births
20th-century American writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Jewish American journalists
American male journalists
American mountain climbers
American non-fiction outdoors writers
American summiters of Mount Everest
American people of Scandinavian descent
Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni
Hampshire College alumni
Jewish American writers
Journalists from Oregon
Living people
Male feminists
Mormon studies scholars
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
People from Corvallis, Oregon
Writers from Boulder, Colorado
Writers from Oregon
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews | true | [
"Ricky Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for co-creating, writing, and acting in the British television series The Office (2001–2003). He has won seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the Rose d'Or twice (2006 and 2019), as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In 2007, he was placed at No. 11 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and at No. 3 on the updated 2010 list. In 2010, he was named on the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. In 2002 he was nominated to be Britain's Funniest Man but did not win the award, he did however beat some gangsters up in a pub when an old man was being hassled, against the odds.\n\nMajor awards\n\nPrimetime Emmy Awards\n\nGolden Globe Awards\n\nBAFTA Television Awards\n\nScreen Actors Guild Awards\n\nWriters Guild of America Awards\n\nProducers Guild of America Awards\n\nOther awards\n\nBritannia Awards\n\nBritish Comedy Guide Awards\n\nBritish Comedy Awards\n\nBroadcasting Press Guild Awards\n\nEvening Standard British Film Awards\n\nSatellite Award\n\nTelevision Critics Association Awards\n\nReferences \n\nLists of awards received by actor",
"The following is a list of awards and nominations received by Welsh actor and director Anthony Hopkins. \n\nHe is an Oscar-winning actor, having received six Academy award nominations winning two of these for Best Actor for his performance as Hannibal Lecter in the Jonathan Demme thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and for his performance as Anthony in Florian Zeller's drama The Father (2020). He also was nominated for his performances as in James Ivory's The Remains of the Day (1993), Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone's drama Nixon (1995), John Quincy Adams in Amistad (1997), and Pope Benedict XVI in the Fernando Meirelles drama The Two Popes (2019). \n\nFor his work on film and television, he has received eight Golden Globe award nominations. In 2006 he was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille award for his lifetime achievement in the entertainment industry. He has received six Primetime Emmy award nominations winning two—one in 1976 for his performance as Richard Hauptmann in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and the other in 1981 for his performance as Adolf Hitler in The Bunker, as well as seven Screen Actors Guild award nominations all of which have been respectively lost.\n\nMajor associations\n\nAcademy Awards \n2 wins out of 6 nominations\n\nBAFTA Awards \n4 wins (and one honorary award) out of 9 nominations\n\nEmmy Awards \n2 wins out of 6 nominations\n\nGolden Globe Awards \n0 wins (and one honorary award) out of 8 nominations\n\nOlivier Awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nScreen Actors Guild Awards \n0 wins out of 7 nominations\n\nAudience awards\n\nMTV Movie + TV awards \n0 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nPeople's Choice awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nCritic and association awards\n\nAlliance of Women Film Journalists awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nBoston Society of Film Critics awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nCableACE awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nChicago Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 5 nominations\n\nCritics' Choice awards \n1 win out of 4 nominations\n\nDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nKansas City Film Critics Circle awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nLondon Critics Circle Film awards \n1 win out of 5 nominations\n\nLos Angeles Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nNational Board of Review awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nNational Society of Film Critics awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nNew York Film Critics Circle awards \n1 win out of 3 nominations\n\nOnline Film & Television Association awards \n1 win out of 3 nominations\n\nOnline Film Critics Society awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nPhoenix Film Critics Society awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nSoutheastern Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nSt. Louis Film Critics Association awards \n1 win out of 2 nomination\n\nWomen's Image Network awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nFilm festival awards\n\nHollywood Film Festival awards \n2 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nLocarno International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nMethod Fest awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nMoscow International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSan Sebastian International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSanta Barbara International Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nShoWest Convention awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSitges - Catalonian International Film Festival awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nUSA Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nVirginia Film Festival awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nInternational awards\n\nBAFTA/LA Britannia awards \n1 win out of 1 nominations\n\nDavid di Donatello awards \n1 win out of 2 nominations\n\nEuropean Film Awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nEvening Standard British Film awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nJupiter awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nNew Zealand Screen awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nSant Jordi awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nYoga awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nMiscellaneous awards\n\n20/20 awards \n1 win out of 3 nominations\n\nAARP Movies for Grownups awards \n1 win out of 4 nominations\n\nFangoria Chainsaw awards \n3 wins out of 4 nominations\n\nGolden Raspberry awards \n0 wins out of 2 nominations\n\nHasty Pudding Theatricals awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nMovieGuide awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nSatellite awards \n0 wins out of 1 nomination\n\nSaturn awards \n1 win out of 5 nominations\n\nWalk of Fame \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nWestern Heritage awards \n1 win out of 1 nomination\n\nReferences\n\nHopkins, Anthony"
]
|
[
"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life"
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | Was he married? | 1 | Was Mwai Kibaki married? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
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1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | true | [
"This article contains a list of child bridegrooms or child husbands wherein notable or historically significant examples have been singled out.\n\nList\n\nAntiquity \n Tutankhamun was married before the age of nine years to his half-sister Ankhesenamun (aged about 16).\n\n8th century \n The future Emperor Shōmu (aged about 16) was married to in Asukabe-hime (aged 16) .\n\n10th century \n The future Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (aged 16/17), was married to Theophanu (aged about 17) in 972.\n\n The future Louis V of France (aged about 15) was married to the twice-widowed Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou (aged 40) in 982.\n\n The future Emperor Ichijō (aged 10) was married to Fujiwara no Teishi (about 12/13) in October 990.\n\n11th century \n Fujiwara no Shōshi (aged about 12) was married to the future Emperor Ichijō (aged 19/20) in 1000.\n\n The future Emperor Go-Ichijō (aged 10) married his aunt Fujiwara no Ishi (aged 19) in 1018.\n\n The future Emperor Horikawa (aged 14) was married to his paternal aunt Princess Tokushi (aged about 33) in 1093.\n\n12th century \n Pons, Count of Tripoli (aged 13/14), was married to Cecile of France (aged 14/15) in 1112.\n\n William Adelin (aged 15), son and heir of Henry I of England, was married to Matilda of Anjou (aged about 13) in 1119.\n\n Louis VII of France (aged 17) married Eleanor of Aquitaine (aged about 15) in 1137; their marriage was annulled in 1152.\n\n Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne (aged about 12/13), was married to Constance of France (aged about 15/16) in 1140.\n\n Philip I, Count of Flanders (aged 15/16), was married to Elisabeth of Vermandois (aged 16) in 1159.\n\n The future Emperor Nijō (aged 15) was married to his paternal aunt Princess Yoshiko (aged 17) in March 1159.\n\n Alfonso VIII of Castile (aged 14/15) married Eleanor of England in 1170, when she was about 9-years-old.\n\n Henry the Young King (aged 17) was married to Margaret of France (aged 13/14) in 1172. They had been betrothed since 1160, when Henry was 5 and Margaret was about 2.\n\n Canute VI of Denmark (aged about 13/14) was married to Gertrude of Bavaria (aged 22 or 25) in 1177. They had been engaged since 1171, since he was about 7/8 and she was about 16 or 19.\n\n Henry I, Duke of Brabant (aged about 14), was married to Matilda of Boulogne (aged 9) in 1179.\n\n Alexios II Komnenos was 10 when he is reported to have married Agnes of France (aged 9) in 1180.\n\n Philip II of France (aged 14) married Isabella of Hainault (aged 10) in 1180.\n\n Humphrey IV of Toron (aged about 17) married Isabella of Jerusalem (aged 10/11) in 1183. They had been betrothed when Humphrey was about 14/15 and Isabella was 8-years-old.\n\n Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (aged 13/14), married Berengaria of Castile in 1187, when she was about 8-years-old. The marriage was never consummated due to Berengaria's young age.\n\n William IV, Count of Ponthieu (aged 15/16), was married to Alys of France, Countess of Vexin (aged 34), in 1195.\n\n13th century \n Henry VI, Count Palatine of the Rhine (aged about 16), was married to Matilda of Brabant (aged about 12) in 1212.\n\n Henry I of Castile married his cousin Mafalda of Portugal (aged about 20) in 1215, when he was either 10- or 11-years-old. The marriage was never consummated due to Henry's young age; and the marriage was annulled by the Pope in 1216 on the grounds of consanguinity. Later that year, Henry was betrothed to his second cousin Sancha, heiress of León, but he died in 1217 at the age of 13.\n\n Baldwin II of Constantinople (aged about 17) was married to Marie of Brienne (aged about 10) in 1234.\n\n Alexander III of Scotland (aged 10) was married to Margaret of England (aged 11) in December 1251.\n\n Edward I of England (aged 15) was married to Eleanor of Castile (aged 13) in 1254.\n\n The future Philip III of France (aged 17) was married to Isabella of Aragon (aged 13/14) in May 1262. They had been betrothed since May 1258, when he was 13 and she was 9/10.\n\n John I, Duke of Brabant (17/18), was married to Margaret of France (aged 15/16) in 1270.\n\n The future Ladislaus IV of Hungary (aged 7/8) was married to Elizabeth of Sicily (aged 8/9) in 1270.\n\n Philip of Sicily (aged about 15/16) was married to Isabella of Villehardouin (aged either 8 or 11) in May 1271.\n\n The future Philip IV of France (aged 16) was married to Joan I of Navarre (aged 11) in August 1285.\n\n Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (aged 13) was married to Judith of Habsburg (aged 13) in January 1285.\n\n John II, Duke of Brabant (aged 14), was married to Margaret of England (aged 15) in 1290. John and Margaret had been betrothed since they were 2 and 3, respectively.\n\n Henry, Count of Luxembourg (aged about 13/14), was married to Margaret of Brabant (aged 15) in July 1292.\n\n John I, Count of Holland (aged 12/13), was married to Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (aged 14) in 1297.\n\n14th century \n Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (aged 14), was married to Joan de Geneville (aged 15) in 1301.\n\n The future Gaston I, Count of Foix (aged 13/14), was married to Joan of Artois (aged 11/12) in 1301.\n\n The future Louis X of France (aged 15) was married to Margaret of Burgundy (aged about 15) in 1305.\n\n Philip V of France (aged about 13/14) was married to Joan of Burgundy (aged 14/15) in 1307.\n\n The future Charles IV of France (aged 13) was married to Blanche of Burgundy (aged about 11/12) in January 1308.\n\n John of Luxembourg (aged 14) was married to Elizabeth of Bohemia (aged 18) in September 1310.\n\n John III, Duke of Brabant (aged 10/11), was married to Marie of Évreux (aged 7/8) in 1311.\n\n Edmund Mortimer (aged about 13/14, possibly younger) was married to Elizabeth de Badlesmere (aged 3) in 1316.\n\n Thomas Beauchamp (aged about 6) was married to Katherine Mortimer (aged about 5) in 1319.\n\n Louis I, Count of Flanders (aged about 15/16), was married to Margaret of France (aged 9/10) in 1320.\n\n Guigues VIII of Viennois (aged 13/14) was married to Isabella of France (aged 10/11) in 1323.\n\n Alfonso XI of Castile (aged 13/14) was married to Constanza Manuel of Villena (aged at most 10) in 1325. He had the marriage annulled two years later, and in 1328, at the age of 16/17, married his double first cousin Maria of Portugal (aged 14/15).\n \n Edward III of England (aged 15) was married to Philippa of Hainault (between the ages of 12 and 17) in 1327.\n\n The future David II of Scotland (aged 4) was married to Joan of the Tower (aged 7) in 1328.\n\n Laurence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke (aged about 9/10), was married to Agnes Mortimer (aged about 11/12) in 1328 or 1329. Laurence was a ward of Agnes's father, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March.\n\n Charles IV, King of Bohemia (aged about 12/13; later Holy Roman Emperor), was married to Blanche of Valois (aged about 12/13) in 1329.\n\n Reginald II, Duke of Guelders (aged about 16), was married to Sophia Berthout in 1311. After Sophia's death in 1329, he married Eleanor of Woodstock (aged 13) in 1332, when he was about 37-years-old.\n\n John, Duke of Normandy (aged 13), was married to Bonne of Luxembourg (aged 17) in July 1332.\n\n Andrew of Hungary (aged 6) was married to the future Joanna I of Naples (aged about 6/7) in 1333.\n\n William IV, Count of Holland (aged 10/11), was married to Joanna of Brabant (aged 11/12) in 1334.\n\n Marie de Namur (aged about 13/14) was married to Henry II, Graf of Vianden, in 1335/36. Henry was murdered in 1337; about three years later, in 1340, Marie (now about 17/18) was married to Theobald of Bar, Seigneur de Pierrepont (aged about 25/26), her second cousin, once removed.\n\n Philip of Burgundy (aged about 14/15) was married to Joan I, Countess of Auvergne (aged about 11/12), circa 1338.\n\n William Montagu (aged 12) was married to Joan of Kent (aged 13) in either late 1340 or early 1341. In 1348, it was revealed that Joan had secretly married Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, in 1340; and, as a result, Montagu's marriage to Joan was annulled.\n\n Gaston III, Count of Foix (aged 16/17), was married to Agnes of Navarre (aged 13/14) in 1348.\n\n Charles V of France (aged 12) was married Joanna of Bourbon (aged 12) to in April 1350.\n\n Thomas de Vere, 8th Earl of Oxford (aged about 15), was married to Maud de Ufford (born 1345/46) sometime before 10 June 1350, when Maud was about 5-years-old.\n\n Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (aged 13/14), was married to Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster (aged 20), in 1352.\n\n Philip I, Duke of Burgundy (aged 10/11), was married to the future Margaret III, Countess of Flanders (aged 6/7), in 1357.\n\n Richard Fitzalan (aged 12/13) was married to Elizabeth de Bohun (aged about 9) in 1359.\n\n John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (aged 11), was married to Margaret of England (aged 12), daughter of Henry III of England, in 1359.\n\n Gian Galeazzo Visconti (aged 8) was married to Isabella of Valois (aged 11/12) in October 1360, about a week before Gian's 9th birthday.\n\n Albert III, Duke of Austria (aged 16/17), was married to Elisabeth of Bohemia (aged 7/8) in 1366.\n\n Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (aged 15/16), was married to Philippa of Clarence (aged 12/13) in 1368.\n\n The future Charles III of Navarre (aged 13/14) was married to Eleanor of Castile (aged about 12) in May 1375.\n\n John V, Lord of Arkel (aged 14), was married to Joanna of Jülich in October 1376.\n\n John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (aged 8), was married to Elizabeth of Lancaster (aged 17) in 1380. The marriage remained unconsummated due to John's age, and was annulled after Elizabeth became pregnant by John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, whom she later married.\n\n Henry Bolingbroke (aged 13; later King Henry IV of England) was married to Mary de Bohun (aged about 10/11) in 1380.\n\n Richard II of England (aged 15) was married to Anne of Bohemia (aged 15) in January 1382.\n\n John, Count of Nevers (aged 14) was married to Margaret of Bavaria (aged 21/22) in April 1385.\n\n The future John V, Duke of Brittany (aged 6/7), was married to Joan of France (aged 4/5) in 1396.\n\n John of Perche (aged 10/11) was married to Marie of Brittany (aged 5) in July 1396.\n\n15th century \n Louis, Duke of Guyenne (aged 7), married Margaret of Nevers (aged 10) in August 1404.\nCharles, Duke of Orléans (aged 11), married his cousin Isabella of Valois (aged 16) in June 1406.\n\n Philip the Good (aged 12) was married to Michelle of Valois (aged 14) in June 1409.\n\n John, Duke of Touraine (aged 16), was married to Jacqueline of Hainaut (aged 14) in 1415.\n\n John IV, Duke of Brabant (aged 14), was married to Jacqueline of Hainaut (aged 16) in March 1418, following her first husband's death the year before.\n\n John II, Duke of Alençon (aged 15), married Joan of Valois (aged 15), daughter of Charles, Duke of Orléans, in 1424.\n\n Louis, Dauphin of France (aged 12), was married to Margaret Stewart (aged 11), daughter of James I of Scotland, in June 1436. The wedding took place a little over a week before Louis's thirteenth birthday.\n\n Henry IV of Castile (aged 14/15) was married to his cousin Blanche of Navarre (aged 15/16) in 1440.\n\n Afonso V of Portugal (aged 15) was married to Isabel of Coimbra (aged 15) in May 1447.\n\n John de la Pole (age 7) was married to Margaret Beaufort, (age 7; approximately) in 1450 by the arrangement John's father. The marriage was annulled in 1453.\n\n Ferdinand II of Aragon (aged 17) was married to his second cousin Infanta Isabella of Castile (aged 18; later Isabella I of Castile) in 1469. They became the parents of Catherine of Aragon.\n\n John, Prince of Portugal (aged 14) was married to his first cousin Eleanor of Viseu (aged 11) in January 1470.\n\n Louis, Duke of Orléans (aged 14) was married to his cousin Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (age 12), in 1476.\n\n Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York (age 4), was married to Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk (age 6), in 1477. She died at age 10 and he, as one of the Princes in the Tower, is believed to have been murdered at age 10.\n\n Afonso, Prince of Portugal (aged about 15), was married by proxy to Isabella of Aragon (aged 19) in the spring of 1490.\n\n16th century \n Arthur, Prince of Wales (aged 15), was married to Catherine of Aragon (aged 15) in 1501. He died a few months later and she eventually married his younger brother, Henry VIII of England.\n\n Charles, Count of Montpensier (aged 15), was married to Suzanne, Duchess of Bourbon (aged 14), in 1505.\n\n Henry VIII of England (aged 17), married Catherine of Aragon (aged 23) in June 1509, a couple of weeks before his 18th birthday.\n\n Claude, Duke of Guise (aged 16), was married to Antoinette de Bourbon (aged 18) in 1513.\n\n Henry, Duke of Orléans (aged 14), was married to Catherine de' Medici (aged 14) in 1533.\n\n Henry Grey, Marquess of Dorset (aged 15/16), was married to Lady Frances Brandon (aged 15/16) in 1533.\n\n Henry Clifford (aged 17/18) was married to Lady Eleanor Brandon (aged 15/16) in 1535.\n\n Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma (aged 14), grandson of Pope Paul III, was married to Margaret of Parma (aged 15), illegitimate daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in November 1538.\n\n Philip, Prince of Asturias (aged 16; later Philip II of Spain), was married to Maria Manuela, Princess of Portugal (aged 16), in 1543.\n\n João Manuel, Prince of Portugal (aged 14), was married to his double first cousin Joanna of Austria (aged 16) in 1552.\n\n Lord Guildford Dudley (aged about 17/18) was married to Lady Jane Grey (aged about 16/17) in 1553.\n\n Henry, Lord Herbert, was at most 15-years-old, was married to Lady Katherine Grey (aged 12), younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, in 1553. The marriage was annulled in 1554.\n\n Francis, Dauphin of France (aged 13/14), was married to Mary, Queen of Scots (aged 15/16), in 1558. The pair had been betrothed since Mary was five and Francis was three.\n\n Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (aged 15), was married to Claude of France (aged 11), daughter of Henry II of France, in 1559.\n\n17th century \n Alfonso, Hereditary Prince of Modena (aged 16/17), was married to Isabella of Savoy (aged 16) in 1608.\n\n César, Duke of Vendôme (aged 14), was married to Françoise de Lorraine (aged 15/16) in July 1608.\n\n Frederick V, Elector Palatine (aged 16), married Elizabeth Stuart (aged 16), eldest daughter of James VI and I and Anne of Denmark, in 1613.\n\n Louis XIII of France (aged 14) was married to his second cousin Anne of Austria (aged 14) in November 1615.\n\n The future Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (aged 14), was married to Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy (aged 14) in December 1650.\n\n The future William II, Prince of Orange (aged 15), married Mary, Princess Royal (aged 9), in 1641. The marriage was reported to not have been consummated for a number of years due to the bride's age.\n\n Walter Scott of Highchester (aged 14) was married to Mary Scott, 3rd Countess of Buccleuch (aged 11), in 1659.\n\n James Crofts, 1st Duke of Monmouth (aged 14), illegitimate son of Charles II of England and his mistress Lucy Walter, was married to Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch (aged 12), in April 1663.\n\n Sir Edward Lee (aged 14) was married to Lady Charlotte FitzRoy (aged 13) in 1677. They had been betrothed since 1674, before Charlotte's tenth birthday.\n\n Ivan V of Russia (aged 17) was married to Praskovia Saltykova (aged 18/19) in either late 1683 or early 1684.\n\n Louis, Prince of Condé (aged 16), was married to his distant cousin Louise Françoise de Bourbon (aged 11) in 1685.\n\n Philippe, Duke of Chartres (aged 17), married his first cousin Françoise Marie de Bourbon (aged 14), legitimated daughter of Louis XIV, in February 1692.\n\n Louis, Duke of Burgundy (aged 15), was married to Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (aged 12) in December 1697.\n\n18th century \n Philip V of Spain (aged 17) was married to Maria Luisa Gabriela of Savoy (aged 12) in September 1701, five days before Maria Luisa's 13th birthday.\n\n Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti (aged 17), was married to Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon (aged 19) in July 1713.\n\n Jules, Prince of Soubise (aged 17), was married to Anne Julie de Melun (aged 15/16) in September 1714.\n\n Louis, Prince of Asturias (aged 14), was married by proxy to Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans (aged 11) in November 1721.\n\n Louis XV of France (aged 15) was married to Marie Leszczyńska (aged 22) in 1725.\n\n José, Prince of Brazil (aged 14), was married to Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain (aged 10) in January 1729.\n\n Louis François, Prince of Conti (aged 14), was married to Louise Diane d'Orléans (aged 15) in January 1732.\n\n Gaston, Count of Marsan (aged 17), was married to Marie Louise de Rohan (aged 16) in June 1736.\n\n Ercole Rinaldo d'Este (aged 13/14) was married to Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa (aged 15/16) in 1741.\n\n Louis, Dauphin of France (aged 15), was married to Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain (aged 18) in 1744. After Maria Teresa's death in early 1746, Louis was required to remarry quickly in order to secure the succession to the French crown. Thus, he married again in February 1747, at the age of 17, to Duchess Maria Josepha of Saxony (aged 15).\n\n Peter of Holstein-Gottorp (later Peter III of Russia) was 17-years-old when he married his 16-year-old second cousin Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (later known as Catherine the Great) in 1745.\n\n Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé (aged 16), was married to Charlotte de Rohan (aged 15) in 1753.\n\n Christian VII of Denmark (aged 17) was married to Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (aged 15) in 1766.\n\n Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily (aged 17) was married by proxy to Maria Carolina of Austria (aged 15) in April 1768.\n\n Louis Henri, Duke of Enghien (aged 14), was married to Bathilde d'Orléans (aged 19) in 1770.\n\n Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France (aged 15), was married to Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (aged 14; later known as Marie Antoinette) in April 1770.\n\n Louis Stanislas, Count of Provence (aged 15; the future King Louis XVIII of France), was married to Marie Joséphine of Savoy (aged 17) in 1771.\n\n Charles Philippe, Duke of Artois (aged 16; later Charles X of France), was married to Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy (aged 17) in 1773.\n\n The future Alexander I of Russia (aged 15) married Princess Louise of Baden (aged 14) in 1793.\n\n19th century\n Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias (aged 17; later Ferdinand VII of Spain), was married to his first cousin Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (aged 17) in October 1802, about a week before his 18th birthday.\n\n Tokugawa Iemochi (aged 15) was married to Chikako, Princess Kazu (aged 15), daughter of Emperor Ninkō, in February 1862.\n\nCeremonial marriages\n\nSanele Masilela, a nine year old South African boy married 62-year-old Helen Shabangu.\nJose Griggs, at the age of seven, married nine-year-old Jayla Cooper\n\nSee also\nList of child brides\nTeen marriage\n\nReferences\n\nLists of men\nHusbands",
"Lachlan Og MacLean, 1st Laird of Torloisk was the second son of Sir Lachlan Mor Maclean and the first Laird of Torloisk.\n\nBiography\nHe was the second son of Sir Lachlan Mor Maclean, and he received from his father a charter of the lands of Lehire-Torloisk, forfeited by the son of Ailean nan Sop, which was afterward confirmed by royal grant. He was present at the Battle of Gruinnart, and was severely wounded. He was a witness to a charter given by his father to Martin MacGillivray of Pennyghael, and subscribed himself in the Irish characters, Mise Lachin Mhac Gilleoin. He was an important man in his day, and was so influential that he was compelled to make his appearance before the privy council.\n\nHe was first married to Marian, daughter of Sir Duncan Campbell of Achnabreck and had:\nHector MacLean, 2nd Laird of Torloisk\nHe was a second time married to Margaret, daughter of Captain Stewart of Dumbarton, but had no children. \nHe was a third time married to Marian, daughter of Donald MacDonald of Clanranald, and had:\nHector Maclean\nLachlan Og Maclean, who died unmarried but had a son Donald Maclean\nLachlan Catanach Maclean was killed at Inverkeithing\nEwen Maclean\nJohn Diuriach Maclean married the daughter of John Maclean, Laird of Ardgour and had Allan and several daughters\nOther children include: \nAllan Maclean who died unmarried at Harris\nNeil Maclean who married a daughter of Lochbuie, by whom he had a daughter\nLachlan, who died a lieutenant-colonel in the British service\nJannet Maclean, married Hector, first MacLean of Kinlochaline \nMary Maclean, married John Garbh, eldest son of John Dubh of Morvern \nCatherine Maclean, married John, brother to MacNeil of Barra\nJulian Maclean, married Allan MacLean, brother of Lochbuie\nIsabella Maclean, married Martin MacGillivray of Pennyghael\n\nLachlan Og lived to an advanced age, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Hector MacLean, 2nd Laird of Torloisk.\n\nReferences\n\nYear of birth missing\nYear of death missing\nLachlan Og MacLean, 1st Laird of Torloisk\nLachlan"
]
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[
"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life",
"Was he married?",
"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016."
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | Did he remarry? | 2 | Did Mwai Kibaki remarry after Lucy Muthoni died? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
|-
1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | true | [
"Anne Louise, Duchess of Noailles (1632–22 May 1697), was a French courtier. She served as dame d'atour to the queen dowager of France, Anne of Austria, from 1657 until 1666.\n\nThe daughter of Antoine Boyer, Lord of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Louise married Anne de Noailles, who became the first Duke of Noailles in 1646. He predeceased her, dying on 15 February 1678. She did not remarry and died on 22 May 1697.\n\nShe had two notable children:\nAnne Jules de Noailles, 2nd Duke of Noailles (1650–1708) and Marshal of France, married Marie-Françoise de Bournonville.\nLouis Antoine de Noailles, cardinal de Noailles (1651–1729), never married.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\n1632 births\n1697 deaths\n17th-century French women\nFrench duchesses\nDuchesses of Noailles\nHouse of Noailles\nFrench ladies-in-waiting\nCourt of Louis XIV",
"Hard Promises is a 1992 American romantic comedy film directed by Martin Davidson. It stars Sissy Spacek and William Petersen.\n\nPlot\nA man who dislikes stable work environments has been away for too many years when he finds out that his wife had divorced him and is planning to remarry. He comes home to confront her, trying to persuade her not to get married, aided by their daughter, who loves him despite his wandering ways. The couple finds out they still have feelings for each other but must decide how best to handle the contradiction of their lifestyles.\n\nCast\n\nCritical reception\nVincent Canby of The New York Times did not care for the film but did praise some of the actors:\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1991 films\n1990s romantic comedy films\nAmerican films\nAmerican romantic comedy films\nColumbia Pictures films\nEnglish-language films\nFilms directed by Martin Davidson\nFilms scored by George S. Clinton\nFilms set in Texas\nFilms shot in Texas\n1991 comedy films"
]
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"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016.",
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| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | Did he have any other children? | 3 | Did Mwai Kibaki have any other children other than Wangui Mwai? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
|-
1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | true | [
"John H. Bailey (September 22, 1864 – August 27, 1940) was a senator and a representative from the state of Texas.\n\nLife\nJohn H. Bailey was born on September 22, 1864 to Luther Rice Bailey (May 3, 1837- April 28, 1918) and Mary Ellen Crank (1842-1920), one of their nine children. He never married and did not have any children.\n\nPolitics\nHe first was a Texas representative from the 24th-26th sessions (about 6 years). And then served as a Texas Senator from the 34th-39th sessions (15 years 5 months).\n\nReferences\n\n1864 births\n1940 deaths\nTexas state senators\nMembers of the Texas House of Representatives",
"Else Hansen (Cathrine Marie Mahs Hansen) also called de Hansen (1720 – 4 September 1784), was the royal mistress of king Frederick V of Denmark. She is his most famous mistress and known in history as Madam Hansen, and was, alongside Charlotte Amalie Winge, one of only two women known to have been long term lovers of the king.\n\nLife\n\nThe background of Else Hansen does not appear to be known. Tradition claims her to be the sister of Frederick's chamber servant Henrik Vilhelm Tillisch, who in 1743 reportedly smuggled in his sister to the king at night, but modern research does not support them to be the same person.\n\nRoyal mistress\nIt is not known exactly when and how Hansen became the lover of the king. Frederick V was known for his debauched life style. According to Dorothea Biehl, the king was known to participate in orgies or 'Bacchus parties', in which he drank alcohol with his male friends while watching female prostitutes stripped naked and danced, after which the king would sometime beat them with his stick and whip them after having been intoxicated by alcohol. These women where economically compensated, but none of them seem to have had any status of a long term mistress, nor did any of the noblewomen and maids-of-honors, which according to rumors where offered to the king by their families in hope of advantages but simply married of as soon as they became pregnant without any potential relationship having been anything but a secret. The relationship between the king and Else Hansen was therefore uncommon.\n\nElse Hansen gave birth to five children with the king between 1746 and 1751, which is why the affair is presumed to have started in 1746 at the latest and ended in 1751 at the earliest. At least her three younger children where all born at the manor Ulriksholm on Funen, a manor owned by Ulrik Frederik von Heinen, brother-in-law of the de facto ruler of Denmark, the kings favorite Adam Gottlob Moltke, who likely arranged the matter. The manor was named after the royal Ulrik Christian Gyldenlove, illegitimate son of a previous king. The king's children with Hansen where baptized in the local parish church near the manor, where they were officially listed as the legitimate children of the wife of a non existent man called \"Frederick Hansen, ship writer from Gothenburg to China\". The frequent trips to Ulriksholm by Hansen as soon as her pregnancies with the king became evident was publicly noted. Neither Else Hansen nor any other of the king's mistresses where ever any official mistress introduced at the royal court, nor did they have any influence upon state affairs whatever, as politics where entrusted by the king to his favorite Moltke.\n\nIn 1752, the relationship between the king and Hansen may have ended – in any case, it was not mentioned more or resulted in any more children. She settled in the property Kejrup near Ulriksholm with her children, officially with the status of \"widow of the late sea captain de Hansen\".\n\nLater life\nAfter the death of Frederick in 1766, she acquired the estate Klarskov on Funen. She sold Klarskov and moved to Odense in 1768. In 1771, however, she bought Klarskov a second time and continued to live there until her death.\n\nHer children were not officially recognized, but unofficially they were taken care of by the royal court: her daughters were given a dowry and married to royal officials and the sons careers where protected, and her grandchildren where also provided with an allowance from the royal house.\n\nAfter Hansen, the king did not have any long term mistress until Charlotte Amalie Winge (1762–66).\n\nLegacy\nAt Frederiksborgmuseet, there are three paintings of Hansen by Jens Thrane the younger from 1764. Hansen is known by Dorothea Biehl's depiction of the decadent court life of Frederick V.\n\nIssue \nHer children were officially listed with the father \"Frederick Hansen, sea captain\".\nFrederikke Margarethe de Hansen (1747–1802)\nFrederikke Catherine de Hansen (1748–1822)\nAnna Marie de Hansen (1749–1812)\nSophie Charlotte de Hansen (1750–1779)\nUlrik Frederik de Hansen (1751–1752)\n\nSources\n Charlotte Dorothea Biehl, Interiører fra Frederik V's Hof, udgivet af Louis Bobé.\n Aage Christens, Slægten de Hansen, 1968.\n\nReferences\n\n1720 births\n1784 deaths\nMistresses of Danish royalty\n18th-century Danish people\n18th-century Danish women landowners\n18th-century Danish landowners"
]
|
[
"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life",
"Was he married?",
"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016.",
"Did he remarry?",
"In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai.",
"Did he have any other children?",
"They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji."
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | Did he have children with anyone else? | 4 | Did Mwai Kibaki have children with anyone else other than Mary Wambui? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
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1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | false | [
"Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is a 1963 children's book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis. It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself. The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.\n\nActivities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing, marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines, and eating more spaghetti \"than anyone else has eaten before.\n\nHelen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received positive reviews and was listed by The New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963. The book is currently out of print.\n\nReferences\n\n1963 children's books\nAmerican picture books",
"Ruwida El-Hubti (born 16 April 1989) is an Olympic athlete from Libya. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she competed in the Women's 400 metres. She finished last in her heat with a time of 1:03.57, almost 11 seconds slower than anyone else in the heat, and the slowest of anyone in the competition. However, she did set a national record.\n\nReferences\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nOlympic athletes of Libya\nAthletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics"
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"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life",
"Was he married?",
"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016.",
"Did he remarry?",
"In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai.",
"Did he have any other children?",
"They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji.",
"Did he have children with anyone else?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 5 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article about Mwai Kibaki other than his children? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
|-
1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | 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"
]
|
[
"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life",
"Was he married?",
"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016.",
"Did he remarry?",
"In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai.",
"Did he have any other children?",
"They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji.",
"Did he have children with anyone else?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Ms. Wambui, the rather popular \"other woman\", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman"
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | What kind of power did she have? | 6 | What kind of power did Ms. Wambui have? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
|-
1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | true | [
"Bridge to Silence is a 1989 American TV movie starring Lee Remick and Marlee Matlin. It was one of Remick's last performance.\n\nRemick called Matlin \" a wonderful actress. She's so open and kind of instinctive and free . . . curious. It was an interesting experience, which I had some concern about. When I started I thought, you know, what's it going to be like for the two of us to communicate? I do not have sign language at my beck and call. But we did. It was terrific.\"\n\nThe movie was filmed in Toronto and directed by Karen Arthur. It was the first time Remick had worked with a female director. \"Interesting working with a woman,\" she said. \"Not that it's different in terms of her work, she's doing the same thing as men do, but I've just never been in that position. Directors have always been kind of father figures. It's interesting. It's wonderful. She's terrific.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nReview at Los Angeles Times\n\n1989 television films\n1989 films\nAmerican films\nAmerican television films\nAmerican drama films\n1980s English-language films\nAmerican Sign Language films",
"Charmers were English practitioners of a specific kind of folk magic, specialising in supernatural healing. Other folk magic traditions include those of the cunning folk, the toad doctors and the girdle-measurers.\n\nThe charming tradition is quite distinct from others, being based either on the charmer's possession of inherent healing ability by 'laying on of hands', or ownership of an object that had healing properties or possession of a charm or charms in verse, typically deriving from Biblical sources genuine or apocryphal. \nThe latter is the most common source of healing power among charmers.\n\nCharmers differ from cunning folk in two principal ways. They usually refused to charge a fee for their services (even refusing verbal thanks) though they did accept gifts in kind. They also did not attempt to heal those who believed themselves to be suffering from the effects of witchcraft or demonic possession. They restricted themselves to healing natural ailments, such as snakebite, toothache or burns. They would occasionally augment their charming with herbalism.\n\n\"There was no ambiguity about what charmers did. They were merely custodians of a God-given gift, not masters of equivocal magical forces. Consequently, people did not prosecute charmers as they did cunning-folk: there was little to accuse them of, as they imposed no charges and they did not provide faulty diagnoses since they did not diagnose.\"\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish folklore"
]
|
[
"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life",
"Was he married?",
"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016.",
"Did he remarry?",
"In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai.",
"Did he have any other children?",
"They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji.",
"Did he have children with anyone else?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Ms. Wambui, the rather popular \"other woman\", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman",
"What kind of power did she have?",
"succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election."
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | Did she have any other political rolls? | 7 | Did Ms. Wambui have any other political rolls other than being a Member of Parliament? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
|-
1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | false | [
"The Fine rolls are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Chancery in the Middle Ages. Originating in the reign of King Henry III of England (1216–72), a fine represented a willingness to pay the crown a sum of money in exchange for a particular concession. In the medieval style of document storage of enrollment, the rolls which recorded these payments are called the Fine rolls.\n\nTreatment by historians\nTraditionally, historians viewed the Fine rolls as presenting \"fewer points of general interest\" than the Close or Patent rolls, because they rarely – and only indirectly – touch upon the great political crises of the time. They have also been used as a means of assessing the crown's finances: the Fine rolls show, for example, how King John received approximately £20,000 per annum, whereas his son Henry III received less than half that amount. Recently, however, they have been used by historians to cast light on consequences of important events in the king's reign, rather than the events themselves. As David Carpenter put it, the rolls remain \"central to the politics, government, and society\", particularly because of the broad social spectrum they touched. For example, in the context of the 1216 reissue of Magna Carta by Henry's minority government, the concern of the council for the charter's consequences to dower payments owed the king are enrolled in the Fine rolls. Letters close which record fines are also enrolled; one such example is to the widow of Nigel de Mowbray, in which Henry III agreed to her right to stay unmarried or to \"marry whom she wished\". The rolls are also used, along with other records, to demonstrate the growth of English royal bureaucracy and administration. In 1913 T. F. Tout pointed out how a single published volume of Fine rolls covered the entire thirty-five year reign of Edward I, whereas for his son Edward II, two volumes were required, despite the latter's reign being of far shorter duration.\n\nSee also\nPipe rolls\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe Anglo-American Legal Tradition \nThe National Archives\nFine Rolls of Henry III Project\n\nMedieval documents of England",
"Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls is a Fijian political activist of Indian descent. She is the Technical Adviser of Shifting the Power Coalition, a humanitarian organization headed by Pacific women. She is also the former coordinator of the FemLINKPACIFIC, a women's media organization based in the capital of Suva, which she founded in September 2000 in response to the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. In addition to her numerous other functions, Rolls has served as the Media Focal Point for the Pacific Region of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict was appointed the Gender Liaison of the International Steering Group of GPPAC in October 2009.\n\nSince November 2000, femLINKPACIFIC and Bhagwan Rolls have been campaigning for the implementation and integration of UN Security Council resolution 1325, titled Women, Peace and Security, in order to ensure women's full participation in the peace and security sector toward ensuring sustainable peace and democracy in Fiji. In March 2010, she was appointed by the United Nations to the Civil Society Advisory Group on UNSCR1325/Women, Peace and Security. She presented a Pacific perspective to High level Commitment to Action on SCR 1325 event at the UN on September 25, 2010.\n\nBhagwan Rolls and femLINKPACIFIC have also introduced a mobile women's community radio station (femTALK 89.2fm) in Fiji in 2004, as way to take radio to women in local communities, providing a relevant information and communication platform to increase women's visibility and issues in decision making forums. Earlier, together with co-founder, Peter Sipeli, Bhagwan-Rolls produced a number of community videos. The video \"Balancing the Scale\" won the Fiji Human Rights Commission television award.\nShe continues to serve as the Producer/Director of FemLINKPACIFIC's Community video productions including The Thirteen 25 Diary: Her'stories (2010) which was launched in New York (October 2010) in conjunction with the Australia and Papua New Guinea missions to the United Nations, as part of the 10th anniversary of UNSCR1325\n\nRolls was known as a strong critic of the military coup which deposed the Qarase government on 5 December 2006, and of human rights violations allegedly committed by soldiers since then.\n\nShe also called on her fellow Indo-Fijians to \"follow the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi\" and oppose the coup, saying that Gandhi preached friendship, forgiveness, love, tolerance, and non-violence. “Nothing has been achieved through violence and weapons and I believe that we just lose lives of our loved ones under gun point,” she told the Fiji Sun on 10 December 2006.\n\nRolls was the principal organizer of the \"Blue Ribbon\" campaign to restore democracy following the previous coup, in May 2000. Later, she opposed controversial legislation introduced by the Qarase government in 2005 to provide for amnesty for persons convicted of coup-related offences.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Femlink website\n\nFijian people of Indian descent\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
]
|
[
"Mwai Kibaki",
"Personal life",
"Was he married?",
"President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016.",
"Did he remarry?",
"In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai.",
"Did he have any other children?",
"They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji.",
"Did he have children with anyone else?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Ms. Wambui, the rather popular \"other woman\", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman",
"What kind of power did she have?",
"succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election.",
"Did she have any other political rolls?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_d41b12bb69f44acd87c835e58f3ef851_0 | What kinds of businesses was she involved with? | 8 | What kinds of businesses was Ms. Wambui involved with? | Mwai Kibaki | President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have four grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Mwai Junior, Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir. In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera". Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife. Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon. On 21 August 2016, Kibaki, who was ill, was taken to Karen Hospital and later flown to South Africa for specialized treatment. CANNOTANSWER | The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, | Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (born 15 November 1931) better known as Mwai Kibaki, is a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013.
He had previously served as the fourth Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully vied for the presidency in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Early life and education
Kibaki was born in 1931 in Thunguri village, Othaya division of Kenya's then Nyeri District, now Nyeri County. He is the youngest son of Kikuyu peasants Kibaki Gĩthĩnji and Teresia Wanjikũ. Though baptised as Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth, he has been known as Mwai Kibaki throughout his public life.
Family oral history maintains that his early education was made possible by his much older brother-in-law, Paul Muruthi, who insisted that young Mwai should go to school instead of spending his days grazing his father's sheep and cattle and baby-sitting his little nephews and nieces for his older sister. Kibaki turned out to be an exemplary student. He attended Gatuyainĩ School for the first two years, where he completed what was then called Sub "A" and sub "B" (the equivalent of standard one and two or first and second grade). He later joined Karima mission school for the three more classes of primary school. He later moved to Mathari School (now Nyeri High School) between 1944 and 1946 for Standard four to six, where, in addition to his academic studies, he learnt carpentry and masonry as students would repair furniture and provide material for maintaining the school's buildings. He also grew his own food as all students in the school were expected to do, and earned extra money during the school holidays by working as a conductor on buses operated by the defunct Othaya African Bus Union. After Karima Primary and Nyeri Boarding primary schools, he proceeded to Mang'u High School where he studied between 1947 and 1950. He passed with a maximum of six points in his "O" level examination by passing six subjects with Grade 1 Distinction.
Influenced by the veterans of the First and Second World Wars in his native village, Kibaki considered becoming a soldier in his final year in Mang'u. However, a ruling by the Chief colonial secretary, Walter Coutts, which barred the recruitment of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into the army, put paid to his military aspirations. Kibaki instead attended Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he studied Economics, History and Political Science, and graduated best in his class in 1955 with a First Class Honours Degree (BA) in Economics. After his graduation, Kibaki took up an appointment as Assistant Sales Manager Shell Company of East Africa, Uganda Division. During the same year, he earned a scholarship entitling him to postgraduate studies in any British University. He consequently enrolled at the prestigious London School of Economics for a BSc in public finance, graduating with a distinction. He went back to Makerere in 1958 where he taught as an Assistant Lecturer in the economics department until 1961. In 1961, Kibaki married Lucy Muthoni, the daughter of a church minister, who was then a secondary school head teacher.
Political career prior to presidency
1960–2002
In early 1960, Mwai Kibaki left academia for active politics by giving up his job at Makerere and returning to Kenya to become an executive officer of Kenya African National Union (KANU), at the request of Thomas Joseph Mboya (who was the secretary general of KANU). Kibaki then helped to draft Kenya's independence constitution.
In 1963, Kibaki was elected as Member of Parliament for Donholm Constituency (subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara) in Nairobi. His election was the start of a long political career. In 1963 Kibaki was appointed the Permanent Secretary for the Treasury. Appointed Assistant Minister of Finance and chairman of the Economic Planning Commission in 1963, he was promoted to Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1966. In 1969, he became Minister of Finance and Economic Planning where he served until 1982.
In 1974, Kibaki, facing serious competition for his Donholm Constituency seat from a Mrs. Jael Mbogo, whom he had only narrowly and controversially beaten for the seat in the 1969 elections, moved his political base from Nairobi to his rural home, Othaya, where he was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament. The same year Time magazine rated him among the top 100 people in the world who had the potential to lead. He has been re-elected Member of Parliament for Othaya in the subsequent elections of 1979, 1983, 1988, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007.
When Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya in 1978, Kibaki was elevated to Vice Presidency, and kept the Finance portfolio until Moi changed his ministerial portfolio from Finance to Home Affairs in 1982. When Kibaki was the minister of Finance Kenya enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, fueled by a commodities boom, especially coffee, with remarkable fiscal discipline and sound monetary policies.
Kibaki fell out of favor with President Moi in March 1988, and was dropped as vice president and moved to the Ministry of Health. He seemingly took the demotion in his stride without much ado.
Kibaki's political style during these years was described as gentlemanly and non-confrontational. This style exposed him to criticism that he was a spineless, or even cowardly, politician who never took a stand: according to one joke, "He never saw a fence he didn't sit on". He also, as the political circumstances of the time dictated, projected himself as a loyal stalwart of the ruling single party, KANU. In the months before multi-party politics were introduced in 1992, he infamously declared that agitating for multi-party democracy and trying to dislodge KANU from power was like "trying to cut down a fig tree with a razor blade".
It was therefore with great surprise that the country received the news of Kibaki's resignation from government and leaving KANU on Christmas Day in December 1991, only days after the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution, which restored the multi-party system of government. Soon after his resignation, Kibaki founded the Democratic Party (DP) and entered the presidential race in the upcoming multi-party elections of 1992. He was criticized as a "johnny come lately" opportunist who, unlike his two main opposition presidential election opponents in that year, Kenneth Matiba and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was taking advantage of multiparty despite not having fought for it.
Kibaki came third in the subsequent presidential elections of 1992, when the divided opposition lost to president Moi and KANU despite having received more than two-thirds of the vote. He then came second to Moi in the 1997 elections, when again, Moi beat a divided opposition to retain the presidency. In January 1998, Kibaki became the leader of the official opposition with the Democratic Party being the official opposition party in Parliament.
2002 elections
In preparation for the 2002 elections, Kibaki's Democratic Party affiliated with several other opposition parties to form National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC). A group of disappointed KANU presidential aspirants then quit KANU in protest after being overlooked by outgoing President Moi when Moi had founding Father Jomo Kenyatta's son, Uhuru Kenyatta (now Kibaki's successor as Kenya's 4th President after the 2013 General Election), nominated to be the KANU presidential candidate, and hurriedly formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). NAK later combined with the LDP to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On 14 October 2002, at a large opposition rally in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, Kibaki was nominated the NARC opposition alliance presidential candidate after Raila Odinga made the famous declaration, Kibaki Tosha!
On 3 December 2002, Kibaki was injured in a road accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction From Nairobi. He was subsequently hospitalized in Nairobi, then London, after sustaining fracture injuries in the accident. He still walks rather awkwardly as a result of those injuries. The rest of his presidential campaign was thus conducted by his NARC colleagues in his absence, led by Raila Odinga and Kijana Wamalwa (who went on to become the Vice President) who campaigned tirelessly for Kibaki after stating, "The captain has been injured in the field... but the rest of the team shall continue."
On 27 December 2002, Kibaki and NARC won a landslide victory over KANU, with Kibaki getting 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Presidency
2002: Swearing-in, end of KANU rule, retirement of Moi
On 29 December 2002, still nursing injuries from the motor vehicle accident and in a wheel chair, Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in as the third President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kenya,infront of thousands of cheering supporters at the historic Uhuru Park within Nairobi City. At his inauguration, he stressed his opposition to government corruption, saying: "Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals."
Thus ended four decades of KANU rule, KANU having hitherto ruled Kenya since independence.
Kenya's 2nd President, Daniel Arap Moi, who had been in power for 24 years since 1978 as an African Big man President, also began his retirement.
Leadership style
President Kibaki's style was that of a low key publicity averse but highly intelligent and competent technocrat.
He, unlike his predecessors, never tried to establish a personality cult; never had his portrait on every unit of Kenya's currency; never had all manner of streets, places and institutions named after him; never had state sanctioned praise songs composed in his honor; never dominated news bulletins with reports of his presidential activities - however routine or mundane; and never engaged in the populist sloganeering of his predecessors.
His style of leadership has given him the image of a seemingly aloof, withdrawn technocrat or intellectual and has made him seem out of touch with the street, and his seemingly hands-off leadership-by-delegation style made his governments, especially at cabinet level, seem dysfunctional.
First term health issues
It is widely acknowledged that age and the 2002 accident denied the country the witty, sporty, eloquent Kibaki of the previous years. A man who could make lengthy and flowery contributions on the floor of Parliament without notes was confined to reading speeches at every forum.
In late January 2003, it was announced that the President had been admitted to Nairobi Hospital to have a blood clot– the after-effect of his car accident– removed from his leg. He came out of hospital and addressed the public outside the hospital on TV in a visibly incoherent manner, and speculation since then is that he had suffered a stroke, his second, the first being said to have occurred sometimes in the 1970s. His subsequent ill health greatly diminished his performance during his first term and the affairs of government during that time are said to have been largely run by a group of loyal aides, both in and out of government. Kibaki did not look well, for instance, when he appeared live on TV on 25 September 2003 to appoint Moody Awori Vice President after the death in office of Vice President, Michael Wamalwa Kijana.
2003: Free primary education
In January 2003, Kibaki introduced a free primary education initiative, which brought over 1 million children who would not have been able to afford school the chance to attend. The initiative received positive attention, including praise from Bill Clinton, who would travel to Kenya to meet Kibaki.
2005: Constitutional referendum, the NARC fallout and government of national unity
The 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum was held on 21 November 2005. The main issue of contention in the Constitution review process was how much power should be vested in the Kenyan Presidency. In previous drafts, those who feared a concentration of power in the president added provisions for European-style power-sharing between a ceremonial President elected via universal suffrage and an executive Prime Minister elected by Parliament. The draft presented by the Attorney General Amos Wako for the referendum retained sweeping powers for the Presidency.
Though Kibaki the proposal, some members of his own cabinet, mainly from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wing led by Raila Odinga, allied with the main opposition party KANU to mobilize a powerful NO campaign that resulted in a majority of 58% of voters rejecting the draft.
As a consequence of, and immediately after, the referendum loss, on 23 November 2005, Kibaki dismissed his entire cabinet in the middle of his administration's term, with the aim of purging all Raila-allied ministers from the cabinet. About his decision Kibaki said, "Following the results of the Referendum, it has become necessary for me, as the President of the Republic, to re-organize my Government to make it more cohesive and better able to serve the people of Kenya". The only members of the cabinet office to be spared a midterm exit were the Vice President and Minister of Home Affairs, Moody Awori, and the Attorney General whose position is constitutionally protected. A new cabinet of Kibaki loyalists, including MP's from the opposition, termed the Government of National Unity (GNU), was thereafter appointed, but some MP's who were offered ministerial positions declined to take up posts.
A report by a Kenyan Commission of Inquiry, the Waki Commission, contextualises some issues. They reported that Kibaki, after agreeing to an informal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create the post of Prime Minister, reneged on this pact after being elected. They cite criticism of Kibaki neglecting his pre-election agreement, leaving the public to identify it as an attempt by the Kibaki Government to "keep power to itself rather than share it."
2007: Elections
On 26 January 2007, President Kibaki declared his intention of running for re-election in the 2007 presidential election. On 16 September 2007, Kibaki announced that he would stand as the candidate of a new alliance incorporating all the parties who supported his re-election, called the Party of National Unity. The parties in his alliance included the much diminished former ruling KANU, DP, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford People, and Shirikisho.
Kibaki's main opponent, Raila Odinga, had used the referendum victory to launch the ODM, which nominated him as its presidential Candidate for the 2007 elections.
On 30 September 2007, a robust and much healthier President Kibaki launched his presidential campaign at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Kalonzo Musyoka then broke away from Raila's ODM to mount his own fringe bid for the presidency, thus narrowing down the contest between the main candidates, Kibaki, the incumbent, and Odinga. Opinion polls up to election day showed Kibaki behind Raila Odinga nationally, but closing. On regional analysis, the polls showed him behind Raila in all regions of the country except Central Province, Embu and Meru, where he was projected to take most of the votes, and behind Kalonzo Musyoka in Kalonzo's native Ukambani. It was thus projected to be a close election between Kibaki and Raila.
The election was held on 27 December 2007. Kibaki won and was sworn in what remains to be a contentious issue at twilight.
2007–2008: Results dispute and post-election violence
Three days later, after a protracted count which saw presidential results in Kibaki's Central Kenya come in last, allegedly inflated, in a cloud of suspicion and rising tensions, amid vehement protests by Raila's ODM, overnight re-tallying of results and chaotic scenes, all beamed live on TV, at the national tallying center at the Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi, riot police eventually sealed off the tallying Center ahead of the result announcement, evicted party agents, observers and the media, and moved the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Samuel Kivuitu, to another room where Kivuitu went on to declare Kibaki the winner by 4,584,721 votes to Odinga's 4,352,993, placing Kibaki ahead of Odinga by about 232,000 votes in the hotly contested election with Kalonzo Musyoka a distant third.
One hour later, in a hastily convened dusk ceremony, Kibaki was sworn in at the grounds of State House Nairobi for his second term, defiantly calling for the "verdict of the people" to be respected and for "healing and reconciliation" to begin. This arose tension and led to protests by a huge number of Kenyans who felt that Kibaki had refused to respect the verdict of the people and was now forcibly remaining in office.
Immediately the results were announced, Odinga bitterly accused Kibaki of electoral fraud. Odinga's allegations scored with his supporters, and seemed meritorious since the results had defied pre-election polls and expectations and election day exit polls. Furthermore, Odinga, who had campaigned against the concentration of political power in the hands of Kikuyu politicians, had won the votes of most of the other Kenyan tribes and regions, with Kibaki's victory being attained only with the near exclusive support of the populous Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities-who had turned up to vote for Kibaki in large numbers after feeling, in reaction to the Odinga campaign, and with the covert encouragement of the Kibaki campaign, increasingly besieged and threatened by the pro-Odinga tribes. Moreover, ODM had won the most parliamentary and local authority seats by a wide margin. A joint statement by the British Foreign Office and Department for International Development cited "real concerns" over irregularities, while international observers refused to declare the election free and fair. The European Union chief observer, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, cited one constituency where his monitors saw official results for Kibaki that were 25,000 votes lower than the figure subsequently announced by the Electoral Commission, leading him to doubt the accuracy of the announced results.
It was reported that Kibaki, who had previously been perceived as an "old-school gentleman", had "revealed a steely side" when he swore himself in within an hour of being announced the victor of the highly contested election—one where the results were largely in question. Odinga's supporters said he would be declared president at a rival ceremony on Monday, but police banned the event.
Koki Muli, the head of local watchdog, the Institute of Education in Democracy, said called the day the "saddest...in the history of democracy in this country" and "a coup d'etat."
Opposition supporters saw the result as a plot by Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, to keep power by any means. The tribes that lost the election were upset at the prospect of five years without political power, and anti-Kikuyu sentiment swelled, spawning the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis, as violence broke out in several places in the country, started by the ODM supporters protesting the "stealing" of their "victory", and subsequently escalating as the targeted Kikuyus retaliated. As unrest spread, television and radio stations were instructed to stop all live broadcasts. There was widespread theft, vandalism, looting and destruction of property, and a significant number of atrocities, killings and sexual violence reported.
The violence continued for more than two months, as Kibaki ruled with "half" a cabinet he had appointed, with Odinga and ODM refusing to recognize him as president.
When the election was eventually investigated by the Independent Review Commission (IREC) on the 2007 Elections chaired by Justice Johann Kriegler, it was found that there were too many electoral malpractices from several regions perpetrated by all the contesting parties to conclusively establish which candidate won the December 2007 Presidential elections. Such malpractices included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation and ballot stuffing by both sides, as well as incompetence from the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which was shortly thereafter disbanded by the new Parliament.
2008: National accord and Grand Coalition Government
The Country was only saved by the mediation of former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a Panel of "Eminent African Personalities" backed by the African Union, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Following the mediation, a deal, called the national accord, was signed in February 2008 between Raila Odinga and Kibaki, now referred to as the "two Principals". The accord, later passed by the Kenyan Parliament as the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 provided inter alia for power-sharing, with Kibaki remaining President and Raila Odinga taking a newly re-created post of Prime Minister.
On 17 April 2008, Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with a power-sharing Cabinet, with 42 ministers and 50 assistant ministers, Kenya's largest ever. The cabinet was fifty percent Kibaki appointed ministers and fifty percent Raila appointed ministers, and was in reality a carefully balanced ethnic coalition. The arrangement, which also included Kalonzo Musyoka as vice president, was known as the "Grand Coalition Government".
Economic legacy: turnaround
The Kibaki presidency set itself the main task of reviving and turning round country after years of stagnation and economic mismanagement during the Moi years – a feat faced with several challenges, including the aftermath of the Nyayo Era (Moi Presidency), western donor fatigue, the President's ill health during his first term, political tension culminating in the break-up of the NARC coalition, the 2007–2008 post election violence, the 2007–2008 Global Financial crisis, and a tenuous relationship with his coalition partner, Raila Odinga, during his second term.
President Kibaki, the economist whose term as Finance minister in the 1970s is widely celebrated as outstanding, did much as president to repair the damage done to the country's economy during the 24-year reign of his predecessor, President Moi. Compared to the Moi years, Kenya was much better managed, by far more competent public sector personnel, and was much transformed.
Kenya's economy in the Kibaki years experienced a major turnaround. GDP growth picked up from a low 0.6% (real −1.6%) in 2002 to 3% in 2003, 4.9% in 2004, 5.8% in 2005, 6% in 2006 and 7% 2007, then after the post election chaos and Global Financial Crisis—2008 (1.7%)and 2009 (2.6%), recovered to 5% in 2010 and 5% in 2011.
Development was resumed in all areas of the country, including the hitherto neglected and largely undeveloped semi-arid or arid north. Many sectors of the economy recovered from total collapse pre-2003. Numerous state corporations that had collapsed during the Moi years were revived and have begun performing profitably. The telecommunications sector boomed. Rebuilding, modernisation and expansion of infrastructure began in earnest, with several ambitious infrastructural and other projects, such as the Thika Superhighway, which would have been seen as unattainable during the Moi years, completed. The country's cities and towns also began being positively renewed and transformed.
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was also introduced in 2003. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The CDF programme has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. CDF was the first step towards the devolved system of government introduced by the 2010 Constitution, by which Local Government structures were Constitutionally redesigned, enhanced and strengthened.
President Kibaki also oversaw the creation of Kenya's Vision 2030, a long-term development plan aimed at raising GDP growth to 10% annually and transforming Kenya into a middle income country by 2030, which he unveiled on 30 October 2006.
The Kibaki regime also saw a reduction of Kenya's dependence on western donor aid, with the country being increasingly funded by internally generated resources such as increased tax revenue collection. Relations with China, Japan and other non-western powers improved and expanded remarkably in the Kibaki years. China and Japan especially, the Asian Tigers such as Malaysia and Singapore, Brazil, the Middle East and to a lesser extent, South Africa, Libya, other African Countries, and even Iran, became increasingly important economic partners.
Political legacy
President Kibaki was accused of ruling with a small group of his elderly peers, mainly from the educated side of the Kikuyu elite that emerged in the Kenyatta era, usually referred to as the "Kitchen Cabinet" or the "Mount Kenya Mafia". There was therefore the perception that his was a Kikuyu presidency. This perception was reinforced when the President was seen to have trashed the pre- 2002 election Memorandum of Understanding with the Raila Odinga-led Liberal Democratic Party, and was further reinforced by his disputed 2007 election victory over the Raila Odinga led ODM Party being achieved nearly exclusively with the votes of the populous Mt. Kenya Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities.
The Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) put it thus:
The post election violence [in early 2008]therefore is, in part, a consequence of the failure of President Kibaki and his first Government to exert political control over the country or to maintain sufficient legitimacy as would have allowed a civilised contest with him at the polls to be possible. Kibaki's regime failed to unite the country, and allowed feelings of marginalisation to fester into what became the post election violence. He and his then Government were complacent in the support they considered they would receive in any election from the majority Kikuyu community and failed to heed the views of the legitimate leaders of other communities.
Critics posit that President Kibaki failed to take advantage of the 2002 popular mandate for a complete break with the past and fix the politics largely mobilized along ethnic interests. "... when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." Elected in 2002 on a reform platform, Kibaki was seen to have re-established the status quo ante. His opponents charged that a major aim of his presidency was the preservation of the privileged position of the elite that emerged during the Kenyatta years, of which he was part.
I the sum total, the Kibaki Presidency did not do nearly enough to address the problem of tribalism in Kenya.
Lawyer George Kegoro, in an article published in the Daily Nation newspaper on 12 April 2013 summarized the Kibaki Political Legacy thus:-
"Kibaki was, by far, a better manager of the economy than Moi before him. He brought order to the management of public affairs, a departure from the rather informal style that characterised the Moi regime. Kibaki's push for free primary education remains an important achievement, as will the revival of key economic institutions such as the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries, ruined during the Moi-era. ... However, Kibaki was not all success. Having come to power in 2003 on an anti-corruption platform, he set up two commissions, the Bosire Commission on the Goldenberg scandal and the Ndung'u Commission, which investigated irregular land allocation. However, the reports were not implemented. Further, the Kibaki administration was rocked by a corruption scandal of its own, the Anglo Leasing scam, involving his close associates. John Githongo, an inspired appointment by Kibaki for an anti-corruption czar, resigned from the government in 2005, citing lack of support from the president. As he leaves office, therefore, the fight against corruption remains unfulfilled. ... But, perhaps, the most controversial aspect of the Kibaki tenure will always be his relationship with senior politicians of his day, particularly Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. The context of this complex relationship includes the post-election violence of 2007, whose roots go back to the dishonoured Memorandum of Understanding between Kibaki and Raila in 2002. The quarrel over the MoU directly led to the break-up of the Narc government, after which Kibaki showed Odinga the door and invited the opposition to rule with him. The effect was that the opposition, rejected at the polls, joined government while Raila's faction, validly elected to power, was consigned to the opposition. ... To the supporters of Raila and Kalonzo, Kibaki will be remembered as a person who did not keep political promises."
Failure to tame corruption
Though president Kibaki was never personally accused of corruption, and managed to virtually end the grabbing of public land rampant in the Moi and Kenyatta eras, he was unable to adequately contain Kenya's widely entrenched culture of endemic corruption.
Michela Wrong describes the situation thus:
"Whether expressed in the petty bribes the average Kenyan had to pay each week to fat-bellied policemen and local councillors, the jobs for the boys doled out by civil servants and politicians on strictly tribal lines, or the massive scams perpetrated by the country's ruling elite, corruption had become endemic. 'Eating', as Kenyans dubbed the gorging on state resources by the well-connected, had crippled the nation. In the corruption indices drawn up by the anti-graft organisation Transparency International, Kenya routinely trail[s] near the bottom ... viewed as only slightly less sleazy than Nigeria or Pakistan ..."
The Daily Nation, in an article published on 4 March 2013 titled "End of a decade of highs and lows for Mwai Kibaki" summarised it thus:
For a leader who was popularly swept into power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform, Kibaki's tenure saw graft scandals where hundreds of millions of shillings were siphoned from public coffers. Kibaki's National Rainbow Coalition – which took power from the authoritarian rule of Daniel arap Moi—was welcomed for its promises of change and economic growth, but soon showed that it was better suited to treading established paths.
The initial response to corruption was very solid ... but it became clear after a while that these scams reached all the way to the president himself," said Kenya's former anti-corruption chief John Githongo in Michela Wrong's book It's Our Turn to Eat. Most notorious of a raft of graft scandals was the multi-billion shilling Anglo Leasing case, which emerged in 2004 and involved public cash being paid to a complicated web of foreign companies for a range of services—including naval ships and passports—that never materialised."
2010 Constitution
However, the passage of Kenya's transformative 2010 Constitution, successfully championed by President Kibaki in the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2010 was a major triumph and achievement, which went a long way into addressing Kenya's governance and institutional challenges. With the new Constitution started wide-ranging institutional and legislative reforms, which President Kibaki skilfully and successfully steered in the final years of this presidency."His greatest moment was the promulgation of the new Constitution... It was a very deep and emotional moment for him," Kibaki's son Jimmy was quoted as saying.
2013: Power handover
A proud looking but rather worn President Kibaki handed over the Kenyan presidency to his successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, on 9 April 2013 at a public inauguration ceremony held at Kenya's largest stadium. "I am happy to pass the torch of leadership to the new generation of leaders", said Kibaki. He also thanked his family and all Kenyans for the support they had given him throughout his tenure in office, and cited the various achievements his government made.
The handover marked the end of his presidency and of his 50 years of public service.
Personal life
President Kibaki was married to Lucy Muthoni from 1961 until her death in 2016. They have four children: Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai, and Tony Githinji. They also have several grandchildren: Joy Jamie Marie, Rachael Muthoni,Mwai Junior and Krystinaa Muthoni. Jimmy Kibaki did have, so far unsuccessful, designs to be his father's political heir.
In 2004, the media reported that Kibaki has a second spouse, whom he allegedly married under customary law, Mary Wambui, and a daughter, Wangui Mwai. State House in response released an unsigned statement that Kibaki's only immediate family at the time was his then wife, Lucy, and their four children. In 2009, Kibaki, with Lucy in close attendance, held an odd press conference to re-state publicly that he only has one wife. The matter of Kibaki's alleged mistress, and his wife's usually dramatic public reactions thereto, provided an embarrassing side-show during his presidency, with the Washington Post terming the entire scandal as a "new Kenyan soap opera".
Ms. Wambui, the rather popular "other woman", who enjoyed the state trappings of a Presidential spouse and became a powerful and wealthy business-woman during the Kibaki Presidency, frequently drove Lucy into episodes of highly embarrassing very publicly displayed rage. Ms. Wambui, despite opposition from Kibaki's family, led publicly by Kibaki's son, Jimmy, and despite Kibaki's public endorsement and campaign for her opponent, succeeded Kibaki as Member of Parliament for Othaya in the 2013 General Election. In December 2014, Senator Bonny Khalwale stated on KTN's Jeff Koinange Live that President Kibaki had introduced Wambui as his wife.
Kibaki enjoys playing golf and is a member of the Muthaiga Golf Club. He is a practicing and a very committed member of the Roman Catholic Church and attends Consolata Shrines Catholic Church in Nairobi every Sunday at noon.
On 21 August 2016, Kibaki was taken to Karen Hospital, and later flew to South Africa for specialized treatment.
Unlike the Kenyatta and Moi families, Kibaki's family has shown little interest in politics save for his nephew Nderitu Muriithi, the current Governor of Laikipia County.
Honors and awards
Honorary degrees
References
External links
Mwai Kibaki official website
Profile of His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki
Profile of President Mwai Kibaki
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1931 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Mang'u High School
Alumni of Nyeri High School
Democratic Party (Kenya) politicians
Government ministers of Kenya
Kenyan democracy activists
Kenyan economists
Kenyan Roman Catholics
Kikuyu people
Living people
Makerere University alumni
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Ministers of Finance of Kenya
National Rainbow Coalition politicians
Party of National Unity (Kenya) politicians
People from Nyeri County
Presidents of Kenya
Vice-presidents of Kenya
20th-century Kenyan politicians
21st-century Kenyan politicians | true | [
"Kathryn Lomer (born 1958, Tasmania) is an Australian novelist, young adult novelist, short story writer and poet. She has also written for screen, with one short film credit to date.\n\nHer first novel, The God in the Ink was published by the University of Queensland Press in 2001. Her first book of poetry, Extraction of Arrows, also published by UQP, was released in September 2003. Since then she has published two YA novels, a collection of short stories and two more collections of poetry, all with UQP.\n\nHer poetry has been favourably compared with that of fellow Australian poet, Jennifer Maiden.\n\nShe currently resides in Hobart in her native Tasmania.\n\nAwards\nThe 2003/2004 Anne Elder Award for Extraction of Arrows.\nThe 2008 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize (The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards) 2008 for Two Kinds of Silence.\nThe 2011 Margaret Scott Prize (The Tasmanian Premier's Literary Prizes) for \"What now, Tilda B?\".\n\nShe has also won the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, the Melbourne Poets' Union (MPU), Josephine Ulrick and ANUTECH poetry prizes.\n\nPublications\nThe God in the Ink, (2001)\nExtraction of Arrows, (2003)\nThe Spare Room, (2005)\nTwo Kinds of Silence, (2007)\nCamera Obscura, (2008)\nWhat now, Tilda B?, (2010)\nNight Writing, (2014)\nTalk Under Water, (2015)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Lomer biodata\n University of Queensland Press\n\n1958 births\n21st-century Australian novelists\nAustralian poets\nAustralian schoolteachers\nAustralian women novelists\nLiving people\nPeople from Hobart\n21st-century Australian women writers",
"\"All Kinds of Everything\" is a song written by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith; as performed by Dana, it won the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 representing . \"All Kinds of Everything\" marked a return to the ballad form from the more energetic performances which had dominated Eurovision the previous years. Dana sings about all the things which remind her of her sweetheart (such as wishing-wells, wedding bells and an early morning dew) with the admission at the end of every verse that \"all kinds of everything remind me of you\". The recording by Dana became an international hit.\n\nEurovision\nDana had competed in the 1969 Irish National Song Contest — she was a resident of Northern Ireland and citizen of the United Kingdom but it was decided that year to have the Irish entry in Eurovision represent the island of Ireland in its entirety rather than just the Republic of Ireland. Although in 1970 the Irish Eurovision entry reverted to representing the Republic of Ireland only, Dana had made such a favorable impression in the previous year's Irish National Song Contest – her performance of \"Look Around\" had come second – that the contest's producer Tom McGrath invited her to participate again singing \"All Kinds of Everything\", a composition by Derry Lindsay and Jackie Smith, two twenty-eight-year-old amateur songwriters who worked as compositors for a Dublin newspaper. Scottish songwriter Bill Martin, who was responsible for the winning song's publishing, has on numerous subsequent occasions claimed that he and his song writing partner Phil Coulter (the team behind both \"Puppet on a String\" and \"Congratulations\") actually wrote the song themselves, but were prevented from using their names on the credit. Coulter has never repeated the claim. Derry Lindsay set the record straight in an interview with The Irish Times Arts correspondent Tony Clayton-Lea in May 2016, in an article entitled, \"The Greatest injustice in Irish Eurovision history?\". The greatest injustice in Irish Eurovision history?. Derry Lindsay passed away in Dublin on 26 September 2021.\n\nDana's performance of \"All Kinds of Everything\" won the 1970 Irish National Song Contest and that 21 March – a Saturday – she performed the song at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Amsterdam. Dana was the twelfth and final performer on the night (following 's Katja Ebstein with \"Wunder gibt es immer wieder\"). Ireland chose not to send its own conductor to accompany Dana, so Dolf van der Linden, the renowned musical leader of the Dutch Metropole Orchestra, conducted his own orchestra for the Irish entry. Dana sang seated on a stool fashioned as a cylinder which left her feet suspended above the floor and caused her concern that she'd slide off. However Dana performed the song with the self-possession she had displayed at rehearsals, when the production team had her rise from her stool mid-performance to accommodate a set adjustment she continued singing regardless and earned a standing ovation from the orchestra.\n\n\"All Kinds of Everything\" took first place in the contest with a total of 32 votes besting second place \"Knock, Knock Who's There?\" by Mary Hopkin by six votes. 1970 had augured to be an off year for Eurovision with five nations boycotting the contest and an apparently predictable outcome with a victory by Hopkin or possibly Julio Iglesias (who in fact came in fourth with \"Gwendolyne\"). \"All Kinds of Everything\" was the first Eurovision win for the Republic of Ireland; have made it the most successful entrant in Eurovision. \"All Kinds of Everything\" was also only the second song sung in English to win Eurovision outright (the first being Sandie Shaw's \"Puppet on a String\", with Lulu's \"Boom Bang-a-Bang\" sharing first place one year previously).\n\nThe entry was politically sensitive as Dana came from Derry in Northern Ireland, yet was representing Ireland, not the United Kingdom. At this time the Troubles in Northern Ireland were erupting, and some people found political symbolism of a Northern Irishwoman representing the Republic. The United Kingdom's entry the following year, held in Dublin, was sung by Clodagh Rodgers, who was also from Northern Ireland. She received death threats from the IRA as a result of her appearing for the UK. Following her victory Dana returned to Derry and sang her victorious song to a crowd of cheering wellwishers from a balcony in the city.\n\nHit record\n\nDana had recorded \"All Kinds of Everything\" following her victory in the Irish National Song Contest with veteran Eurovision composer Phil Coulter (\"Puppet on a String\", \"Congratulations\") providing the musical arrangement for the Ray Horricks production. The record was released on 14 March 1970 on the Rex label for whom Dana had previously recorded four singles (including \"Look Around\") and became a massive hit in the Republic of Ireland even prior to its Eurovision win reaching 1 on the chart dated 20 March 1970 and remaining at No. 1 for nine weeks: in October 1970 Dana received a gold disc for \"All Kinds of Everything\" selling 100,000 units in Ireland. In the UK \"All Kinds of Everything\" was No. 1 for the weeks dated 18 April and 25 April 1970.\n\nA No. 2 hit in the 1970 Eurovision host nation the Netherlands, \"All Kinds of Everything\" was also a hit in Austria (No. 3), Belgium (No. 1 in Flanders and No. 14 in Wallonia), New Zealand (No. 8), South Africa (No. 7), Switzerland (No. 3), and West Germany (No. 4). In Australia the release of Dana's \"All Kinds of Everything\" was preceded by a cover by Melburnian singer Pat Carroll whose version reached No. 25 before the Dana original charted to be ranked jointly with Carroll's version: the highest position this joint ranking reached was No. 34.Go-Set Australian charts - 8 August 1970 \"All Kinds of Everything\" also charted in Italy but failed to become a major hit with a No. 58 peak.\n\nOverall sales for Dana's \"All Kinds of Everything\" are estimated at two million units.\n\nWhen Dana – as Dana Rosemary Scallon – ran in the 1997 Irish presidential election the Republic of Ireland's Independent Television & Radio Commission requested that Irish radio stations refrain from playing \"All Kinds of Everything\" on the grounds that airing the song in effect promoted its singer's candidacy. Radio stations who insisted on playing the song were requested to reduce coverage of Dana's candidacy by three minutes for each spin of the record (which is three minutes long).\n During the election journalist Vincent Browne was criticised for interviewing Dana in a confrontational manner. His apology took the form of a rendition of \"All Kinds of Everything\" during a subsequent radio panel discussion.\n\nDana named her 2007 autobiography All Kinds of Everything. The song was featured in a scene of the 2011 movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCover versions and uses in other media\n\n In 1970, Australian Pat Carroll covered the song, and it peaked at number 28 on the Australian charts.\n\n The 1997 play A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh uses Dana's \"All Kinds of Everything\" incongruously: the record plays during a scene in which three skulls are smashed to powder with hammers.\n\n A faster, 8-bit version of \"All Kinds of Everything\" is featured in the NES video games programmed by Hwang Shinwei or published by RCM Group, such Magic Jewelry and Brush Roller.\n\n An acoustic version of \"All Kinds of Everything\" was released by Hong Kong singer Albert Au in the album Simple Folk 2 (1998).\n\n Sinéad O'Connor and Terry Hall recorded \"All Kinds of Everything\" for the 1998 album A Song For Eurotrash; the track was also featured on O'Connor's 2005 release Collaborations.\n\n Foster & Allen included their version of \"All Kinds of Everything\" on their 2001 album The Songs That Sold A Million.\n\n A German rendering of \"All Kinds of Everything\", \"Alles Und Noch Viel Mehr\", was a German hit at No. 26 for Manuela in 1970: Manuela also recorded the song in its original English for her 1971 album Songs of Love.\n\n Other non-English renderings of \"All Kinds of Everything\" have been recorded by Willeke Alberti (Dutch: \"Duizenden dingetjes\"), (Spanish: \"Todas los cosas\") and Angela Similea (Romanian: \"Dacă visezi cumva\"). Singaporean vocalist Rita Chao recorded the Japanese rendering \"\" (\"Always burning\") as the title cut for a 1970 album release.\n\nReferences\n\nEurovision songs of Ireland\nEurovision songs of 1970\nIrish Singles Chart number-one singles\nUK Singles Chart number-one singles\nDecca Records singles\nEurovision Song Contest winning songs\n1970 songs\nPop ballads\n1970s ballads"
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"Elaine Paige",
"1981-1993: Cats and Chess era"
]
| C_11e073ed78c54d44ba363cf1f30b6c4e_0 | What was cats? | 1 | What was Llyod Webber's Cats? | Elaine Paige | Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America. The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988. Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg. In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Edith Piaf songs. CANNOTANSWER | Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. | Elaine Jill Paige (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut.
Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show.
In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess, followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also co-produced. Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996, playing the lead role of Norma Desmond, to critical acclaim. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also worked sporadically in television. She is known for having a strange laugh.
In addition to being nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, Paige has won many other awards for her theatre roles and has been called the First Lady of British Musical Theatre due to her skill and longevity. She has released 22 solo albums, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum. Paige is also featured on seven cast albums and has sung in concerts across the world. Since 2004 she has hosted her own show on BBC Radio 2 called Elaine Paige on Sunday.
In 2014, Paige celebrated her 50 years in show business. Paige announced on her official website a "Farewell" concert tour and a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection to mark this milestone in her career. Outside of her work in musical theatre, Paige is a Vice-President of The Children's Trust, a UK charity for children with brain injury.
Early life
Elaine Jill Bickerstaff was born and raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where her father Eric worked as an estate agent and her mother Irene was a milliner. Her mother had been a singer in her youth, and her father was an amateur drummer. Paige stands at just under 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, which she says has caused her to lose out on leading roles. Her original ambition was to become a professional tennis player, at which point her headmistress pointed out to her "they'd never see you over the net", but Paige continued to play tennis and has referred to the sport as one of her passions.
At 14, Paige listened to the film soundtrack of West Side Story, which evoked the desire for a career in musical theatre. Paige's musical ability was encouraged by her school music teacher, Ann Hill, who was also the head of the music department. Paige was a member of Hill's choir, and her first role on stage was playing Susanna in a school production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which was followed by parts in The Boy Mozart and solos in Handel's Messiah – "a difficult work for little children".
She attended Southaw Girls' School – a secondary modern in Oakleigh Park in Hertfordshire where she received two CSE qualifications.
Her father suggested that she should go to drama school, so she attended the Aida Foster Theatre School. Lacking confidence, she initially disliked stage school; her father encouraged her to persevere and she grew to enjoy her time there.
After graduating, her first job was modelling children's clothing at the Ideal Home Exhibition.
Career
1968–1980: West End debut, new name and Evita
Paige's first professional appearance happened when she was 16 years old, fresh from drama school. She was rejected in her first audition, singing "I Cain't Say No". Her drama school teacher encouraged her to change her name and audition again under the new name. Browsing through a phone book for inspiration, she became aware of the "page" she was observing and decided upon that name with the addition of an "i", becoming Elaine Paige. She was successful in the second audition as Elaine Paige, appearing on stage during the UK tour of the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd in 1964, playing the role of a Chinese urchin.
In 1968 she appeared on record as a member of the vocal group Colors of Love, who released three Albert Hammond & Mike Hazlewood-penned singles, most notably "I'm a Train", on Larry Page's Page One label under the supervision of Alan Moorhouse. She was also part of the band Sparrow with fellow West End singer Diane Langton, releasing the album Hatching Out in 1972.
At the age of 20, she made her West End debut in Hair on 27 September 1968, remaining in the cast until March 1970. While also being an understudy for the character of Sheila, she played a member of the tribe in the chorus, for which role she was required to be naked on stage in one scene. In 1971, she appeared in the ill-fated musical about premature ejaculation, Maybe That's Your Problem. She also appeared as an urchin in the West End's Oliver!
Over the next decade, she played roles in various musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar; Nuts; Grease, in which she played the lead role of Sandy from 1973 to 1974; Billy, from 1974 to 1975 playing Rita; and The Boyfriend, as Maisie (1975–1976). She had a minor role as a barmaid in the 1978 sex comedy film Adventures of a Plumber's Mate.
After months of acting and singing auditions, Hal Prince offered the still relatively unknown Paige the title role of Eva Perón in the first stage production of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Evita. Her performance won her critical acclaim and brought her into public prominence at the age of 30. Julie Covington, who played the role on the original concept album, had turned down the opportunity of playing the role on stage leading to a long search for a new star. Paige eventually competed against Bonnie Schoen, an American initially favoured by Prince for the role. She later said, "Bonnie was already a big name on Broadway. In a way, she didn't have anything to prove. She was smoothly, silkily professional. But I saw this as my big chance and, like Eva when she clapped eyes on Peron, I grabbed with both hands. I wanted the role more than anything else in the whole world." For her performance in Evita, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical, which at that time was called the Society of West End Theatre Award. She also won the Variety Club Award for Showbusiness Personality of the Year. She played the role for 20 months in total, from 1978 to 1980. She also released her first studio album in 1978, titled Sitting Pretty.
Just prior to her success in Evita, Paige had strongly considered becoming a nursery nurse, but after she sang for Dustin Hoffman, he made her promise that she would continue in theatre work. She admitted that she was "fed up with the whole thing" and that she could not even afford new clothing or to eat out; "Evita saved me" she stated. In the 1980 ITV drama series Lady Killers, Paige played convicted murderer Kate Webster.
1981–1993: Cats and Chess era
In 1981, in the Tales of the Unexpected episode "The Way to Do it", Paige plays Susie, a girl working in a small casino trying to keep guests happy and finally eloping with the main character.
Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America.
The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988.
Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg.
In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Édith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Édith Piaf songs.
1994–2001: Sunset Boulevard and Broadway debut
In 1995, Paige was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to musical theatre.
Paige stepped briefly into the role of Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's West End production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994, when Betty Buckley was taken ill and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The nature of the situation meant that Paige only had two-and-a-half weeks in the rehearsal process before her first performance. She admitted feeling daunted by the prospect, having seen Glenn Close in the role on Broadway just prior to entering rehearsals. London critics were largely won over by Paige in a performance that "not only wrings out every ounce of dramatic action but delivers some unexpected humour as well" and she took over the part full-time the following year. She then won the Variety Club Award for Best Actress of the Year, and received her fifth Olivier Award nomination in 1996.
During the run of Sunset Boulevard at the West End's Adelphi Theatre in 1995, Paige discovered a lump in her breast, prompting her to consult her doctor, who at first reassured her there was nothing to be concerned about. She returned twice, and her doctor subsequently sent her for tests that confirmed the lump was cancerous, nine months after she discovered it. Continuing her role in the production Paige did not miss a show. Paige went in for day surgery on a Sunday due to her theatre commitments, had five years of medical treatment and completed a radiation programme. She has since described the period as "the most awful thing that's happened to me in my life".
Paige transferred to the New York production of Sunset Boulevard to make her Broadway debut at the Minskoff Theatre on 12 September 1996, staying with the show until it closed on 22 March 1997. On the Sunset Boulevard set in Broadway, the staircase steps had to be raised six inches (15 cm) in order to accommodate Paige's short stature, or it would have been hard to see her behind the banister. Paige was welcomed to the Broadway stage with a long standing ovation from the audience, and received largely positive reviews for her New York performance as Norma Desmond: "The lush sound and the sheer power of her voice are, to put it simply, incredible", wrote one critic, whilst another said "Her voice has great range, remarkable clarity and emotional force". Paige was the first Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard to sing one of the show's key songs, "With One Look", which she did first at Lloyd Webber's wedding to Madeleine Gurdon, although at the time the song was called "Just One Glance". Lloyd Webber noted, regarding Paige's performance of one of the show's other prominent songs, "As If We Never Said Goodbye", that it was "as good, if not the best, of anything I've ever heard of mine". Regarding the key lyric in the song, "This world's waited long enough. I've come home at last", Paige had sought to change the way the melody was sung, despite being fully aware of Lloyd-Webber's fastidious tendencies. To her, the moment was not exploited to its fullest potential, so she approached the show's musical director, David Caddick, and expressed her wish to hold the word "home", to which he agreed. Although she had been disappointed when she hoped to perform on Broadway in Evita, Cats and Chess, Paige stated of her debut there, "It was just the most perfect time to go with that particular show". After Sunset Boulevard finished, she suffered from depression, commenting that the show's closing "was the most terrible feeling. ... I'd felt I'd lost something so very important to me. I thought it had died and gone away."
Arts commentator Melvyn Bragg hosted a special edition of The South Bank Show about Paige's career in 1996, titled The Faces of Elaine Paige. The episode saw her visiting parts of the world where plays she had starred in had been set: the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina where Eva Perón had given speeches; the Parisian haunts of Edith Piaf including a meeting with her collaborator Charles Aznavour; and Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
In 1997, Paige made her United States concert debut when she opened the Boston Pops season, which was aired on WGBH in America. The following year, she made a guest appearance at Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday celebration at the Royal Albert Hall, performing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Memory" She then played Célimène in the non-musical play The Misanthrope in 1998, but she admitted that she missed the musical element and that the silence was slightly unsettling to her. A Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Operatic and Dramatic Association soon followed. She later performed alongside Bette Midler in a 1999 New York concert to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
From 2000 to 2001, she starred as Anna Leonowens in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at the London Palladium. Paige had turned down an offer for the role the first time she was approached, but later accepted, admitting that she had "forgotten what a fantastic score it was", although she did question her own suitability for the role. Before the opening, the box office had already taken in excess of £7 million in ticket sales. The critic for The Independent commented, "It may well be impossible to be a success as Evita and a success as Anna" complaining that Paige was not refined enough for the role, whereas The Spectator asserted that the role further strengthened her title as the "First Lady of British Musical Theatre". During her time in The King and I, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Despite Paige wanting to pull out of the show, her mother insisted that she should continue until her contract had finished, and Paige's sister, Marion Billings, admitted, "That was very hard for Elaine, having to go on stage night after night knowing she wanted to be with Mum".
2002–2013: Radio and return to West End and Broadway
Paige sang at the opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and then made her Los Angeles concert debut at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. In 2003, she played Angèle in Where There's a Will, directed by Peter Hall. She next sang the role of Mrs Lovett in the New York City Opera production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in March 2004, earning positive reviews from critics, and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Paige then embarked upon a UK tour which was titled "No Strings Attached".
In September 2004, Paige began a weekly Sunday afternoon radio show, Elaine Paige on Sunday, between 1 and 3 PM on BBC Radio 2, featuring music from musical theatre and film. The 400th edition was broadcast on Sunday 29 July 2012. In an unfavourable review, the show was described by Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian as "a chilly, alienating listening experience" and a "rare wrong move" on the part of Radio 2. Lisa Martland of The Stage agreed that "it is by far the music that brings me back to the programme ... and not her lightweight presenting style". However, the show regularly attracts 3 million listeners, and interviews are also featured each week. Paige also focused on television appearances, playing Dora Bunner in the 2005 ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced in the Marple series, before performing a guest role as a post mistress in Where the Heart Is. The episode of Marple was watched by 7.78 million viewers.
The release of Paige's first full studio album of new recordings in 12 years was marked in 2006, titled Essential Musicals. The album included popular songs from musicals identified by a poll on her radio show, in which 400,000 listeners voted. At this point, Paige had recorded 20 solo albums in total, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum, and she had been featured on seven cast albums. Paige also appeared in concert in Scandinavia, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. On 20 and 21 December 2006, she performed in concert in Shanghai, extending her concert tour to two dates to satisfy demand. With a noticeable absence from musical theatre, having not taken a role for many years, she explained in 2006 that "there's been nothing that I've wanted to do, and if you're going to commit to a year at the theatre, six days a week, and have no life, then it's got to be something that you want to do with all your heart". She also affirmed that she believes for older actors it becomes harder to obtain theatre roles.
In 2007, Paige made a return to the West End stage for the first time in six years, as the Chaperone/Beatrice Stockwell in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Novello Theatre. The production ran for a disappointing 96 performances, although it had opened to a standing ovation from the audience and a generally optimistic reaction from critics. The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Elaine Paige is a good sport ... enduring jokes about her reputation for being 'difficult' with a grin that doesn't seem all that forced. ... Only the self-importantly serious and the chronically depressed will fail to enjoy this preposterously entertaining evening". Paul Taylor from The Independent was less impressed and wrote "a miscast Elaine Paige manages to be unfunny to an almost ingenious degree as the heroine's bibulous minder". For her performance, Paige was nominated for a What's On Stage Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. She next collaborated with the duo Secret Garden in recording the song "The Things You Are to Me" for their 2007 album, Inside I'm Singing.
To raise money for Sport Relief Paige danced the tango on Sport Relief does Strictly Come Dancing with Matt Dawson in March 2008, where they were voted second overall. In 2008, she opened the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and performed concerts in China, America and Australia featuring songs from her 40-year career. To further celebrate 40 years since her first performance on a West End Stage, in October 2008 Paige released a picture-based autobiography titled Memories. The book took around eight months to compile; "Since Evita I suppose, I had kept a yearbook. My parents always kept cuttings and things like that for me. I did have quite a lot of reference material to work out," Paige commented.
An album titled Elaine Paige and Friends was produced by Phil Ramone in 2010. The album features duets with Paige and artists such as Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John as well as a duet with Sinéad O'Connor of a new song "It's Only Life" penned by Tim Rice and Gary Barlow. Having entered the top 20 of UK Album Charts, it went on to achieve gold status.
Paige played the role of Carlotta Campion in the Kennedy Center production of Follies in May and June 2011 at the Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, DC, receiving favourable reviews for her performance of the showstopper, "I'm Still Here." The principal cast also comprised Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines and Danny Burstein. She reprised this role in the Broadway transfer of the musical at the Marquis Theatre from August 2011 until the following January, before performing at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California in May and June 2012.
2014–present: 50th Anniversary, farewell tour
At the end of 2013 Paige announced a concert tour, Page by Page by Paige, which focused on her 50th anniversary in show business and was advertised as a farewell tour. The 40th anniversary tour in 2008 marked 40 years since her debut on the West End stage, and the 50th anniversary tour in 2014 marked 50 years since her first stage performance. The tour featured Gardar Thor Cortes performing a number of songs, both solo and duets with Paige, and was sold out at all venues. The tour ran from 9 to 20 October 2014, concluding at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Other stops included Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle (Gateshead), Glasgow, Birmingham and Bournemouth. Due to a throat infection, one concert in Brighton had to be cancelled. Dates in Ireland were postponed before being rescheduled, with Paige giving four sold-out concerts in Dublin (two evenings), Limerick and Cork between 10 and 16 February 2015.
In 2014, Paige presented and performed in a six episode television show for Sky Arts television called The Elaine Paige Show. The show featured songs performed by Paige, masterclasses with drama college students and interviews and performances by West End and Broadway performers and writers. The show was recorded in March and April at Riverside Studios, London. She released a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection in May 2014. In June, Paige made her debut at G-A-Y's Heaven nightclub in London and in November, she joined the inaugural Australian cruise of the performing arts on the .
In May 2015 Paige was part of VE Day 70: A Party to Remember, a special concert which took place at the Horse Guards Parade, and was broadcast live on BBC1 and BBC Radio 2. Later in 2015 she performed in concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, supported by Collabro and Rhydian, and then headlined the Glamis Prom 2015 at Glamis Castle, Scotland, with Susan Boyle as her guest. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied at both concerts.
In April 2016, it was announced that Paige would perform a number of concerts – on successive weekends rather than intensive schedule of a regular tour – entitled "Stripped Back". The tour initially ran from October until December 2016 and featured music by Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, Leonard Cohen, Sting, Elton John and Lennon-McCartney.
Paige appeared in a new BBC adaptation of William Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream adapted by Russell T Davies as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations in 2016.
In 2017, she appeared in pantomime at the London Palladium as Queen Rat in Dick Whittington alongside Julian Clary, Nigel Havers, Paul Zerdin, Gary Wilmot, Charlie Stemp, Emma Williams and Diversity (dance troupe).
In 2018, Paige played the part of Mercy Hackett in the BBC TV comedy Home from Home. In 2020, she appeared in the BBC drama Series Life with Alison Steadman and Peter Davison.
Legacy
Having had so many starring roles in famous musicals, many to critical acclaim, Paige is often referred to as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre. In 2008, she celebrated the 40th anniversary of her professional debut on the West End stage. Paige has never married nor had children, although she had an 11-year affair with the lyricist Tim Rice throughout the 1980s. She has said that she wanted to have children, but "it's a wonderful life I have, so I'm very fulfilled in other ways".
Paige's singing abilities have won her worldwide praise, as have her acting skills, with Andrew Gans of Playbill magazine writing that "Paige's gift is to dissect a role and determine what phrasing, gesture or emotion can bring a scene to its fullest dramatic potential". Mark Shenton also highlighted her voice in 2008 as "one of the most distinctive and impressive voices in the business". Lloyd-Webber insists that her rendition of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" is one of the best interpretations of a song by him.
Paige has gained herself a reputation as someone who can be "difficult". The Times''' Brian Logan wrote, "Paige is not exactly known for her humility. In newspaper profiles, that dread word 'difficult' is often applied". On one occasion, she told a male interviewer that she was going to stop giving interviews to female reporters because, in her own words, "I don't trust other women in these situations. They establish a sisterhood with you and then betray it every time". What has been seen as a cold side to her personality was also noted by Logan, but Paige has said that a common misconception of her is that she is confident and very serious. Another editor found her "refreshingly down-to-earth" and "very friendly".
Views on theatre
Though Paige has enjoyed a long career in musical theatre, she rarely goes to watch musicals, much preferring to watch films or plays. She considers herself primarily an actress, rather than a singer, stating, "I really prefer to be in character". Comparing the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein to that of Lloyd Webber, Paige has said that she finds Rodgers and Hammerstein songs more difficult to sing, and described them as challenging. She concluded, "it's a quieter kind of singing, more controlled, not belting it out".
In the light of the physical demands of performing in theatre Paige has said "Musical theatre is the hardest thing any actor will ever do. You become obsessive about sleeping, eating the right food, not speaking and giving yourself vocal rest and keeping exercised". Regarding the pressure of having to be in a fit condition to perform in theatre each night, she remarked "you wouldn't want to read the letters people write when you're off and they're disappointed – it's so awful, the guilt one feels for not being there". As part of a rigorous routine before musical roles to look after her voice, Paige stops eating dairy products and drinking alcohol and works hard on her fitness. After about three months into the production when her voice is tiring from performing, she withdraws from her normal social life, sometimes only communicating by notepad and fax. She never reads her reviews, finding that it is not helpful to hear too many opinions of her work.
In 2007, Paige named reality television series such as Any Dream Will Do'', which aim to find an unknown actor to play the lead role in a musical, as the greatest threat to theatre today, believing that "actors already striving in the theatre wouldn't dream of putting themselves on these shows". In a later interview, she questioned the seriousness of the actors auditioning for this type of show: "you wouldn't put yourself up for one of those shows in case you got bumped off the first week and all your colleagues saw it". She has also expressed a wish for more new musicals to be put into production, instead of frequent revivals.
Charity
Paige has been an Ambassador of The Children's Trust, the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisabiity, for over 35 years, since the charity was created, when she first presented the charity with a minibus. She has hosted and performed at fundraising events for the charity including hosting 5 bi-annual Elaine Paige Clay Pigeon Shoots.
Musicals
Discography
Solo albums
Compilations
Cast recordings
Singles
Other albums and guest appearances
Videos and DVDs
Curated albums
Tying in with her weekly radio show, Paige has been involved in the compilation of two albums featuring selected tracks from musical theatre.
References
External links
Elaine Paige on Sunday (BBC Radio 2)
1948 births
People with lupus
Actresses from London
English women singers
English musical theatre actresses
English television actresses
Living people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Laurence Olivier Award winners
People from Chipping Barnet
Singers from London
BBC Radio 2 presenters
Alumni of the Aida Foster Theatre School
Musicians from Hertfordshire
Actresses from Hertfordshire
Women radio presenters | true | [
"Jingle Cats and its follow-up Jingle Dogs are a series of Christmas novelty song albums from producer Mike Spalla. A third series was released in 1997 titled Jingle Babies. Jingle Cats and Jingle Dogs were released as albums and videos. A 1998 video game of Jingle Cats was released in Japan.\n\nReleases\nThe songs are created by Spalla who mixes actual animal sounds to match tones of the songs. He started with a version of \"Jingle Bells\" that was released to radio stations a few years before the full album came out. In all, it took more than 1,000 meows, screeches and growls to assemble 20 melodies.\n\nMeowy Christmas was released on CD and cassette in 1993 to wide United States media coverage within its first week. The album reached number 86 on a Billboard chart and was sold out a week before Christmas. The following year, Meowy Christmas was placed on the Billboard top 10 catalog album chart. The second album, Here Comes Santa Claws, was released in 1994 with \"3,000 brand new meows and new arrangements\". Here Comes Santa Claws starred Spalla's cats Sprocket, Twizzler, Binky, Cheese Puff, Clara, Cueball, Graymer, Max, and Petunia. Spalla played the accordion and the background music was from his dog, Klippy Kloppy. Its success resulted in a national tour and live television appearances. A spin-off series starring Jingle Dogs was released on September 11, 1995 titled Christmas Unleashed. On October 23, 1995, a VHS was released that features the Jingle Cats singing and dancing. Jingle Dogs received a VHS release in 1996 alongside a Jingle Cats VHS. The Jingle Cats album Rhythm and Mews was released in 2002. The Jingle Dogs CD Puppy Holidays was released in 2008. In 2009, the album First Meowel was released on iTunes as well as the official website and starred the cats Messifur, Jumper, Ally, and Christmas Tree Face with dog noises in the background. In 2008, Jingle Cats Christmas was released on DVD with songs from the Jingle Cats and the Jingle Dogs.\n\nMerchandise \nA mail order catalog sold Jingle Cats t-shirts, buttons, and stickers. Hallmark Cards signed a four-year contract to sell Jingle Cats singing cards in 2008 and over 125,000 cards sold within the first three months. The song \"Jingle Cats Medley\" played in the film Fred Claus. A 1998 video game was released for the PlayStation in Japan titled . The player is given the task of taking care of the Jingle Cats by interacting with them in various ways, having to fill up a \"love-o-meter\" before time runs out. Writing for The Believer, Blake Butler notes that \"the object is to breed and care for cats, which begin to sing when they're done copulating\". The video game was not released internationally.\n\nReception\nIn 1995, Here Comes Santa Claws won a Billie Award from Billboard for point-of-purchase category. David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times said, \"Yet for every person who listens to 'Jingle Cats' and hears only screeching, there are cat lovers who hear a symphony.\"\n\nAfter following up what Billboard called \"excellent\" Jingle Cats and Jingle Dogs albums, Spalla produced a Jingle Babies album for which Billboard described the series as having hit a \"brick wall\". Ashley Naftule of Phoenix New Times reviewed Jingle Cats and said, \"Don't be fooled by its kitschy name: A more accurate title for the project would be The Wretched Mewling Of The Damned.\" Blake Butler wrote a review of the Jingle Babies release Rockabye Christmas in The Believer saying, \"I imagine these boggled carols funneled loudly into malls, sending people running from the Gap and Sharper Image back to hide inside their homes, to wrap the roof with enough colored light to keep the dark out, fearing what other kind of man might slide down the chimney.\"\n\nSee also\n Cat Organ, a conjectural musical instrument using live cats\n The Singing Dogs, a classic novelty recording project from the 1950s\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nJingle Cats official site\n\n1990s Christmas albums\n2000s Christmas albums\nCats in popular culture\nZoomusicology",
"The Secret Thoughts of Cats was written and illustrated by Steven Appleby, and first published in 1996. \n\nAlso known as the Infinite Subtlety of Cat Expressions, it focuses on the fact that cat expressions are always the same, no matter what the situation (apart from when asleep or dead). It has a picture of a cat with the same expression on every page, and a description of what it's thinking or doing underneath. It finishes with ‘Afterthoughts’ of cats, a selection of observations made on cat behaviour. The first page is a picture of cat hairs, the last, cat hairs on cushions.\nIt was written in memory of: Terry, Dibble, Sally, and for Jim.\n\n1996 books\nComedy books\nZoology books\nBooks about cats"
]
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[
"Elaine Paige",
"1981-1993: Cats and Chess era",
"What was cats?",
"Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982."
]
| C_11e073ed78c54d44ba363cf1f30b6c4e_0 | Was Cats a song? | 2 | Was Lloyd Webber's Cats a song? | Elaine Paige | Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America. The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988. Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg. In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Edith Piaf songs. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Elaine Jill Paige (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut.
Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show.
In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess, followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also co-produced. Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996, playing the lead role of Norma Desmond, to critical acclaim. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also worked sporadically in television. She is known for having a strange laugh.
In addition to being nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, Paige has won many other awards for her theatre roles and has been called the First Lady of British Musical Theatre due to her skill and longevity. She has released 22 solo albums, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum. Paige is also featured on seven cast albums and has sung in concerts across the world. Since 2004 she has hosted her own show on BBC Radio 2 called Elaine Paige on Sunday.
In 2014, Paige celebrated her 50 years in show business. Paige announced on her official website a "Farewell" concert tour and a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection to mark this milestone in her career. Outside of her work in musical theatre, Paige is a Vice-President of The Children's Trust, a UK charity for children with brain injury.
Early life
Elaine Jill Bickerstaff was born and raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where her father Eric worked as an estate agent and her mother Irene was a milliner. Her mother had been a singer in her youth, and her father was an amateur drummer. Paige stands at just under 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, which she says has caused her to lose out on leading roles. Her original ambition was to become a professional tennis player, at which point her headmistress pointed out to her "they'd never see you over the net", but Paige continued to play tennis and has referred to the sport as one of her passions.
At 14, Paige listened to the film soundtrack of West Side Story, which evoked the desire for a career in musical theatre. Paige's musical ability was encouraged by her school music teacher, Ann Hill, who was also the head of the music department. Paige was a member of Hill's choir, and her first role on stage was playing Susanna in a school production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which was followed by parts in The Boy Mozart and solos in Handel's Messiah – "a difficult work for little children".
She attended Southaw Girls' School – a secondary modern in Oakleigh Park in Hertfordshire where she received two CSE qualifications.
Her father suggested that she should go to drama school, so she attended the Aida Foster Theatre School. Lacking confidence, she initially disliked stage school; her father encouraged her to persevere and she grew to enjoy her time there.
After graduating, her first job was modelling children's clothing at the Ideal Home Exhibition.
Career
1968–1980: West End debut, new name and Evita
Paige's first professional appearance happened when she was 16 years old, fresh from drama school. She was rejected in her first audition, singing "I Cain't Say No". Her drama school teacher encouraged her to change her name and audition again under the new name. Browsing through a phone book for inspiration, she became aware of the "page" she was observing and decided upon that name with the addition of an "i", becoming Elaine Paige. She was successful in the second audition as Elaine Paige, appearing on stage during the UK tour of the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd in 1964, playing the role of a Chinese urchin.
In 1968 she appeared on record as a member of the vocal group Colors of Love, who released three Albert Hammond & Mike Hazlewood-penned singles, most notably "I'm a Train", on Larry Page's Page One label under the supervision of Alan Moorhouse. She was also part of the band Sparrow with fellow West End singer Diane Langton, releasing the album Hatching Out in 1972.
At the age of 20, she made her West End debut in Hair on 27 September 1968, remaining in the cast until March 1970. While also being an understudy for the character of Sheila, she played a member of the tribe in the chorus, for which role she was required to be naked on stage in one scene. In 1971, she appeared in the ill-fated musical about premature ejaculation, Maybe That's Your Problem. She also appeared as an urchin in the West End's Oliver!
Over the next decade, she played roles in various musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar; Nuts; Grease, in which she played the lead role of Sandy from 1973 to 1974; Billy, from 1974 to 1975 playing Rita; and The Boyfriend, as Maisie (1975–1976). She had a minor role as a barmaid in the 1978 sex comedy film Adventures of a Plumber's Mate.
After months of acting and singing auditions, Hal Prince offered the still relatively unknown Paige the title role of Eva Perón in the first stage production of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Evita. Her performance won her critical acclaim and brought her into public prominence at the age of 30. Julie Covington, who played the role on the original concept album, had turned down the opportunity of playing the role on stage leading to a long search for a new star. Paige eventually competed against Bonnie Schoen, an American initially favoured by Prince for the role. She later said, "Bonnie was already a big name on Broadway. In a way, she didn't have anything to prove. She was smoothly, silkily professional. But I saw this as my big chance and, like Eva when she clapped eyes on Peron, I grabbed with both hands. I wanted the role more than anything else in the whole world." For her performance in Evita, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical, which at that time was called the Society of West End Theatre Award. She also won the Variety Club Award for Showbusiness Personality of the Year. She played the role for 20 months in total, from 1978 to 1980. She also released her first studio album in 1978, titled Sitting Pretty.
Just prior to her success in Evita, Paige had strongly considered becoming a nursery nurse, but after she sang for Dustin Hoffman, he made her promise that she would continue in theatre work. She admitted that she was "fed up with the whole thing" and that she could not even afford new clothing or to eat out; "Evita saved me" she stated. In the 1980 ITV drama series Lady Killers, Paige played convicted murderer Kate Webster.
1981–1993: Cats and Chess era
In 1981, in the Tales of the Unexpected episode "The Way to Do it", Paige plays Susie, a girl working in a small casino trying to keep guests happy and finally eloping with the main character.
Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America.
The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988.
Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg.
In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Édith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Édith Piaf songs.
1994–2001: Sunset Boulevard and Broadway debut
In 1995, Paige was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to musical theatre.
Paige stepped briefly into the role of Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's West End production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994, when Betty Buckley was taken ill and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The nature of the situation meant that Paige only had two-and-a-half weeks in the rehearsal process before her first performance. She admitted feeling daunted by the prospect, having seen Glenn Close in the role on Broadway just prior to entering rehearsals. London critics were largely won over by Paige in a performance that "not only wrings out every ounce of dramatic action but delivers some unexpected humour as well" and she took over the part full-time the following year. She then won the Variety Club Award for Best Actress of the Year, and received her fifth Olivier Award nomination in 1996.
During the run of Sunset Boulevard at the West End's Adelphi Theatre in 1995, Paige discovered a lump in her breast, prompting her to consult her doctor, who at first reassured her there was nothing to be concerned about. She returned twice, and her doctor subsequently sent her for tests that confirmed the lump was cancerous, nine months after she discovered it. Continuing her role in the production Paige did not miss a show. Paige went in for day surgery on a Sunday due to her theatre commitments, had five years of medical treatment and completed a radiation programme. She has since described the period as "the most awful thing that's happened to me in my life".
Paige transferred to the New York production of Sunset Boulevard to make her Broadway debut at the Minskoff Theatre on 12 September 1996, staying with the show until it closed on 22 March 1997. On the Sunset Boulevard set in Broadway, the staircase steps had to be raised six inches (15 cm) in order to accommodate Paige's short stature, or it would have been hard to see her behind the banister. Paige was welcomed to the Broadway stage with a long standing ovation from the audience, and received largely positive reviews for her New York performance as Norma Desmond: "The lush sound and the sheer power of her voice are, to put it simply, incredible", wrote one critic, whilst another said "Her voice has great range, remarkable clarity and emotional force". Paige was the first Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard to sing one of the show's key songs, "With One Look", which she did first at Lloyd Webber's wedding to Madeleine Gurdon, although at the time the song was called "Just One Glance". Lloyd Webber noted, regarding Paige's performance of one of the show's other prominent songs, "As If We Never Said Goodbye", that it was "as good, if not the best, of anything I've ever heard of mine". Regarding the key lyric in the song, "This world's waited long enough. I've come home at last", Paige had sought to change the way the melody was sung, despite being fully aware of Lloyd-Webber's fastidious tendencies. To her, the moment was not exploited to its fullest potential, so she approached the show's musical director, David Caddick, and expressed her wish to hold the word "home", to which he agreed. Although she had been disappointed when she hoped to perform on Broadway in Evita, Cats and Chess, Paige stated of her debut there, "It was just the most perfect time to go with that particular show". After Sunset Boulevard finished, she suffered from depression, commenting that the show's closing "was the most terrible feeling. ... I'd felt I'd lost something so very important to me. I thought it had died and gone away."
Arts commentator Melvyn Bragg hosted a special edition of The South Bank Show about Paige's career in 1996, titled The Faces of Elaine Paige. The episode saw her visiting parts of the world where plays she had starred in had been set: the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina where Eva Perón had given speeches; the Parisian haunts of Edith Piaf including a meeting with her collaborator Charles Aznavour; and Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
In 1997, Paige made her United States concert debut when she opened the Boston Pops season, which was aired on WGBH in America. The following year, she made a guest appearance at Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday celebration at the Royal Albert Hall, performing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Memory" She then played Célimène in the non-musical play The Misanthrope in 1998, but she admitted that she missed the musical element and that the silence was slightly unsettling to her. A Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Operatic and Dramatic Association soon followed. She later performed alongside Bette Midler in a 1999 New York concert to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
From 2000 to 2001, she starred as Anna Leonowens in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at the London Palladium. Paige had turned down an offer for the role the first time she was approached, but later accepted, admitting that she had "forgotten what a fantastic score it was", although she did question her own suitability for the role. Before the opening, the box office had already taken in excess of £7 million in ticket sales. The critic for The Independent commented, "It may well be impossible to be a success as Evita and a success as Anna" complaining that Paige was not refined enough for the role, whereas The Spectator asserted that the role further strengthened her title as the "First Lady of British Musical Theatre". During her time in The King and I, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Despite Paige wanting to pull out of the show, her mother insisted that she should continue until her contract had finished, and Paige's sister, Marion Billings, admitted, "That was very hard for Elaine, having to go on stage night after night knowing she wanted to be with Mum".
2002–2013: Radio and return to West End and Broadway
Paige sang at the opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and then made her Los Angeles concert debut at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. In 2003, she played Angèle in Where There's a Will, directed by Peter Hall. She next sang the role of Mrs Lovett in the New York City Opera production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in March 2004, earning positive reviews from critics, and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Paige then embarked upon a UK tour which was titled "No Strings Attached".
In September 2004, Paige began a weekly Sunday afternoon radio show, Elaine Paige on Sunday, between 1 and 3 PM on BBC Radio 2, featuring music from musical theatre and film. The 400th edition was broadcast on Sunday 29 July 2012. In an unfavourable review, the show was described by Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian as "a chilly, alienating listening experience" and a "rare wrong move" on the part of Radio 2. Lisa Martland of The Stage agreed that "it is by far the music that brings me back to the programme ... and not her lightweight presenting style". However, the show regularly attracts 3 million listeners, and interviews are also featured each week. Paige also focused on television appearances, playing Dora Bunner in the 2005 ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced in the Marple series, before performing a guest role as a post mistress in Where the Heart Is. The episode of Marple was watched by 7.78 million viewers.
The release of Paige's first full studio album of new recordings in 12 years was marked in 2006, titled Essential Musicals. The album included popular songs from musicals identified by a poll on her radio show, in which 400,000 listeners voted. At this point, Paige had recorded 20 solo albums in total, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum, and she had been featured on seven cast albums. Paige also appeared in concert in Scandinavia, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. On 20 and 21 December 2006, she performed in concert in Shanghai, extending her concert tour to two dates to satisfy demand. With a noticeable absence from musical theatre, having not taken a role for many years, she explained in 2006 that "there's been nothing that I've wanted to do, and if you're going to commit to a year at the theatre, six days a week, and have no life, then it's got to be something that you want to do with all your heart". She also affirmed that she believes for older actors it becomes harder to obtain theatre roles.
In 2007, Paige made a return to the West End stage for the first time in six years, as the Chaperone/Beatrice Stockwell in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Novello Theatre. The production ran for a disappointing 96 performances, although it had opened to a standing ovation from the audience and a generally optimistic reaction from critics. The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Elaine Paige is a good sport ... enduring jokes about her reputation for being 'difficult' with a grin that doesn't seem all that forced. ... Only the self-importantly serious and the chronically depressed will fail to enjoy this preposterously entertaining evening". Paul Taylor from The Independent was less impressed and wrote "a miscast Elaine Paige manages to be unfunny to an almost ingenious degree as the heroine's bibulous minder". For her performance, Paige was nominated for a What's On Stage Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. She next collaborated with the duo Secret Garden in recording the song "The Things You Are to Me" for their 2007 album, Inside I'm Singing.
To raise money for Sport Relief Paige danced the tango on Sport Relief does Strictly Come Dancing with Matt Dawson in March 2008, where they were voted second overall. In 2008, she opened the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and performed concerts in China, America and Australia featuring songs from her 40-year career. To further celebrate 40 years since her first performance on a West End Stage, in October 2008 Paige released a picture-based autobiography titled Memories. The book took around eight months to compile; "Since Evita I suppose, I had kept a yearbook. My parents always kept cuttings and things like that for me. I did have quite a lot of reference material to work out," Paige commented.
An album titled Elaine Paige and Friends was produced by Phil Ramone in 2010. The album features duets with Paige and artists such as Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John as well as a duet with Sinéad O'Connor of a new song "It's Only Life" penned by Tim Rice and Gary Barlow. Having entered the top 20 of UK Album Charts, it went on to achieve gold status.
Paige played the role of Carlotta Campion in the Kennedy Center production of Follies in May and June 2011 at the Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, DC, receiving favourable reviews for her performance of the showstopper, "I'm Still Here." The principal cast also comprised Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines and Danny Burstein. She reprised this role in the Broadway transfer of the musical at the Marquis Theatre from August 2011 until the following January, before performing at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California in May and June 2012.
2014–present: 50th Anniversary, farewell tour
At the end of 2013 Paige announced a concert tour, Page by Page by Paige, which focused on her 50th anniversary in show business and was advertised as a farewell tour. The 40th anniversary tour in 2008 marked 40 years since her debut on the West End stage, and the 50th anniversary tour in 2014 marked 50 years since her first stage performance. The tour featured Gardar Thor Cortes performing a number of songs, both solo and duets with Paige, and was sold out at all venues. The tour ran from 9 to 20 October 2014, concluding at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Other stops included Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle (Gateshead), Glasgow, Birmingham and Bournemouth. Due to a throat infection, one concert in Brighton had to be cancelled. Dates in Ireland were postponed before being rescheduled, with Paige giving four sold-out concerts in Dublin (two evenings), Limerick and Cork between 10 and 16 February 2015.
In 2014, Paige presented and performed in a six episode television show for Sky Arts television called The Elaine Paige Show. The show featured songs performed by Paige, masterclasses with drama college students and interviews and performances by West End and Broadway performers and writers. The show was recorded in March and April at Riverside Studios, London. She released a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection in May 2014. In June, Paige made her debut at G-A-Y's Heaven nightclub in London and in November, she joined the inaugural Australian cruise of the performing arts on the .
In May 2015 Paige was part of VE Day 70: A Party to Remember, a special concert which took place at the Horse Guards Parade, and was broadcast live on BBC1 and BBC Radio 2. Later in 2015 she performed in concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, supported by Collabro and Rhydian, and then headlined the Glamis Prom 2015 at Glamis Castle, Scotland, with Susan Boyle as her guest. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied at both concerts.
In April 2016, it was announced that Paige would perform a number of concerts – on successive weekends rather than intensive schedule of a regular tour – entitled "Stripped Back". The tour initially ran from October until December 2016 and featured music by Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, Leonard Cohen, Sting, Elton John and Lennon-McCartney.
Paige appeared in a new BBC adaptation of William Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream adapted by Russell T Davies as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations in 2016.
In 2017, she appeared in pantomime at the London Palladium as Queen Rat in Dick Whittington alongside Julian Clary, Nigel Havers, Paul Zerdin, Gary Wilmot, Charlie Stemp, Emma Williams and Diversity (dance troupe).
In 2018, Paige played the part of Mercy Hackett in the BBC TV comedy Home from Home. In 2020, she appeared in the BBC drama Series Life with Alison Steadman and Peter Davison.
Legacy
Having had so many starring roles in famous musicals, many to critical acclaim, Paige is often referred to as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre. In 2008, she celebrated the 40th anniversary of her professional debut on the West End stage. Paige has never married nor had children, although she had an 11-year affair with the lyricist Tim Rice throughout the 1980s. She has said that she wanted to have children, but "it's a wonderful life I have, so I'm very fulfilled in other ways".
Paige's singing abilities have won her worldwide praise, as have her acting skills, with Andrew Gans of Playbill magazine writing that "Paige's gift is to dissect a role and determine what phrasing, gesture or emotion can bring a scene to its fullest dramatic potential". Mark Shenton also highlighted her voice in 2008 as "one of the most distinctive and impressive voices in the business". Lloyd-Webber insists that her rendition of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" is one of the best interpretations of a song by him.
Paige has gained herself a reputation as someone who can be "difficult". The Times''' Brian Logan wrote, "Paige is not exactly known for her humility. In newspaper profiles, that dread word 'difficult' is often applied". On one occasion, she told a male interviewer that she was going to stop giving interviews to female reporters because, in her own words, "I don't trust other women in these situations. They establish a sisterhood with you and then betray it every time". What has been seen as a cold side to her personality was also noted by Logan, but Paige has said that a common misconception of her is that she is confident and very serious. Another editor found her "refreshingly down-to-earth" and "very friendly".
Views on theatre
Though Paige has enjoyed a long career in musical theatre, she rarely goes to watch musicals, much preferring to watch films or plays. She considers herself primarily an actress, rather than a singer, stating, "I really prefer to be in character". Comparing the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein to that of Lloyd Webber, Paige has said that she finds Rodgers and Hammerstein songs more difficult to sing, and described them as challenging. She concluded, "it's a quieter kind of singing, more controlled, not belting it out".
In the light of the physical demands of performing in theatre Paige has said "Musical theatre is the hardest thing any actor will ever do. You become obsessive about sleeping, eating the right food, not speaking and giving yourself vocal rest and keeping exercised". Regarding the pressure of having to be in a fit condition to perform in theatre each night, she remarked "you wouldn't want to read the letters people write when you're off and they're disappointed – it's so awful, the guilt one feels for not being there". As part of a rigorous routine before musical roles to look after her voice, Paige stops eating dairy products and drinking alcohol and works hard on her fitness. After about three months into the production when her voice is tiring from performing, she withdraws from her normal social life, sometimes only communicating by notepad and fax. She never reads her reviews, finding that it is not helpful to hear too many opinions of her work.
In 2007, Paige named reality television series such as Any Dream Will Do'', which aim to find an unknown actor to play the lead role in a musical, as the greatest threat to theatre today, believing that "actors already striving in the theatre wouldn't dream of putting themselves on these shows". In a later interview, she questioned the seriousness of the actors auditioning for this type of show: "you wouldn't put yourself up for one of those shows in case you got bumped off the first week and all your colleagues saw it". She has also expressed a wish for more new musicals to be put into production, instead of frequent revivals.
Charity
Paige has been an Ambassador of The Children's Trust, the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisabiity, for over 35 years, since the charity was created, when she first presented the charity with a minibus. She has hosted and performed at fundraising events for the charity including hosting 5 bi-annual Elaine Paige Clay Pigeon Shoots.
Musicals
Discography
Solo albums
Compilations
Cast recordings
Singles
Other albums and guest appearances
Videos and DVDs
Curated albums
Tying in with her weekly radio show, Paige has been involved in the compilation of two albums featuring selected tracks from musical theatre.
References
External links
Elaine Paige on Sunday (BBC Radio 2)
1948 births
People with lupus
Actresses from London
English women singers
English musical theatre actresses
English television actresses
Living people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Laurence Olivier Award winners
People from Chipping Barnet
Singers from London
BBC Radio 2 presenters
Alumni of the Aida Foster Theatre School
Musicians from Hertfordshire
Actresses from Hertfordshire
Women radio presenters | false | [
"\"Jeannie Jeannie Jeannie\" is a song by Eddie Cochran recorded and released as a single in January 1958 on Liberty Records 55123. It was a minor hit for Cochran and stalled at number 94 on the Billboard charts. \"Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie\" was posthumously released in the United Kingdom in 1961 on the London Records label and rose to number 31. Later versions are most commonly known as \"Jeanie, Jeanie, Jeanie\". The song was first written as \"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny\" for The Georgettes, but they never recorded it.\n\nPersonnel\n Eddie Cochran: vocal, guitar\n Conny 'Guybo' Smith: electric bass\n Earl Palmer: drums\n (possibly) Ray Johnson: piano\n\nChart performance\n\nStray Cats version\n\nThe Stray Cats recorded a version of \"Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie\" which was released on their first UK album Stray Cats in 1981. The song was also released on their debut US album Built for Speed. The song was often featured in their live shows and several live versions are available. The Stray Cats' version features rewritten and raunchier lyrics than the Eddie Cochran version.\n\nOther versions\n Vince Taylor And His Play-Boys (as Jenny, Jenny, Jenny) - 1962\n Showaddywaddy\n Teddy & The Tigers - 1978\n The Inmates - 1979\n The Firebirds - 1991\n The Real Kids - 1993\n Darrel Higham - 1997, 2004. UK rockabilly singer and noted Eddie Cochran expert Darrel Higham recorded \"Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie\" for his 1997 album The Cochran Connection and another version in 2004 for Midnight Commotion.\n The Top Cats - 2004\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nEddie Cochran US discography on Remember Eddie Cochran\nStray Cats discography\nCover versions of Jeannie Jeannie Jeannie on Second hand Songs\n\n1958 singles\nLiberty Records singles\nEddie Cochran songs\nShowaddywaddy songs\nStray Cats songs\nSongs written by George Motola\n1958 songs",
"Cats: Highlights from the Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2019 film Cats. The album was released through Polydor Records and in the US on Republic Records on December 20, 2019. The music for the film was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The song \"Beautiful Ghosts\" by Taylor Swift, the first promotional single from the soundtrack album, was released on November 15, 2019. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 77th Golden Globe Awards and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. The soundtrack also features contributions from Jason Derulo, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen and various artists.\n\nTrack listing\nCredits adapted from iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2019 soundtrack albums\nCats (musical)\nMusical film soundtracks\nRepublic Records soundtracks\nPolydor Records soundtracks"
]
|
[
"Elaine Paige",
"1981-1993: Cats and Chess era",
"What was cats?",
"Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982.",
"Was Cats a song?",
"I don't know."
]
| C_11e073ed78c54d44ba363cf1f30b6c4e_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 3 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article aside from the notable female characters? | Elaine Paige | Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America. The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988. Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg. In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Edith Piaf songs. CANNOTANSWER | In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. | Elaine Jill Paige (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut.
Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show.
In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess, followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also co-produced. Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996, playing the lead role of Norma Desmond, to critical acclaim. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also worked sporadically in television. She is known for having a strange laugh.
In addition to being nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, Paige has won many other awards for her theatre roles and has been called the First Lady of British Musical Theatre due to her skill and longevity. She has released 22 solo albums, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum. Paige is also featured on seven cast albums and has sung in concerts across the world. Since 2004 she has hosted her own show on BBC Radio 2 called Elaine Paige on Sunday.
In 2014, Paige celebrated her 50 years in show business. Paige announced on her official website a "Farewell" concert tour and a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection to mark this milestone in her career. Outside of her work in musical theatre, Paige is a Vice-President of The Children's Trust, a UK charity for children with brain injury.
Early life
Elaine Jill Bickerstaff was born and raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where her father Eric worked as an estate agent and her mother Irene was a milliner. Her mother had been a singer in her youth, and her father was an amateur drummer. Paige stands at just under 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, which she says has caused her to lose out on leading roles. Her original ambition was to become a professional tennis player, at which point her headmistress pointed out to her "they'd never see you over the net", but Paige continued to play tennis and has referred to the sport as one of her passions.
At 14, Paige listened to the film soundtrack of West Side Story, which evoked the desire for a career in musical theatre. Paige's musical ability was encouraged by her school music teacher, Ann Hill, who was also the head of the music department. Paige was a member of Hill's choir, and her first role on stage was playing Susanna in a school production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which was followed by parts in The Boy Mozart and solos in Handel's Messiah – "a difficult work for little children".
She attended Southaw Girls' School – a secondary modern in Oakleigh Park in Hertfordshire where she received two CSE qualifications.
Her father suggested that she should go to drama school, so she attended the Aida Foster Theatre School. Lacking confidence, she initially disliked stage school; her father encouraged her to persevere and she grew to enjoy her time there.
After graduating, her first job was modelling children's clothing at the Ideal Home Exhibition.
Career
1968–1980: West End debut, new name and Evita
Paige's first professional appearance happened when she was 16 years old, fresh from drama school. She was rejected in her first audition, singing "I Cain't Say No". Her drama school teacher encouraged her to change her name and audition again under the new name. Browsing through a phone book for inspiration, she became aware of the "page" she was observing and decided upon that name with the addition of an "i", becoming Elaine Paige. She was successful in the second audition as Elaine Paige, appearing on stage during the UK tour of the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd in 1964, playing the role of a Chinese urchin.
In 1968 she appeared on record as a member of the vocal group Colors of Love, who released three Albert Hammond & Mike Hazlewood-penned singles, most notably "I'm a Train", on Larry Page's Page One label under the supervision of Alan Moorhouse. She was also part of the band Sparrow with fellow West End singer Diane Langton, releasing the album Hatching Out in 1972.
At the age of 20, she made her West End debut in Hair on 27 September 1968, remaining in the cast until March 1970. While also being an understudy for the character of Sheila, she played a member of the tribe in the chorus, for which role she was required to be naked on stage in one scene. In 1971, she appeared in the ill-fated musical about premature ejaculation, Maybe That's Your Problem. She also appeared as an urchin in the West End's Oliver!
Over the next decade, she played roles in various musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar; Nuts; Grease, in which she played the lead role of Sandy from 1973 to 1974; Billy, from 1974 to 1975 playing Rita; and The Boyfriend, as Maisie (1975–1976). She had a minor role as a barmaid in the 1978 sex comedy film Adventures of a Plumber's Mate.
After months of acting and singing auditions, Hal Prince offered the still relatively unknown Paige the title role of Eva Perón in the first stage production of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Evita. Her performance won her critical acclaim and brought her into public prominence at the age of 30. Julie Covington, who played the role on the original concept album, had turned down the opportunity of playing the role on stage leading to a long search for a new star. Paige eventually competed against Bonnie Schoen, an American initially favoured by Prince for the role. She later said, "Bonnie was already a big name on Broadway. In a way, she didn't have anything to prove. She was smoothly, silkily professional. But I saw this as my big chance and, like Eva when she clapped eyes on Peron, I grabbed with both hands. I wanted the role more than anything else in the whole world." For her performance in Evita, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical, which at that time was called the Society of West End Theatre Award. She also won the Variety Club Award for Showbusiness Personality of the Year. She played the role for 20 months in total, from 1978 to 1980. She also released her first studio album in 1978, titled Sitting Pretty.
Just prior to her success in Evita, Paige had strongly considered becoming a nursery nurse, but after she sang for Dustin Hoffman, he made her promise that she would continue in theatre work. She admitted that she was "fed up with the whole thing" and that she could not even afford new clothing or to eat out; "Evita saved me" she stated. In the 1980 ITV drama series Lady Killers, Paige played convicted murderer Kate Webster.
1981–1993: Cats and Chess era
In 1981, in the Tales of the Unexpected episode "The Way to Do it", Paige plays Susie, a girl working in a small casino trying to keep guests happy and finally eloping with the main character.
Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America.
The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988.
Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg.
In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Édith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Édith Piaf songs.
1994–2001: Sunset Boulevard and Broadway debut
In 1995, Paige was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to musical theatre.
Paige stepped briefly into the role of Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's West End production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994, when Betty Buckley was taken ill and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The nature of the situation meant that Paige only had two-and-a-half weeks in the rehearsal process before her first performance. She admitted feeling daunted by the prospect, having seen Glenn Close in the role on Broadway just prior to entering rehearsals. London critics were largely won over by Paige in a performance that "not only wrings out every ounce of dramatic action but delivers some unexpected humour as well" and she took over the part full-time the following year. She then won the Variety Club Award for Best Actress of the Year, and received her fifth Olivier Award nomination in 1996.
During the run of Sunset Boulevard at the West End's Adelphi Theatre in 1995, Paige discovered a lump in her breast, prompting her to consult her doctor, who at first reassured her there was nothing to be concerned about. She returned twice, and her doctor subsequently sent her for tests that confirmed the lump was cancerous, nine months after she discovered it. Continuing her role in the production Paige did not miss a show. Paige went in for day surgery on a Sunday due to her theatre commitments, had five years of medical treatment and completed a radiation programme. She has since described the period as "the most awful thing that's happened to me in my life".
Paige transferred to the New York production of Sunset Boulevard to make her Broadway debut at the Minskoff Theatre on 12 September 1996, staying with the show until it closed on 22 March 1997. On the Sunset Boulevard set in Broadway, the staircase steps had to be raised six inches (15 cm) in order to accommodate Paige's short stature, or it would have been hard to see her behind the banister. Paige was welcomed to the Broadway stage with a long standing ovation from the audience, and received largely positive reviews for her New York performance as Norma Desmond: "The lush sound and the sheer power of her voice are, to put it simply, incredible", wrote one critic, whilst another said "Her voice has great range, remarkable clarity and emotional force". Paige was the first Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard to sing one of the show's key songs, "With One Look", which she did first at Lloyd Webber's wedding to Madeleine Gurdon, although at the time the song was called "Just One Glance". Lloyd Webber noted, regarding Paige's performance of one of the show's other prominent songs, "As If We Never Said Goodbye", that it was "as good, if not the best, of anything I've ever heard of mine". Regarding the key lyric in the song, "This world's waited long enough. I've come home at last", Paige had sought to change the way the melody was sung, despite being fully aware of Lloyd-Webber's fastidious tendencies. To her, the moment was not exploited to its fullest potential, so she approached the show's musical director, David Caddick, and expressed her wish to hold the word "home", to which he agreed. Although she had been disappointed when she hoped to perform on Broadway in Evita, Cats and Chess, Paige stated of her debut there, "It was just the most perfect time to go with that particular show". After Sunset Boulevard finished, she suffered from depression, commenting that the show's closing "was the most terrible feeling. ... I'd felt I'd lost something so very important to me. I thought it had died and gone away."
Arts commentator Melvyn Bragg hosted a special edition of The South Bank Show about Paige's career in 1996, titled The Faces of Elaine Paige. The episode saw her visiting parts of the world where plays she had starred in had been set: the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina where Eva Perón had given speeches; the Parisian haunts of Edith Piaf including a meeting with her collaborator Charles Aznavour; and Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
In 1997, Paige made her United States concert debut when she opened the Boston Pops season, which was aired on WGBH in America. The following year, she made a guest appearance at Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday celebration at the Royal Albert Hall, performing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Memory" She then played Célimène in the non-musical play The Misanthrope in 1998, but she admitted that she missed the musical element and that the silence was slightly unsettling to her. A Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Operatic and Dramatic Association soon followed. She later performed alongside Bette Midler in a 1999 New York concert to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
From 2000 to 2001, she starred as Anna Leonowens in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at the London Palladium. Paige had turned down an offer for the role the first time she was approached, but later accepted, admitting that she had "forgotten what a fantastic score it was", although she did question her own suitability for the role. Before the opening, the box office had already taken in excess of £7 million in ticket sales. The critic for The Independent commented, "It may well be impossible to be a success as Evita and a success as Anna" complaining that Paige was not refined enough for the role, whereas The Spectator asserted that the role further strengthened her title as the "First Lady of British Musical Theatre". During her time in The King and I, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Despite Paige wanting to pull out of the show, her mother insisted that she should continue until her contract had finished, and Paige's sister, Marion Billings, admitted, "That was very hard for Elaine, having to go on stage night after night knowing she wanted to be with Mum".
2002–2013: Radio and return to West End and Broadway
Paige sang at the opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and then made her Los Angeles concert debut at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. In 2003, she played Angèle in Where There's a Will, directed by Peter Hall. She next sang the role of Mrs Lovett in the New York City Opera production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in March 2004, earning positive reviews from critics, and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Paige then embarked upon a UK tour which was titled "No Strings Attached".
In September 2004, Paige began a weekly Sunday afternoon radio show, Elaine Paige on Sunday, between 1 and 3 PM on BBC Radio 2, featuring music from musical theatre and film. The 400th edition was broadcast on Sunday 29 July 2012. In an unfavourable review, the show was described by Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian as "a chilly, alienating listening experience" and a "rare wrong move" on the part of Radio 2. Lisa Martland of The Stage agreed that "it is by far the music that brings me back to the programme ... and not her lightweight presenting style". However, the show regularly attracts 3 million listeners, and interviews are also featured each week. Paige also focused on television appearances, playing Dora Bunner in the 2005 ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced in the Marple series, before performing a guest role as a post mistress in Where the Heart Is. The episode of Marple was watched by 7.78 million viewers.
The release of Paige's first full studio album of new recordings in 12 years was marked in 2006, titled Essential Musicals. The album included popular songs from musicals identified by a poll on her radio show, in which 400,000 listeners voted. At this point, Paige had recorded 20 solo albums in total, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum, and she had been featured on seven cast albums. Paige also appeared in concert in Scandinavia, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. On 20 and 21 December 2006, she performed in concert in Shanghai, extending her concert tour to two dates to satisfy demand. With a noticeable absence from musical theatre, having not taken a role for many years, she explained in 2006 that "there's been nothing that I've wanted to do, and if you're going to commit to a year at the theatre, six days a week, and have no life, then it's got to be something that you want to do with all your heart". She also affirmed that she believes for older actors it becomes harder to obtain theatre roles.
In 2007, Paige made a return to the West End stage for the first time in six years, as the Chaperone/Beatrice Stockwell in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Novello Theatre. The production ran for a disappointing 96 performances, although it had opened to a standing ovation from the audience and a generally optimistic reaction from critics. The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Elaine Paige is a good sport ... enduring jokes about her reputation for being 'difficult' with a grin that doesn't seem all that forced. ... Only the self-importantly serious and the chronically depressed will fail to enjoy this preposterously entertaining evening". Paul Taylor from The Independent was less impressed and wrote "a miscast Elaine Paige manages to be unfunny to an almost ingenious degree as the heroine's bibulous minder". For her performance, Paige was nominated for a What's On Stage Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. She next collaborated with the duo Secret Garden in recording the song "The Things You Are to Me" for their 2007 album, Inside I'm Singing.
To raise money for Sport Relief Paige danced the tango on Sport Relief does Strictly Come Dancing with Matt Dawson in March 2008, where they were voted second overall. In 2008, she opened the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and performed concerts in China, America and Australia featuring songs from her 40-year career. To further celebrate 40 years since her first performance on a West End Stage, in October 2008 Paige released a picture-based autobiography titled Memories. The book took around eight months to compile; "Since Evita I suppose, I had kept a yearbook. My parents always kept cuttings and things like that for me. I did have quite a lot of reference material to work out," Paige commented.
An album titled Elaine Paige and Friends was produced by Phil Ramone in 2010. The album features duets with Paige and artists such as Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John as well as a duet with Sinéad O'Connor of a new song "It's Only Life" penned by Tim Rice and Gary Barlow. Having entered the top 20 of UK Album Charts, it went on to achieve gold status.
Paige played the role of Carlotta Campion in the Kennedy Center production of Follies in May and June 2011 at the Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, DC, receiving favourable reviews for her performance of the showstopper, "I'm Still Here." The principal cast also comprised Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines and Danny Burstein. She reprised this role in the Broadway transfer of the musical at the Marquis Theatre from August 2011 until the following January, before performing at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California in May and June 2012.
2014–present: 50th Anniversary, farewell tour
At the end of 2013 Paige announced a concert tour, Page by Page by Paige, which focused on her 50th anniversary in show business and was advertised as a farewell tour. The 40th anniversary tour in 2008 marked 40 years since her debut on the West End stage, and the 50th anniversary tour in 2014 marked 50 years since her first stage performance. The tour featured Gardar Thor Cortes performing a number of songs, both solo and duets with Paige, and was sold out at all venues. The tour ran from 9 to 20 October 2014, concluding at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Other stops included Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle (Gateshead), Glasgow, Birmingham and Bournemouth. Due to a throat infection, one concert in Brighton had to be cancelled. Dates in Ireland were postponed before being rescheduled, with Paige giving four sold-out concerts in Dublin (two evenings), Limerick and Cork between 10 and 16 February 2015.
In 2014, Paige presented and performed in a six episode television show for Sky Arts television called The Elaine Paige Show. The show featured songs performed by Paige, masterclasses with drama college students and interviews and performances by West End and Broadway performers and writers. The show was recorded in March and April at Riverside Studios, London. She released a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection in May 2014. In June, Paige made her debut at G-A-Y's Heaven nightclub in London and in November, she joined the inaugural Australian cruise of the performing arts on the .
In May 2015 Paige was part of VE Day 70: A Party to Remember, a special concert which took place at the Horse Guards Parade, and was broadcast live on BBC1 and BBC Radio 2. Later in 2015 she performed in concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, supported by Collabro and Rhydian, and then headlined the Glamis Prom 2015 at Glamis Castle, Scotland, with Susan Boyle as her guest. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied at both concerts.
In April 2016, it was announced that Paige would perform a number of concerts – on successive weekends rather than intensive schedule of a regular tour – entitled "Stripped Back". The tour initially ran from October until December 2016 and featured music by Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, Leonard Cohen, Sting, Elton John and Lennon-McCartney.
Paige appeared in a new BBC adaptation of William Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream adapted by Russell T Davies as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations in 2016.
In 2017, she appeared in pantomime at the London Palladium as Queen Rat in Dick Whittington alongside Julian Clary, Nigel Havers, Paul Zerdin, Gary Wilmot, Charlie Stemp, Emma Williams and Diversity (dance troupe).
In 2018, Paige played the part of Mercy Hackett in the BBC TV comedy Home from Home. In 2020, she appeared in the BBC drama Series Life with Alison Steadman and Peter Davison.
Legacy
Having had so many starring roles in famous musicals, many to critical acclaim, Paige is often referred to as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre. In 2008, she celebrated the 40th anniversary of her professional debut on the West End stage. Paige has never married nor had children, although she had an 11-year affair with the lyricist Tim Rice throughout the 1980s. She has said that she wanted to have children, but "it's a wonderful life I have, so I'm very fulfilled in other ways".
Paige's singing abilities have won her worldwide praise, as have her acting skills, with Andrew Gans of Playbill magazine writing that "Paige's gift is to dissect a role and determine what phrasing, gesture or emotion can bring a scene to its fullest dramatic potential". Mark Shenton also highlighted her voice in 2008 as "one of the most distinctive and impressive voices in the business". Lloyd-Webber insists that her rendition of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" is one of the best interpretations of a song by him.
Paige has gained herself a reputation as someone who can be "difficult". The Times''' Brian Logan wrote, "Paige is not exactly known for her humility. In newspaper profiles, that dread word 'difficult' is often applied". On one occasion, she told a male interviewer that she was going to stop giving interviews to female reporters because, in her own words, "I don't trust other women in these situations. They establish a sisterhood with you and then betray it every time". What has been seen as a cold side to her personality was also noted by Logan, but Paige has said that a common misconception of her is that she is confident and very serious. Another editor found her "refreshingly down-to-earth" and "very friendly".
Views on theatre
Though Paige has enjoyed a long career in musical theatre, she rarely goes to watch musicals, much preferring to watch films or plays. She considers herself primarily an actress, rather than a singer, stating, "I really prefer to be in character". Comparing the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein to that of Lloyd Webber, Paige has said that she finds Rodgers and Hammerstein songs more difficult to sing, and described them as challenging. She concluded, "it's a quieter kind of singing, more controlled, not belting it out".
In the light of the physical demands of performing in theatre Paige has said "Musical theatre is the hardest thing any actor will ever do. You become obsessive about sleeping, eating the right food, not speaking and giving yourself vocal rest and keeping exercised". Regarding the pressure of having to be in a fit condition to perform in theatre each night, she remarked "you wouldn't want to read the letters people write when you're off and they're disappointed – it's so awful, the guilt one feels for not being there". As part of a rigorous routine before musical roles to look after her voice, Paige stops eating dairy products and drinking alcohol and works hard on her fitness. After about three months into the production when her voice is tiring from performing, she withdraws from her normal social life, sometimes only communicating by notepad and fax. She never reads her reviews, finding that it is not helpful to hear too many opinions of her work.
In 2007, Paige named reality television series such as Any Dream Will Do'', which aim to find an unknown actor to play the lead role in a musical, as the greatest threat to theatre today, believing that "actors already striving in the theatre wouldn't dream of putting themselves on these shows". In a later interview, she questioned the seriousness of the actors auditioning for this type of show: "you wouldn't put yourself up for one of those shows in case you got bumped off the first week and all your colleagues saw it". She has also expressed a wish for more new musicals to be put into production, instead of frequent revivals.
Charity
Paige has been an Ambassador of The Children's Trust, the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisabiity, for over 35 years, since the charity was created, when she first presented the charity with a minibus. She has hosted and performed at fundraising events for the charity including hosting 5 bi-annual Elaine Paige Clay Pigeon Shoots.
Musicals
Discography
Solo albums
Compilations
Cast recordings
Singles
Other albums and guest appearances
Videos and DVDs
Curated albums
Tying in with her weekly radio show, Paige has been involved in the compilation of two albums featuring selected tracks from musical theatre.
References
External links
Elaine Paige on Sunday (BBC Radio 2)
1948 births
People with lupus
Actresses from London
English women singers
English musical theatre actresses
English television actresses
Living people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Laurence Olivier Award winners
People from Chipping Barnet
Singers from London
BBC Radio 2 presenters
Alumni of the Aida Foster Theatre School
Musicians from Hertfordshire
Actresses from Hertfordshire
Women radio presenters | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
]
|
[
"Elaine Paige",
"1981-1993: Cats and Chess era",
"What was cats?",
"Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982.",
"Was Cats a song?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim."
]
| C_11e073ed78c54d44ba363cf1f30b6c4e_0 | What happened in 1981? | 4 | What happened in 1981 during the original production of Cats? | Elaine Paige | Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America. The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988. Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg. In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Edith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Edith Piaf songs. CANNOTANSWER | creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. | Elaine Jill Paige (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut.
Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show.
In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess, followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also co-produced. Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996, playing the lead role of Norma Desmond, to critical acclaim. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also worked sporadically in television. She is known for having a strange laugh.
In addition to being nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, Paige has won many other awards for her theatre roles and has been called the First Lady of British Musical Theatre due to her skill and longevity. She has released 22 solo albums, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum. Paige is also featured on seven cast albums and has sung in concerts across the world. Since 2004 she has hosted her own show on BBC Radio 2 called Elaine Paige on Sunday.
In 2014, Paige celebrated her 50 years in show business. Paige announced on her official website a "Farewell" concert tour and a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection to mark this milestone in her career. Outside of her work in musical theatre, Paige is a Vice-President of The Children's Trust, a UK charity for children with brain injury.
Early life
Elaine Jill Bickerstaff was born and raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where her father Eric worked as an estate agent and her mother Irene was a milliner. Her mother had been a singer in her youth, and her father was an amateur drummer. Paige stands at just under 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, which she says has caused her to lose out on leading roles. Her original ambition was to become a professional tennis player, at which point her headmistress pointed out to her "they'd never see you over the net", but Paige continued to play tennis and has referred to the sport as one of her passions.
At 14, Paige listened to the film soundtrack of West Side Story, which evoked the desire for a career in musical theatre. Paige's musical ability was encouraged by her school music teacher, Ann Hill, who was also the head of the music department. Paige was a member of Hill's choir, and her first role on stage was playing Susanna in a school production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which was followed by parts in The Boy Mozart and solos in Handel's Messiah – "a difficult work for little children".
She attended Southaw Girls' School – a secondary modern in Oakleigh Park in Hertfordshire where she received two CSE qualifications.
Her father suggested that she should go to drama school, so she attended the Aida Foster Theatre School. Lacking confidence, she initially disliked stage school; her father encouraged her to persevere and she grew to enjoy her time there.
After graduating, her first job was modelling children's clothing at the Ideal Home Exhibition.
Career
1968–1980: West End debut, new name and Evita
Paige's first professional appearance happened when she was 16 years old, fresh from drama school. She was rejected in her first audition, singing "I Cain't Say No". Her drama school teacher encouraged her to change her name and audition again under the new name. Browsing through a phone book for inspiration, she became aware of the "page" she was observing and decided upon that name with the addition of an "i", becoming Elaine Paige. She was successful in the second audition as Elaine Paige, appearing on stage during the UK tour of the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd in 1964, playing the role of a Chinese urchin.
In 1968 she appeared on record as a member of the vocal group Colors of Love, who released three Albert Hammond & Mike Hazlewood-penned singles, most notably "I'm a Train", on Larry Page's Page One label under the supervision of Alan Moorhouse. She was also part of the band Sparrow with fellow West End singer Diane Langton, releasing the album Hatching Out in 1972.
At the age of 20, she made her West End debut in Hair on 27 September 1968, remaining in the cast until March 1970. While also being an understudy for the character of Sheila, she played a member of the tribe in the chorus, for which role she was required to be naked on stage in one scene. In 1971, she appeared in the ill-fated musical about premature ejaculation, Maybe That's Your Problem. She also appeared as an urchin in the West End's Oliver!
Over the next decade, she played roles in various musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar; Nuts; Grease, in which she played the lead role of Sandy from 1973 to 1974; Billy, from 1974 to 1975 playing Rita; and The Boyfriend, as Maisie (1975–1976). She had a minor role as a barmaid in the 1978 sex comedy film Adventures of a Plumber's Mate.
After months of acting and singing auditions, Hal Prince offered the still relatively unknown Paige the title role of Eva Perón in the first stage production of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Evita. Her performance won her critical acclaim and brought her into public prominence at the age of 30. Julie Covington, who played the role on the original concept album, had turned down the opportunity of playing the role on stage leading to a long search for a new star. Paige eventually competed against Bonnie Schoen, an American initially favoured by Prince for the role. She later said, "Bonnie was already a big name on Broadway. In a way, she didn't have anything to prove. She was smoothly, silkily professional. But I saw this as my big chance and, like Eva when she clapped eyes on Peron, I grabbed with both hands. I wanted the role more than anything else in the whole world." For her performance in Evita, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical, which at that time was called the Society of West End Theatre Award. She also won the Variety Club Award for Showbusiness Personality of the Year. She played the role for 20 months in total, from 1978 to 1980. She also released her first studio album in 1978, titled Sitting Pretty.
Just prior to her success in Evita, Paige had strongly considered becoming a nursery nurse, but after she sang for Dustin Hoffman, he made her promise that she would continue in theatre work. She admitted that she was "fed up with the whole thing" and that she could not even afford new clothing or to eat out; "Evita saved me" she stated. In the 1980 ITV drama series Lady Killers, Paige played convicted murderer Kate Webster.
1981–1993: Cats and Chess era
In 1981, in the Tales of the Unexpected episode "The Way to Do it", Paige plays Susie, a girl working in a small casino trying to keep guests happy and finally eloping with the main character.
Paige went on to portray some of Lloyd Webber's most notable female characters, creating the role of Grizabella in the original production of Cats from 11 May 1981 to 13 February 1982. She took on the role late in the rehearsal process when the actress Judi Dench had to withdraw due to a torn Achilles tendon. Paige's performance of the song "Memory" from Cats, with which she had a Top 10 hit, is her signature piece. The single reached number 5 in the UK charts and has since been recorded by a further 160 artists. She reprised the role of Grizabella for the video release of Cats in 1998, one of only two performers in the film from the original London cast; the other was Susan Jane Tanner as Jellylorum. Paige's website claims that the video soon became the bestselling music video in the UK and America.
The 1983 production of Abbacadabra, written by former ABBA members, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, saw Paige star in the role of Carabosse. She then originated the role of Florence for the 1984 concept album of Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Ulvaeus and Andersson. Her albums, Stages (1983), and Cinema (1984), rejoined the cast recording of Chess in the UK top 40 chart, giving her three consecutive successful albums. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well", a duet from Chess, singing with Barbara Dickson. The single held the number 1 position in the British singles charts for four weeks, and still remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo, according to the Guinness Book of Records. From 1986 to 1987, Paige appeared as Florence in the stage production of Chess, a role that earned her a second Olivier Award nomination, this time in the category, Best Actress in a Musical. She next sang at the White House in 1988.
Paige then took on the part of Reno Sweeney in the musical production of Anything Goes, which she co-produced and starred in from 1989 to 1990. Patti LuPone was appearing in Anything Goes on Broadway around that time, so Paige sought to become the co-producer of the West End production as a way to secure the role there before LuPone could take it. Playing Reno Sweeney was Paige's first experience using an American accent on stage, and the role earned her a third Olivier Award nomination. Beyond her theatre roles, she appeared in the television programme Unexplained Laughter in 1989 alongside Diana Rigg.
In 1993, Paige signed up for a year as French chanteuse Édith Piaf in Pam Gems' musical play, Piaf, to critical acclaim. The Guardian wrote that Paige was "a magnificent, perfect Piaf". The demanding production required her to sing 15 songs, some in French, and to be on stage for 2 hours 40 minutes in total, and forced her to leave early due to exhaustion. Her portrayal of Piaf earned her an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, her fourth nomination. She subsequently released an album, titled Piaf, containing Édith Piaf songs.
1994–2001: Sunset Boulevard and Broadway debut
In 1995, Paige was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to musical theatre.
Paige stepped briefly into the role of Norma Desmond in Lloyd Webber's West End production of Sunset Boulevard in 1994, when Betty Buckley was taken ill and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The nature of the situation meant that Paige only had two-and-a-half weeks in the rehearsal process before her first performance. She admitted feeling daunted by the prospect, having seen Glenn Close in the role on Broadway just prior to entering rehearsals. London critics were largely won over by Paige in a performance that "not only wrings out every ounce of dramatic action but delivers some unexpected humour as well" and she took over the part full-time the following year. She then won the Variety Club Award for Best Actress of the Year, and received her fifth Olivier Award nomination in 1996.
During the run of Sunset Boulevard at the West End's Adelphi Theatre in 1995, Paige discovered a lump in her breast, prompting her to consult her doctor, who at first reassured her there was nothing to be concerned about. She returned twice, and her doctor subsequently sent her for tests that confirmed the lump was cancerous, nine months after she discovered it. Continuing her role in the production Paige did not miss a show. Paige went in for day surgery on a Sunday due to her theatre commitments, had five years of medical treatment and completed a radiation programme. She has since described the period as "the most awful thing that's happened to me in my life".
Paige transferred to the New York production of Sunset Boulevard to make her Broadway debut at the Minskoff Theatre on 12 September 1996, staying with the show until it closed on 22 March 1997. On the Sunset Boulevard set in Broadway, the staircase steps had to be raised six inches (15 cm) in order to accommodate Paige's short stature, or it would have been hard to see her behind the banister. Paige was welcomed to the Broadway stage with a long standing ovation from the audience, and received largely positive reviews for her New York performance as Norma Desmond: "The lush sound and the sheer power of her voice are, to put it simply, incredible", wrote one critic, whilst another said "Her voice has great range, remarkable clarity and emotional force". Paige was the first Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard to sing one of the show's key songs, "With One Look", which she did first at Lloyd Webber's wedding to Madeleine Gurdon, although at the time the song was called "Just One Glance". Lloyd Webber noted, regarding Paige's performance of one of the show's other prominent songs, "As If We Never Said Goodbye", that it was "as good, if not the best, of anything I've ever heard of mine". Regarding the key lyric in the song, "This world's waited long enough. I've come home at last", Paige had sought to change the way the melody was sung, despite being fully aware of Lloyd-Webber's fastidious tendencies. To her, the moment was not exploited to its fullest potential, so she approached the show's musical director, David Caddick, and expressed her wish to hold the word "home", to which he agreed. Although she had been disappointed when she hoped to perform on Broadway in Evita, Cats and Chess, Paige stated of her debut there, "It was just the most perfect time to go with that particular show". After Sunset Boulevard finished, she suffered from depression, commenting that the show's closing "was the most terrible feeling. ... I'd felt I'd lost something so very important to me. I thought it had died and gone away."
Arts commentator Melvyn Bragg hosted a special edition of The South Bank Show about Paige's career in 1996, titled The Faces of Elaine Paige. The episode saw her visiting parts of the world where plays she had starred in had been set: the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina where Eva Perón had given speeches; the Parisian haunts of Edith Piaf including a meeting with her collaborator Charles Aznavour; and Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
In 1997, Paige made her United States concert debut when she opened the Boston Pops season, which was aired on WGBH in America. The following year, she made a guest appearance at Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday celebration at the Royal Albert Hall, performing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Memory" She then played Célimène in the non-musical play The Misanthrope in 1998, but she admitted that she missed the musical element and that the silence was slightly unsettling to her. A Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Operatic and Dramatic Association soon followed. She later performed alongside Bette Midler in a 1999 New York concert to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
From 2000 to 2001, she starred as Anna Leonowens in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at the London Palladium. Paige had turned down an offer for the role the first time she was approached, but later accepted, admitting that she had "forgotten what a fantastic score it was", although she did question her own suitability for the role. Before the opening, the box office had already taken in excess of £7 million in ticket sales. The critic for The Independent commented, "It may well be impossible to be a success as Evita and a success as Anna" complaining that Paige was not refined enough for the role, whereas The Spectator asserted that the role further strengthened her title as the "First Lady of British Musical Theatre". During her time in The King and I, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Despite Paige wanting to pull out of the show, her mother insisted that she should continue until her contract had finished, and Paige's sister, Marion Billings, admitted, "That was very hard for Elaine, having to go on stage night after night knowing she wanted to be with Mum".
2002–2013: Radio and return to West End and Broadway
Paige sang at the opening of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and then made her Los Angeles concert debut at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. In 2003, she played Angèle in Where There's a Will, directed by Peter Hall. She next sang the role of Mrs Lovett in the New York City Opera production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in March 2004, earning positive reviews from critics, and a nomination for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Paige then embarked upon a UK tour which was titled "No Strings Attached".
In September 2004, Paige began a weekly Sunday afternoon radio show, Elaine Paige on Sunday, between 1 and 3 PM on BBC Radio 2, featuring music from musical theatre and film. The 400th edition was broadcast on Sunday 29 July 2012. In an unfavourable review, the show was described by Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian as "a chilly, alienating listening experience" and a "rare wrong move" on the part of Radio 2. Lisa Martland of The Stage agreed that "it is by far the music that brings me back to the programme ... and not her lightweight presenting style". However, the show regularly attracts 3 million listeners, and interviews are also featured each week. Paige also focused on television appearances, playing Dora Bunner in the 2005 ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's A Murder Is Announced in the Marple series, before performing a guest role as a post mistress in Where the Heart Is. The episode of Marple was watched by 7.78 million viewers.
The release of Paige's first full studio album of new recordings in 12 years was marked in 2006, titled Essential Musicals. The album included popular songs from musicals identified by a poll on her radio show, in which 400,000 listeners voted. At this point, Paige had recorded 20 solo albums in total, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum, and she had been featured on seven cast albums. Paige also appeared in concert in Scandinavia, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. On 20 and 21 December 2006, she performed in concert in Shanghai, extending her concert tour to two dates to satisfy demand. With a noticeable absence from musical theatre, having not taken a role for many years, she explained in 2006 that "there's been nothing that I've wanted to do, and if you're going to commit to a year at the theatre, six days a week, and have no life, then it's got to be something that you want to do with all your heart". She also affirmed that she believes for older actors it becomes harder to obtain theatre roles.
In 2007, Paige made a return to the West End stage for the first time in six years, as the Chaperone/Beatrice Stockwell in The Drowsy Chaperone at the Novello Theatre. The production ran for a disappointing 96 performances, although it had opened to a standing ovation from the audience and a generally optimistic reaction from critics. The Daily Telegraph wrote, "Elaine Paige is a good sport ... enduring jokes about her reputation for being 'difficult' with a grin that doesn't seem all that forced. ... Only the self-importantly serious and the chronically depressed will fail to enjoy this preposterously entertaining evening". Paul Taylor from The Independent was less impressed and wrote "a miscast Elaine Paige manages to be unfunny to an almost ingenious degree as the heroine's bibulous minder". For her performance, Paige was nominated for a What's On Stage Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. She next collaborated with the duo Secret Garden in recording the song "The Things You Are to Me" for their 2007 album, Inside I'm Singing.
To raise money for Sport Relief Paige danced the tango on Sport Relief does Strictly Come Dancing with Matt Dawson in March 2008, where they were voted second overall. In 2008, she opened the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and performed concerts in China, America and Australia featuring songs from her 40-year career. To further celebrate 40 years since her first performance on a West End Stage, in October 2008 Paige released a picture-based autobiography titled Memories. The book took around eight months to compile; "Since Evita I suppose, I had kept a yearbook. My parents always kept cuttings and things like that for me. I did have quite a lot of reference material to work out," Paige commented.
An album titled Elaine Paige and Friends was produced by Phil Ramone in 2010. The album features duets with Paige and artists such as Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John as well as a duet with Sinéad O'Connor of a new song "It's Only Life" penned by Tim Rice and Gary Barlow. Having entered the top 20 of UK Album Charts, it went on to achieve gold status.
Paige played the role of Carlotta Campion in the Kennedy Center production of Follies in May and June 2011 at the Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, DC, receiving favourable reviews for her performance of the showstopper, "I'm Still Here." The principal cast also comprised Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines and Danny Burstein. She reprised this role in the Broadway transfer of the musical at the Marquis Theatre from August 2011 until the following January, before performing at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California in May and June 2012.
2014–present: 50th Anniversary, farewell tour
At the end of 2013 Paige announced a concert tour, Page by Page by Paige, which focused on her 50th anniversary in show business and was advertised as a farewell tour. The 40th anniversary tour in 2008 marked 40 years since her debut on the West End stage, and the 50th anniversary tour in 2014 marked 50 years since her first stage performance. The tour featured Gardar Thor Cortes performing a number of songs, both solo and duets with Paige, and was sold out at all venues. The tour ran from 9 to 20 October 2014, concluding at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Other stops included Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle (Gateshead), Glasgow, Birmingham and Bournemouth. Due to a throat infection, one concert in Brighton had to be cancelled. Dates in Ireland were postponed before being rescheduled, with Paige giving four sold-out concerts in Dublin (two evenings), Limerick and Cork between 10 and 16 February 2015.
In 2014, Paige presented and performed in a six episode television show for Sky Arts television called The Elaine Paige Show. The show featured songs performed by Paige, masterclasses with drama college students and interviews and performances by West End and Broadway performers and writers. The show was recorded in March and April at Riverside Studios, London. She released a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection in May 2014. In June, Paige made her debut at G-A-Y's Heaven nightclub in London and in November, she joined the inaugural Australian cruise of the performing arts on the .
In May 2015 Paige was part of VE Day 70: A Party to Remember, a special concert which took place at the Horse Guards Parade, and was broadcast live on BBC1 and BBC Radio 2. Later in 2015 she performed in concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, supported by Collabro and Rhydian, and then headlined the Glamis Prom 2015 at Glamis Castle, Scotland, with Susan Boyle as her guest. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied at both concerts.
In April 2016, it was announced that Paige would perform a number of concerts – on successive weekends rather than intensive schedule of a regular tour – entitled "Stripped Back". The tour initially ran from October until December 2016 and featured music by Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, Leonard Cohen, Sting, Elton John and Lennon-McCartney.
Paige appeared in a new BBC adaptation of William Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream adapted by Russell T Davies as part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations in 2016.
In 2017, she appeared in pantomime at the London Palladium as Queen Rat in Dick Whittington alongside Julian Clary, Nigel Havers, Paul Zerdin, Gary Wilmot, Charlie Stemp, Emma Williams and Diversity (dance troupe).
In 2018, Paige played the part of Mercy Hackett in the BBC TV comedy Home from Home. In 2020, she appeared in the BBC drama Series Life with Alison Steadman and Peter Davison.
Legacy
Having had so many starring roles in famous musicals, many to critical acclaim, Paige is often referred to as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre. In 2008, she celebrated the 40th anniversary of her professional debut on the West End stage. Paige has never married nor had children, although she had an 11-year affair with the lyricist Tim Rice throughout the 1980s. She has said that she wanted to have children, but "it's a wonderful life I have, so I'm very fulfilled in other ways".
Paige's singing abilities have won her worldwide praise, as have her acting skills, with Andrew Gans of Playbill magazine writing that "Paige's gift is to dissect a role and determine what phrasing, gesture or emotion can bring a scene to its fullest dramatic potential". Mark Shenton also highlighted her voice in 2008 as "one of the most distinctive and impressive voices in the business". Lloyd-Webber insists that her rendition of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" is one of the best interpretations of a song by him.
Paige has gained herself a reputation as someone who can be "difficult". The Times''' Brian Logan wrote, "Paige is not exactly known for her humility. In newspaper profiles, that dread word 'difficult' is often applied". On one occasion, she told a male interviewer that she was going to stop giving interviews to female reporters because, in her own words, "I don't trust other women in these situations. They establish a sisterhood with you and then betray it every time". What has been seen as a cold side to her personality was also noted by Logan, but Paige has said that a common misconception of her is that she is confident and very serious. Another editor found her "refreshingly down-to-earth" and "very friendly".
Views on theatre
Though Paige has enjoyed a long career in musical theatre, she rarely goes to watch musicals, much preferring to watch films or plays. She considers herself primarily an actress, rather than a singer, stating, "I really prefer to be in character". Comparing the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein to that of Lloyd Webber, Paige has said that she finds Rodgers and Hammerstein songs more difficult to sing, and described them as challenging. She concluded, "it's a quieter kind of singing, more controlled, not belting it out".
In the light of the physical demands of performing in theatre Paige has said "Musical theatre is the hardest thing any actor will ever do. You become obsessive about sleeping, eating the right food, not speaking and giving yourself vocal rest and keeping exercised". Regarding the pressure of having to be in a fit condition to perform in theatre each night, she remarked "you wouldn't want to read the letters people write when you're off and they're disappointed – it's so awful, the guilt one feels for not being there". As part of a rigorous routine before musical roles to look after her voice, Paige stops eating dairy products and drinking alcohol and works hard on her fitness. After about three months into the production when her voice is tiring from performing, she withdraws from her normal social life, sometimes only communicating by notepad and fax. She never reads her reviews, finding that it is not helpful to hear too many opinions of her work.
In 2007, Paige named reality television series such as Any Dream Will Do'', which aim to find an unknown actor to play the lead role in a musical, as the greatest threat to theatre today, believing that "actors already striving in the theatre wouldn't dream of putting themselves on these shows". In a later interview, she questioned the seriousness of the actors auditioning for this type of show: "you wouldn't put yourself up for one of those shows in case you got bumped off the first week and all your colleagues saw it". She has also expressed a wish for more new musicals to be put into production, instead of frequent revivals.
Charity
Paige has been an Ambassador of The Children's Trust, the UK's leading charity for children with brain injury and neurodisabiity, for over 35 years, since the charity was created, when she first presented the charity with a minibus. She has hosted and performed at fundraising events for the charity including hosting 5 bi-annual Elaine Paige Clay Pigeon Shoots.
Musicals
Discography
Solo albums
Compilations
Cast recordings
Singles
Other albums and guest appearances
Videos and DVDs
Curated albums
Tying in with her weekly radio show, Paige has been involved in the compilation of two albums featuring selected tracks from musical theatre.
References
External links
Elaine Paige on Sunday (BBC Radio 2)
1948 births
People with lupus
Actresses from London
English women singers
English musical theatre actresses
English television actresses
Living people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Laurence Olivier Award winners
People from Chipping Barnet
Singers from London
BBC Radio 2 presenters
Alumni of the Aida Foster Theatre School
Musicians from Hertfordshire
Actresses from Hertfordshire
Women radio presenters | true | [
"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"
]
|
[
"Ed McMahon",
"Military service"
]
| C_956918195357440a93c2fc91e704503d_1 | What branch of the military did he serve in? | 1 | What branch of the military did Ed McMahon serve in? | Ed McMahon | McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, both the Army and Navy required two years of college for their pilots program. McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College and studied there from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, McMahon stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement was not lifted and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training. After completing the college requirement, McMahon was able to enlist as he previously wished. His primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender unconditionally. As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog), an unarmed single-engine spotter plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves. CANNOTANSWER | he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training. | Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?, running from 1957 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick, announcer and second banana on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.
McMahon also hosted the original Star Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House), annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s.
McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High and Butterfly, as well as briefly in the film version of the TV sitcom Bewitched and has also performed in numerous television commercials. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest "sidekicks".
Early years
McMahon was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr., a fund-raiser and entertainer, and Eleanor (Russell) McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary Brennan at her home on Chelmsford Street. After three years as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, McMahon served as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in Maine. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.
Military service
McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, both the Army and Navy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied at Boston College from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement remained in effect and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.
After completing the college requirement, McMahon began his primary flight training in Dallas. This was followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as a Naval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's unconditional surrender.
As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engine Cessna O-1 Bird Dog) spotter plane, serving as an artillery spotter for Marine artillery batteries and a forward air controller for Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.
The Catholic University of America
After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under the GI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying under Rev. Fr. Gilbert Hartke and was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. After graduation, McMahon led the effort to raise funds for a theater to be named for Hartke and attended its dedication in 1970 with Helen Hayes and Sidney Poitier. While working as Carson's sidekick during The Tonight Show, McMahon served as the president of the national alumni association from 1967 to 1971 and would often return to campus, especially for homecoming. During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon and Bob Newhart performed. He received an honorary Doctor of Communication Arts in 1988.
"I owe so much to CU," McMahon once said. "That's where my career got its start." Today, the Ed McMahon Endowed Scholarship helps outstanding students and provides scholarship assistance to juniors and seniors who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in either the Department of Drama or the Department of Media Studies within the School of Arts and Sciences.
Entertainment career
Who Do You Trust?
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game show Who Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The pair joined The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962, on NBC. He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change". For almost 30 years, McMahon introduced the show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "Human Laugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King". As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as , but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name .
Aside from his co-hosting duties, it also fell upon McMahon during the early years of Carson's tenure (when the show ran 105 minutes) to host the first fifteen minutes of Tonight, which did not air nationally. McMahon also served as guest host on at least one occasion, substituting for Carson during a week of programs that aired between July 29 and August 2, 1963, and again for two nights in October 1963. McMahon served as a counter to the notoriously shy Carson. Nonetheless, McMahon once told an interviewer that after his many decades as an emcee, he would still get "butterflies" in his stomach every time he would walk onto a stage and would use that nervousness as a source of energy.
His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror film The Shining by the character Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. He did in-program commercials for many sponsors of The Tonight Show, most notably Budweiser beer and Alpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs.
Star Search
McMahon was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995 and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on the CBS revival of the series, hosted by his successor Arsenio Hall.
Other roles
His long association with brewer Anheuser-Busch earned him the nickname "Mr. Budweiser" and he used that relationship to bring them aboard as one of the largest corporate donors to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Since 1973, McMahon served as co-host of the long-running live annual Labor Day weekend event of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and final appearance on that show was in 2008, making him second only to Jerry Lewis himself in number. McMahon and Dick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of) TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982 to 1993.
In 1967, McMahon had a role in the film The Incident and appeared as Santa Claus on The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show. From 1965 to 1969, McMahon served as "communicator" (host) of the Saturday afternoon segment of Monitor, the weekend news, features and entertainment magazine on the NBC Radio Network. The 1955 movie Dementia, which has music without dialogue, was released as Daughter of Horror in 1970. The newer version, which had a voice over by McMahon, still has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by him. McMahon had a supporting role in the original Fun with Dick and Jane in 1977.
He then played himself in "Remote Control Man", a season one episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 2004, McMahon became the announcer and co-host of Alf's Hit Talk Show on TV Land. He has authored two memoirs, Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well as For Laughing Out Loud. Over the years, he emceed the game shows Missing Links, Snap Judgment, Concentration, and Whodunnit!.
McMahon also hosted Lifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on the USA Radio Network. Additionally, he also appeared in the feature documentary film, Pitch People, the first motion picture to take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of pitching products to the public. In the early 2000s, McMahon made a series of Neighborhood Watch public service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for. (In fact, it is not clear whether the company McMahon fronted, American Family Publishers, regularly performed such unannounced visits, as opposed to Publishers Clearing House and its oft-promoted "prize patrol".)
Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for a FreeCreditReport.com commercial and in a Cash4Gold commercial alongside MC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer. His final film appearance was in the independent John Hughes themed rom-com Jelly as Mr. Closure alongside actress Natasha Lyonne. Mostly in the 1980s through the 1990s, McMahon was the spokesperson for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.
Personal life
Marriage and children
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell on July 5, 1945, while he was serving as a flight instructor in the Marines. The couple had four children: Claudia (b. 1946), Michael Edward (1951–1995), Linda and Jeffrey. They separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. McMahon married Victoria Valentine on March 6, 1976. They adopted a daughter in 1985, Katherine Mary. The couple divorced in 1989. McMahon paid $50,000 per month in spousal and child support. On February 22, 1992, three months before his Tonight Show run came to a close, in a ceremony held near Las Vegas, McMahon married 37-year-old Pamela "Pam" Hurn, who had a son named Alex. McMahon's daughter Katherine served as best person at the wedding. McMahon was a longtime summer resident of Avalon, New Jersey.
Financial problems
In June 2008, it was announced that McMahon was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home. McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared on Larry King Live on June 5, 2008, with his wife to talk about this situation. In the interview, McMahon's wife Pam said that people assumed that the McMahons had a lot of money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars. On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. McMahon failed to pay divorce attorney Norman Solovay $275,168, according to a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, had hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from another relationship, in a "matrimonial matter", said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.
On August 14, 2008, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home from Countrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed. McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, said Howard Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman. Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it was not Trump. In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.
Health problems
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors failed to properly clean up water damage from a broken pipe. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons blamed the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, one of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. It sought monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 21, 2003, the long legal battle ended with McMahon being awarded $7.2 million from several companies who were negligent for allowing toxic mold into his home, sickening him and his wife and killing their dog. McMahon was injured in 2007 in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two doctors claiming fraud, battery, elder abuse, and emotional distress, and accused them of discharging him with a broken neck after his fall and botching two later neck surgeries.
On February 27, 2009, it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed as Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) for almost a month. He was listed in serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. His publicist told reporters that he was admitted for pneumonia at the time, but could not confirm nor deny reports that McMahon had been diagnosed with bone cancer.
Death
McMahon died on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was 86 years old. His nurse, Julie Koehne, RN, stated he went peacefully. No formal cause of death was given, but McMahon's publicist attributed his death to the many health problems he had suffered over his final months. McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.
Tributes and legacy
The night of McMahon's death, Conan O'Brien paid him tribute on The Tonight Show:
He received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on March 20, 1986.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted McMahon into their Hall of Fame in 2010.
Books
Slimming Down (Grosset & Dunlap, 1972) ISBN 0448015501
Here's Ed: The Autobiography of Ed McMahon With Carroll Carroll (Putnam, 1976)
Ed McMahon's Superselling by Ed McMahon with Warren Jamison (Prentice Hall Press, 1989),
For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), co-written with David Fisher
Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Berkley Publishing Group – Penguin Group, 2005)
Backstage at the Tonight Show by Don Sweeney, Ed McMahon (Foreword) (Taylor Trade Publishing), 2006
When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen With David Fisher (Thomas Nelson 2007)
References
External links
1923 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts
American Korean War pilots
American game show hosts
American male comedians
American male television actors
Boston College alumni
Catholic University of America alumni
Game show announcers
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from Detroit
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Philadelphia
Military personnel from Detroit
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Military personnel from New Jersey
Military personnel from Philadelphia
People from Avalon, New Jersey
People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania
Quinnipiac University people
Radio and television announcers
Recipients of the Air Medal
United States Marine Corps officers
United States Marine Corps reservists
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
United States Naval Aviators | true | [
"The Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch provides military chaplains for the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom.\n\nMission\nThe Mission of the Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch is to serve the RAF Community through: Prayer, Presence and Proclamation. The motto of the branch Ministrare Non Ministrari translates as ..To serve, not to be served and is derived from Mark chapter 10: verse 45.\n\nHistory\nThe Reverend Harry Viener was invested as the first Chaplain-in-Chief on 11 October 1918 with the Chaplaincy branch officially established in December 1918. Reverend Viener had been a Naval Chaplain and was 'lent' to the Air Force by the Admiralty. A Chaplaincy school was established at Magdalene College, Cambridge University in November 1943 with the motto of 'Truth'. The Chaplaincy School was moved to Dowdeswell Court in Gloucestershire in February 1945. Thereafter it moved to Amport House in Hampshire in December 1961. In September 2016, the Ministry of Defence announced that Amport House would be put up for sale as part of a programme of defence estate rationalisation. A Better Defence Estate, published in November 2016, indicated that the Armed Forces Chaplaincy would close by 2020, which it subsequently did, to be relocated to Shrivenham, near Swindon.\n\nTraining\nRAF chaplains and candidates receive training at the Armed Forces Chaplaincy Centre, which was located at Amport House until 2020.\n\nEndorsing authorities\nTo serve in the Chaplains Branch, chaplains and candidates must be endorsed by a religious body. RAF commissioned chaplains are accepted from the various Christian denominations. The British military forces are also served by \"tri-service chaplains\" from other world faiths, including Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh. The RAF also has an honorary Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Malcolm Weisman, who holds the position of Senior Jewish Chaplain to HM Forces. In 2018, the first Sikh and Muslim military chaplains to join the British armed forces passed out from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell to join the RAF Chaplain's Branch.\n\nNoncombatant status\nSee:\n\nChaplain-in-Chief\n\nThe RAF Chaplains Branch is led by a Chaplain-in-Chief. Harry Viener was the first Chaplain-in-Chief. When the Chaplain-in-Chief is an Anglican, he or she is also the Archdeacon for the Royal Air Force – otherwise, the most senior Anglican chaplain takes that title along with that of Principal Anglican Chaplain.\n\n11 October 1918 – 1926: Harry Viener\n25 October 1926 – 1930: Robert Hanson\n11 December 1930 – 11 December 1933: Sidney Clarke\n11 December 1933 – 10 April 1936: James Walkey\n10 April 1940 – 1944: Maurice Edwards\n1944–1949: John Jagoe\n31 March 1949 – 1953: Leslie Wright\n17 April 1953 – 1959: Alan Giles\n19 March 1959 – 1965: Francis Cocks (first Archdeacon for the RAF)\n13 March 1965 – 1969 Wilfred Payton\n14 March 1969 – 1973: Leonard Ashton\n3 June 1973 – 1980: Hewitt Wilson\n28 June 1980 – 1983 Herbert Stuart\n1983–1988: Glyndwr Renowden\n30 June 1988 – 1991: Brian Halfpenny\n26 July 1991 – 1995: Brian Lucas\n26 August 1995 – 1998: Robin Turner\n1998–2001: Peter Bishop\n21 September 2001 – 2006: Ron Hesketh\n2006–2009: Peter Mills (Church of Scotland)\nArchdeacons for the Royal Air Force:\n2006 onwards: Ray Pentland\n1 October 2009–July 2014 (ret.): Ray Pentland\nJuly 2014–July 2018: Jonathan Chaffey\nJuly 2018–present: John Ellis\n\nWorld faith chaplains\nThe Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch has 5 world faith chaplains as of October 2021:\n\nFlt Lt. Mandeep Kaur (Sikh)\nMr Krishan Attri (Hindu)\nImam Ali Omar (Muslim)\nDr Sunil Kariyakarawana (Buddhist)\nRabbi Reuben Livingstone CF (Jewish)\n\nCentral church\nThe central church of the Chaplains Branch is St Clement Danes Church in the City of Westminster, London.\n\nGallery\n\nSee also\n\nRAF Chapel\nRoyal Army Chaplains' Department\nRoyal Navy Chaplaincy Service\nBishop to the Forces (Anglican)\nBishopric of the Forces (Roman Catholic)\n\nChaplain\n:Category:Royal Air Force chaplains\n\nFootnotes\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\nRAF Chaplains official website\nCareers: Jobs: Chaplain. RAF Careers official website\n\nRAF Chaplain\n \n RAF\nMilitary in Hampshire\nReligion in the military\nReligion in the United Kingdom\nMilitary units and formations established in 1918\nTest Valley\n1918 establishments in the United Kingdom",
"Catterick Bridge railway station was a railway station in what is now the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It was built to serve the villages of Brompton-on-Swale and Catterick. The station was near the junction between the main branch line towards Richmond and a sub-branch line called Catterick Camp Military Railway to what is now Catterick Garrison.\n\nHistory\nThe station was once part of the Eryholme-Richmond branch line, built by the York and Newcastle Railway in 1846. Like most of the infrastructure of the line, Catterick Bridge station was built in the Tudor Style.\n\nOn 4 February 1944, an ammunition train exploded in the station whist it was being loaded by four Army Privates. In all twelve people were killed in the explosion (including the four army Privates) with 102 being injured.\n\nThe Richmond branch line closed for passenger trains in 1969 but goods trains ran to Catterick Bridge until the following year.\n\nPresent\nThe station was demolished soon after the line it served was closed, although some evidence still remains. A caravan and motorhome dealer now occupy the site of the station.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nExternal links\n Catterick Bridge, SubBrit disused stations project\n Catterick Bridge station on navigable 1947 O. S. map\n\nDisused railway stations in North Yorkshire\nRailway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846\nRailway stations in Great Britain closed in 1969\n1846 establishments in England\nFormer North Eastern Railway (UK) stations\nBeeching closures in England"
]
|
[
"Ed McMahon",
"Military service",
"What branch of the military did he serve in?",
"he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training."
]
| C_956918195357440a93c2fc91e704503d_1 | Did he serve in any wars? | 2 | Did Ed McMahon serve in any wars? | Ed McMahon | McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, both the Army and Navy required two years of college for their pilots program. McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College and studied there from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, McMahon stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement was not lifted and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training. After completing the college requirement, McMahon was able to enlist as he previously wished. His primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender unconditionally. As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog), an unarmed single-engine spotter plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves. CANNOTANSWER | He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. | Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?, running from 1957 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick, announcer and second banana on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.
McMahon also hosted the original Star Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House), annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s.
McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High and Butterfly, as well as briefly in the film version of the TV sitcom Bewitched and has also performed in numerous television commercials. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest "sidekicks".
Early years
McMahon was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr., a fund-raiser and entertainer, and Eleanor (Russell) McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary Brennan at her home on Chelmsford Street. After three years as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, McMahon served as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in Maine. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.
Military service
McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, both the Army and Navy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied at Boston College from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement remained in effect and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.
After completing the college requirement, McMahon began his primary flight training in Dallas. This was followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as a Naval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's unconditional surrender.
As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engine Cessna O-1 Bird Dog) spotter plane, serving as an artillery spotter for Marine artillery batteries and a forward air controller for Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.
The Catholic University of America
After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under the GI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying under Rev. Fr. Gilbert Hartke and was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. After graduation, McMahon led the effort to raise funds for a theater to be named for Hartke and attended its dedication in 1970 with Helen Hayes and Sidney Poitier. While working as Carson's sidekick during The Tonight Show, McMahon served as the president of the national alumni association from 1967 to 1971 and would often return to campus, especially for homecoming. During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon and Bob Newhart performed. He received an honorary Doctor of Communication Arts in 1988.
"I owe so much to CU," McMahon once said. "That's where my career got its start." Today, the Ed McMahon Endowed Scholarship helps outstanding students and provides scholarship assistance to juniors and seniors who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in either the Department of Drama or the Department of Media Studies within the School of Arts and Sciences.
Entertainment career
Who Do You Trust?
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game show Who Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The pair joined The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962, on NBC. He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change". For almost 30 years, McMahon introduced the show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "Human Laugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King". As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as , but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name .
Aside from his co-hosting duties, it also fell upon McMahon during the early years of Carson's tenure (when the show ran 105 minutes) to host the first fifteen minutes of Tonight, which did not air nationally. McMahon also served as guest host on at least one occasion, substituting for Carson during a week of programs that aired between July 29 and August 2, 1963, and again for two nights in October 1963. McMahon served as a counter to the notoriously shy Carson. Nonetheless, McMahon once told an interviewer that after his many decades as an emcee, he would still get "butterflies" in his stomach every time he would walk onto a stage and would use that nervousness as a source of energy.
His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror film The Shining by the character Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. He did in-program commercials for many sponsors of The Tonight Show, most notably Budweiser beer and Alpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs.
Star Search
McMahon was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995 and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on the CBS revival of the series, hosted by his successor Arsenio Hall.
Other roles
His long association with brewer Anheuser-Busch earned him the nickname "Mr. Budweiser" and he used that relationship to bring them aboard as one of the largest corporate donors to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Since 1973, McMahon served as co-host of the long-running live annual Labor Day weekend event of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and final appearance on that show was in 2008, making him second only to Jerry Lewis himself in number. McMahon and Dick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of) TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982 to 1993.
In 1967, McMahon had a role in the film The Incident and appeared as Santa Claus on The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show. From 1965 to 1969, McMahon served as "communicator" (host) of the Saturday afternoon segment of Monitor, the weekend news, features and entertainment magazine on the NBC Radio Network. The 1955 movie Dementia, which has music without dialogue, was released as Daughter of Horror in 1970. The newer version, which had a voice over by McMahon, still has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by him. McMahon had a supporting role in the original Fun with Dick and Jane in 1977.
He then played himself in "Remote Control Man", a season one episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 2004, McMahon became the announcer and co-host of Alf's Hit Talk Show on TV Land. He has authored two memoirs, Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well as For Laughing Out Loud. Over the years, he emceed the game shows Missing Links, Snap Judgment, Concentration, and Whodunnit!.
McMahon also hosted Lifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on the USA Radio Network. Additionally, he also appeared in the feature documentary film, Pitch People, the first motion picture to take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of pitching products to the public. In the early 2000s, McMahon made a series of Neighborhood Watch public service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for. (In fact, it is not clear whether the company McMahon fronted, American Family Publishers, regularly performed such unannounced visits, as opposed to Publishers Clearing House and its oft-promoted "prize patrol".)
Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for a FreeCreditReport.com commercial and in a Cash4Gold commercial alongside MC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer. His final film appearance was in the independent John Hughes themed rom-com Jelly as Mr. Closure alongside actress Natasha Lyonne. Mostly in the 1980s through the 1990s, McMahon was the spokesperson for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.
Personal life
Marriage and children
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell on July 5, 1945, while he was serving as a flight instructor in the Marines. The couple had four children: Claudia (b. 1946), Michael Edward (1951–1995), Linda and Jeffrey. They separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. McMahon married Victoria Valentine on March 6, 1976. They adopted a daughter in 1985, Katherine Mary. The couple divorced in 1989. McMahon paid $50,000 per month in spousal and child support. On February 22, 1992, three months before his Tonight Show run came to a close, in a ceremony held near Las Vegas, McMahon married 37-year-old Pamela "Pam" Hurn, who had a son named Alex. McMahon's daughter Katherine served as best person at the wedding. McMahon was a longtime summer resident of Avalon, New Jersey.
Financial problems
In June 2008, it was announced that McMahon was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home. McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared on Larry King Live on June 5, 2008, with his wife to talk about this situation. In the interview, McMahon's wife Pam said that people assumed that the McMahons had a lot of money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars. On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. McMahon failed to pay divorce attorney Norman Solovay $275,168, according to a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, had hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from another relationship, in a "matrimonial matter", said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.
On August 14, 2008, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home from Countrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed. McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, said Howard Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman. Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it was not Trump. In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.
Health problems
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors failed to properly clean up water damage from a broken pipe. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons blamed the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, one of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. It sought monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 21, 2003, the long legal battle ended with McMahon being awarded $7.2 million from several companies who were negligent for allowing toxic mold into his home, sickening him and his wife and killing their dog. McMahon was injured in 2007 in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two doctors claiming fraud, battery, elder abuse, and emotional distress, and accused them of discharging him with a broken neck after his fall and botching two later neck surgeries.
On February 27, 2009, it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed as Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) for almost a month. He was listed in serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. His publicist told reporters that he was admitted for pneumonia at the time, but could not confirm nor deny reports that McMahon had been diagnosed with bone cancer.
Death
McMahon died on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was 86 years old. His nurse, Julie Koehne, RN, stated he went peacefully. No formal cause of death was given, but McMahon's publicist attributed his death to the many health problems he had suffered over his final months. McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.
Tributes and legacy
The night of McMahon's death, Conan O'Brien paid him tribute on The Tonight Show:
He received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on March 20, 1986.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted McMahon into their Hall of Fame in 2010.
Books
Slimming Down (Grosset & Dunlap, 1972) ISBN 0448015501
Here's Ed: The Autobiography of Ed McMahon With Carroll Carroll (Putnam, 1976)
Ed McMahon's Superselling by Ed McMahon with Warren Jamison (Prentice Hall Press, 1989),
For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), co-written with David Fisher
Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Berkley Publishing Group – Penguin Group, 2005)
Backstage at the Tonight Show by Don Sweeney, Ed McMahon (Foreword) (Taylor Trade Publishing), 2006
When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen With David Fisher (Thomas Nelson 2007)
References
External links
1923 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts
American Korean War pilots
American game show hosts
American male comedians
American male television actors
Boston College alumni
Catholic University of America alumni
Game show announcers
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from Detroit
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Philadelphia
Military personnel from Detroit
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Military personnel from New Jersey
Military personnel from Philadelphia
People from Avalon, New Jersey
People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania
Quinnipiac University people
Radio and television announcers
Recipients of the Air Medal
United States Marine Corps officers
United States Marine Corps reservists
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
United States Naval Aviators | false | [
"This is a list of wars fought by Romania since 1859:\n\nThe United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (1859–1862) \n\nThe United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia did not participate in any wars.\n\nRomanian United Principalities (1862–1866) \n\nThe Romanian United Principalities did not participate in any wars.\n\nPrincipality of Romania (1866–1881)\n\nKingdom of Romania (1881–1947)\n\nRomanian People's Republic (1947–1965)\n\nSocialist Republic of Romania (1965–1989)\n\nPost-communist Romania (since 1989)\n\nReferences \n\n \nRomania\nWars",
"Karl Gustav von Strandmann (; 1786–1855) was a Russian German military officer, a general of the Imperial Russian Army. Born in the Governorate of Livonia to Gustav Ernst von Strandmann, governor-general of Siberia and a general of infantry of the Russian Army, Karl Gustav von Strandmann joined the Page Corps at an early age. He did not graduate from it however, as in 1803 he joined the Chevalier Guard Regiment to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, he took part in suppressing the November Uprising in Poland and continued to serve in various command duties until his death in 1855.\n\n1786 births\n1855 deaths\nImperial Russian Army generals\nRussian people of German descent\nRussian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars"
]
|
[
"Ed McMahon",
"Military service",
"What branch of the military did he serve in?",
"he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.",
"Did he serve in any wars?",
"He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945."
]
| C_956918195357440a93c2fc91e704503d_1 | Was he wounded in service? | 3 | Was Ed McMahon wounded in service? | Ed McMahon | McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, both the Army and Navy required two years of college for their pilots program. McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College and studied there from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, McMahon stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement was not lifted and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training. After completing the college requirement, McMahon was able to enlist as he previously wished. His primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender unconditionally. As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog), an unarmed single-engine spotter plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves. CANNOTANSWER | his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, | Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?, running from 1957 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick, announcer and second banana on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.
McMahon also hosted the original Star Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House), annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s.
McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High and Butterfly, as well as briefly in the film version of the TV sitcom Bewitched and has also performed in numerous television commercials. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest "sidekicks".
Early years
McMahon was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr., a fund-raiser and entertainer, and Eleanor (Russell) McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary Brennan at her home on Chelmsford Street. After three years as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, McMahon served as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in Maine. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.
Military service
McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, both the Army and Navy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied at Boston College from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement remained in effect and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.
After completing the college requirement, McMahon began his primary flight training in Dallas. This was followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as a Naval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's unconditional surrender.
As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engine Cessna O-1 Bird Dog) spotter plane, serving as an artillery spotter for Marine artillery batteries and a forward air controller for Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.
The Catholic University of America
After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under the GI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying under Rev. Fr. Gilbert Hartke and was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. After graduation, McMahon led the effort to raise funds for a theater to be named for Hartke and attended its dedication in 1970 with Helen Hayes and Sidney Poitier. While working as Carson's sidekick during The Tonight Show, McMahon served as the president of the national alumni association from 1967 to 1971 and would often return to campus, especially for homecoming. During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon and Bob Newhart performed. He received an honorary Doctor of Communication Arts in 1988.
"I owe so much to CU," McMahon once said. "That's where my career got its start." Today, the Ed McMahon Endowed Scholarship helps outstanding students and provides scholarship assistance to juniors and seniors who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in either the Department of Drama or the Department of Media Studies within the School of Arts and Sciences.
Entertainment career
Who Do You Trust?
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game show Who Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The pair joined The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962, on NBC. He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change". For almost 30 years, McMahon introduced the show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "Human Laugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King". As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as , but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name .
Aside from his co-hosting duties, it also fell upon McMahon during the early years of Carson's tenure (when the show ran 105 minutes) to host the first fifteen minutes of Tonight, which did not air nationally. McMahon also served as guest host on at least one occasion, substituting for Carson during a week of programs that aired between July 29 and August 2, 1963, and again for two nights in October 1963. McMahon served as a counter to the notoriously shy Carson. Nonetheless, McMahon once told an interviewer that after his many decades as an emcee, he would still get "butterflies" in his stomach every time he would walk onto a stage and would use that nervousness as a source of energy.
His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror film The Shining by the character Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. He did in-program commercials for many sponsors of The Tonight Show, most notably Budweiser beer and Alpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs.
Star Search
McMahon was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995 and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on the CBS revival of the series, hosted by his successor Arsenio Hall.
Other roles
His long association with brewer Anheuser-Busch earned him the nickname "Mr. Budweiser" and he used that relationship to bring them aboard as one of the largest corporate donors to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Since 1973, McMahon served as co-host of the long-running live annual Labor Day weekend event of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and final appearance on that show was in 2008, making him second only to Jerry Lewis himself in number. McMahon and Dick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of) TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982 to 1993.
In 1967, McMahon had a role in the film The Incident and appeared as Santa Claus on The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show. From 1965 to 1969, McMahon served as "communicator" (host) of the Saturday afternoon segment of Monitor, the weekend news, features and entertainment magazine on the NBC Radio Network. The 1955 movie Dementia, which has music without dialogue, was released as Daughter of Horror in 1970. The newer version, which had a voice over by McMahon, still has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by him. McMahon had a supporting role in the original Fun with Dick and Jane in 1977.
He then played himself in "Remote Control Man", a season one episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 2004, McMahon became the announcer and co-host of Alf's Hit Talk Show on TV Land. He has authored two memoirs, Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well as For Laughing Out Loud. Over the years, he emceed the game shows Missing Links, Snap Judgment, Concentration, and Whodunnit!.
McMahon also hosted Lifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on the USA Radio Network. Additionally, he also appeared in the feature documentary film, Pitch People, the first motion picture to take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of pitching products to the public. In the early 2000s, McMahon made a series of Neighborhood Watch public service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for. (In fact, it is not clear whether the company McMahon fronted, American Family Publishers, regularly performed such unannounced visits, as opposed to Publishers Clearing House and its oft-promoted "prize patrol".)
Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for a FreeCreditReport.com commercial and in a Cash4Gold commercial alongside MC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer. His final film appearance was in the independent John Hughes themed rom-com Jelly as Mr. Closure alongside actress Natasha Lyonne. Mostly in the 1980s through the 1990s, McMahon was the spokesperson for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.
Personal life
Marriage and children
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell on July 5, 1945, while he was serving as a flight instructor in the Marines. The couple had four children: Claudia (b. 1946), Michael Edward (1951–1995), Linda and Jeffrey. They separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. McMahon married Victoria Valentine on March 6, 1976. They adopted a daughter in 1985, Katherine Mary. The couple divorced in 1989. McMahon paid $50,000 per month in spousal and child support. On February 22, 1992, three months before his Tonight Show run came to a close, in a ceremony held near Las Vegas, McMahon married 37-year-old Pamela "Pam" Hurn, who had a son named Alex. McMahon's daughter Katherine served as best person at the wedding. McMahon was a longtime summer resident of Avalon, New Jersey.
Financial problems
In June 2008, it was announced that McMahon was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home. McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared on Larry King Live on June 5, 2008, with his wife to talk about this situation. In the interview, McMahon's wife Pam said that people assumed that the McMahons had a lot of money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars. On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. McMahon failed to pay divorce attorney Norman Solovay $275,168, according to a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, had hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from another relationship, in a "matrimonial matter", said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.
On August 14, 2008, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home from Countrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed. McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, said Howard Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman. Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it was not Trump. In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.
Health problems
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors failed to properly clean up water damage from a broken pipe. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons blamed the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, one of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. It sought monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 21, 2003, the long legal battle ended with McMahon being awarded $7.2 million from several companies who were negligent for allowing toxic mold into his home, sickening him and his wife and killing their dog. McMahon was injured in 2007 in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two doctors claiming fraud, battery, elder abuse, and emotional distress, and accused them of discharging him with a broken neck after his fall and botching two later neck surgeries.
On February 27, 2009, it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed as Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) for almost a month. He was listed in serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. His publicist told reporters that he was admitted for pneumonia at the time, but could not confirm nor deny reports that McMahon had been diagnosed with bone cancer.
Death
McMahon died on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was 86 years old. His nurse, Julie Koehne, RN, stated he went peacefully. No formal cause of death was given, but McMahon's publicist attributed his death to the many health problems he had suffered over his final months. McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.
Tributes and legacy
The night of McMahon's death, Conan O'Brien paid him tribute on The Tonight Show:
He received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on March 20, 1986.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted McMahon into their Hall of Fame in 2010.
Books
Slimming Down (Grosset & Dunlap, 1972) ISBN 0448015501
Here's Ed: The Autobiography of Ed McMahon With Carroll Carroll (Putnam, 1976)
Ed McMahon's Superselling by Ed McMahon with Warren Jamison (Prentice Hall Press, 1989),
For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), co-written with David Fisher
Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Berkley Publishing Group – Penguin Group, 2005)
Backstage at the Tonight Show by Don Sweeney, Ed McMahon (Foreword) (Taylor Trade Publishing), 2006
When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen With David Fisher (Thomas Nelson 2007)
References
External links
1923 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts
American Korean War pilots
American game show hosts
American male comedians
American male television actors
Boston College alumni
Catholic University of America alumni
Game show announcers
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from Detroit
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Philadelphia
Military personnel from Detroit
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Military personnel from New Jersey
Military personnel from Philadelphia
People from Avalon, New Jersey
People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania
Quinnipiac University people
Radio and television announcers
Recipients of the Air Medal
United States Marine Corps officers
United States Marine Corps reservists
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
United States Naval Aviators | false | [
"Thomas Quinton Donaldson, Jr. (1864–1934) was a United States Army Major General, who was a veteran of numerous American Indian Wars, including the Wounded Knee Massacre. His final command was Fort Sam Houston, Texas.\n\nEarly life\nHe was born into a military family at Greenville, South Carolina. After basic education through local schools, he enrolled at Patrick Military Institute. In 1887, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point.\n\nWounded Knee and Indian wars\nDonaldson was a veteran of the American Indian Wars, having served in the 7th Cavalry Regiment under James W. Forsyth during the 1890 South Dakota Wounded Knee Massacre, and the ensuing White Clay Creek massacre. Donaldson subsequently provided a multi-page hand-written account of the battle at Wounded Knee.\n\nLater military service\nHe was a veteran of the 1898 Spanish–American War, and saw World War I service at Governors Island in New York, as well as at Tours, France. In 1920, he was made a Colonel of the Inspector General’s Department, during the pursuit of draft dodger Grover Cleveland Bergdoll who was later arrested for evading Article 58 of the Selective Service Act of 1917.\n\nFinal years\n\nDonaldson was put in charge of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas in 1928. Due to his ill health, he was replaced the same year by Major General William Lassiter. He relocated to New York, where he died in 1934.\n\nSee also\n\nPershing House\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nArmy at Wounded Knee\n\n1864 births\n1934 deaths\nPeople from Greenville, South Carolina\nPeople of the Great Sioux War of 1876\nPeople of the Spanish–American War\nPeople of World War I\nUnited States Army generals of World War I",
"Brigadier-General John Tyson Wigan, (31 July 1877 – 23 November 1952) was a senior British Army officer and later a Conservative Party politician. He served with the Desert Mounted Corps during World War I, and was wounded in action three times during campaigning at the Battle of Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. He had previously been badly wounded in the Second Boer War.\n\nFollowing his retirement from the army post-war, Wigan became a Member of Parliament (MP) for three years.\n\nLife\nJohn Wigan was born in July 1877 in West Hartlepool and educated at Rugby School before joining the British Army in May 1897 as a second lieutenant with the 13th Hussars. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 8 March 1899, and later that year was deployed to South Africa for service in the Second Boer War. While in South Africa he was severely wounded during reconnaissance near Sundays River (in Cape Colony) in March 1900. He stayed in South Africa throughout the war, and was promoted to the rank of captain on 26 March 1902. Following the end of hostilities, he left South Africa with other men of his regiment on the SS City of Vienna, which arrived at Southampton in October 1902. In 1909, Wigan retired from the regular army and transferred to the Territorial Army with the Berkshire Yeomanry. This force was activated at the outbreak of World War I and sent to the Mediterranean.\n\nWigan was seriously wounded in 1915 during the Battle of Gallipoli while in command of the Berkshire Yeomanry, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) the following year in acknowledgement of his service. The Berkshire Yeomanry moved to Egypt in 1916 and in April 1917 Wigan was again wounded at the Second Battle of Gaza. In July 1917, Wigan was advanced to command the 7th Mounted Brigade and in November 1917 this force was deployed in the Third Battle of Gaza at which Wigan was wounded for a fourth time in an attack on Turkish trenchlines. On 7 April 1918, he was appointed to command of the 22nd Mounted Brigade (later redesignated 12th Cavalry Brigade) in 4th Cavalry Division, a command he held until the end of the war.\n\nIn 1918 Wigan was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in recognition of his service and in 1919 a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). At the end of the war, the yeomanry was decommissioned and Wigan entered politics as MP for Abingdon. He was on the governing body of Abingdon School from 1918 to 1921.\n\nIn 1921 Wigan gave up his seat and retired, later serving as High Sheriff of Essex in 1930. Wigan died in Cuckfield, West Sussex in November 1952.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1872 births\n1952 deaths\nPeople educated at Rugby School\n13th Hussars officers\nConservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies\nUK MPs 1918–1922\nBritish Army personnel of the Second Boer War\nBritish Army cavalry generals of World War I\nBerkshire Yeomanry officers\nCompanions of the Order of the Bath\nCompanions of the Order of St Michael and St George\nCompanions of the Distinguished Service Order\nDeputy Lieutenants of Essex\nHigh Sheriffs of Essex\nPeople from West Hartlepool\nGovernors of Abingdon School\nBritish Army generals\nMilitary personnel from County Durham"
]
|
[
"Ed McMahon",
"Military service",
"What branch of the military did he serve in?",
"he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.",
"Did he serve in any wars?",
"He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945.",
"Was he wounded in service?",
"his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,"
]
| C_956918195357440a93c2fc91e704503d_1 | What rank did he achieve by the end of his service? | 4 | What rank did Ed McMahon achieve by the end of his service? | Ed McMahon | McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, both the Army and Navy required two years of college for their pilots program. McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College and studied there from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, McMahon stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement was not lifted and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training. After completing the college requirement, McMahon was able to enlist as he previously wished. His primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender unconditionally. As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog), an unarmed single-engine spotter plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves. CANNOTANSWER | After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. | Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?, running from 1957 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick, announcer and second banana on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.
McMahon also hosted the original Star Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House), annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s.
McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High and Butterfly, as well as briefly in the film version of the TV sitcom Bewitched and has also performed in numerous television commercials. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest "sidekicks".
Early years
McMahon was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr., a fund-raiser and entertainer, and Eleanor (Russell) McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary Brennan at her home on Chelmsford Street. After three years as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, McMahon served as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in Maine. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.
Military service
McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, both the Army and Navy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied at Boston College from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement remained in effect and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.
After completing the college requirement, McMahon began his primary flight training in Dallas. This was followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as a Naval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's unconditional surrender.
As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engine Cessna O-1 Bird Dog) spotter plane, serving as an artillery spotter for Marine artillery batteries and a forward air controller for Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.
The Catholic University of America
After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under the GI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying under Rev. Fr. Gilbert Hartke and was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. After graduation, McMahon led the effort to raise funds for a theater to be named for Hartke and attended its dedication in 1970 with Helen Hayes and Sidney Poitier. While working as Carson's sidekick during The Tonight Show, McMahon served as the president of the national alumni association from 1967 to 1971 and would often return to campus, especially for homecoming. During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon and Bob Newhart performed. He received an honorary Doctor of Communication Arts in 1988.
"I owe so much to CU," McMahon once said. "That's where my career got its start." Today, the Ed McMahon Endowed Scholarship helps outstanding students and provides scholarship assistance to juniors and seniors who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in either the Department of Drama or the Department of Media Studies within the School of Arts and Sciences.
Entertainment career
Who Do You Trust?
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game show Who Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The pair joined The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962, on NBC. He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change". For almost 30 years, McMahon introduced the show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "Human Laugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King". As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as , but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name .
Aside from his co-hosting duties, it also fell upon McMahon during the early years of Carson's tenure (when the show ran 105 minutes) to host the first fifteen minutes of Tonight, which did not air nationally. McMahon also served as guest host on at least one occasion, substituting for Carson during a week of programs that aired between July 29 and August 2, 1963, and again for two nights in October 1963. McMahon served as a counter to the notoriously shy Carson. Nonetheless, McMahon once told an interviewer that after his many decades as an emcee, he would still get "butterflies" in his stomach every time he would walk onto a stage and would use that nervousness as a source of energy.
His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror film The Shining by the character Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. He did in-program commercials for many sponsors of The Tonight Show, most notably Budweiser beer and Alpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs.
Star Search
McMahon was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995 and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on the CBS revival of the series, hosted by his successor Arsenio Hall.
Other roles
His long association with brewer Anheuser-Busch earned him the nickname "Mr. Budweiser" and he used that relationship to bring them aboard as one of the largest corporate donors to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Since 1973, McMahon served as co-host of the long-running live annual Labor Day weekend event of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and final appearance on that show was in 2008, making him second only to Jerry Lewis himself in number. McMahon and Dick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of) TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982 to 1993.
In 1967, McMahon had a role in the film The Incident and appeared as Santa Claus on The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show. From 1965 to 1969, McMahon served as "communicator" (host) of the Saturday afternoon segment of Monitor, the weekend news, features and entertainment magazine on the NBC Radio Network. The 1955 movie Dementia, which has music without dialogue, was released as Daughter of Horror in 1970. The newer version, which had a voice over by McMahon, still has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by him. McMahon had a supporting role in the original Fun with Dick and Jane in 1977.
He then played himself in "Remote Control Man", a season one episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 2004, McMahon became the announcer and co-host of Alf's Hit Talk Show on TV Land. He has authored two memoirs, Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well as For Laughing Out Loud. Over the years, he emceed the game shows Missing Links, Snap Judgment, Concentration, and Whodunnit!.
McMahon also hosted Lifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on the USA Radio Network. Additionally, he also appeared in the feature documentary film, Pitch People, the first motion picture to take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of pitching products to the public. In the early 2000s, McMahon made a series of Neighborhood Watch public service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for. (In fact, it is not clear whether the company McMahon fronted, American Family Publishers, regularly performed such unannounced visits, as opposed to Publishers Clearing House and its oft-promoted "prize patrol".)
Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for a FreeCreditReport.com commercial and in a Cash4Gold commercial alongside MC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer. His final film appearance was in the independent John Hughes themed rom-com Jelly as Mr. Closure alongside actress Natasha Lyonne. Mostly in the 1980s through the 1990s, McMahon was the spokesperson for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.
Personal life
Marriage and children
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell on July 5, 1945, while he was serving as a flight instructor in the Marines. The couple had four children: Claudia (b. 1946), Michael Edward (1951–1995), Linda and Jeffrey. They separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. McMahon married Victoria Valentine on March 6, 1976. They adopted a daughter in 1985, Katherine Mary. The couple divorced in 1989. McMahon paid $50,000 per month in spousal and child support. On February 22, 1992, three months before his Tonight Show run came to a close, in a ceremony held near Las Vegas, McMahon married 37-year-old Pamela "Pam" Hurn, who had a son named Alex. McMahon's daughter Katherine served as best person at the wedding. McMahon was a longtime summer resident of Avalon, New Jersey.
Financial problems
In June 2008, it was announced that McMahon was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home. McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared on Larry King Live on June 5, 2008, with his wife to talk about this situation. In the interview, McMahon's wife Pam said that people assumed that the McMahons had a lot of money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars. On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. McMahon failed to pay divorce attorney Norman Solovay $275,168, according to a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, had hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from another relationship, in a "matrimonial matter", said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.
On August 14, 2008, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home from Countrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed. McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, said Howard Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman. Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it was not Trump. In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.
Health problems
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors failed to properly clean up water damage from a broken pipe. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons blamed the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, one of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. It sought monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 21, 2003, the long legal battle ended with McMahon being awarded $7.2 million from several companies who were negligent for allowing toxic mold into his home, sickening him and his wife and killing their dog. McMahon was injured in 2007 in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two doctors claiming fraud, battery, elder abuse, and emotional distress, and accused them of discharging him with a broken neck after his fall and botching two later neck surgeries.
On February 27, 2009, it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed as Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) for almost a month. He was listed in serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. His publicist told reporters that he was admitted for pneumonia at the time, but could not confirm nor deny reports that McMahon had been diagnosed with bone cancer.
Death
McMahon died on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was 86 years old. His nurse, Julie Koehne, RN, stated he went peacefully. No formal cause of death was given, but McMahon's publicist attributed his death to the many health problems he had suffered over his final months. McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.
Tributes and legacy
The night of McMahon's death, Conan O'Brien paid him tribute on The Tonight Show:
He received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on March 20, 1986.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted McMahon into their Hall of Fame in 2010.
Books
Slimming Down (Grosset & Dunlap, 1972) ISBN 0448015501
Here's Ed: The Autobiography of Ed McMahon With Carroll Carroll (Putnam, 1976)
Ed McMahon's Superselling by Ed McMahon with Warren Jamison (Prentice Hall Press, 1989),
For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), co-written with David Fisher
Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Berkley Publishing Group – Penguin Group, 2005)
Backstage at the Tonight Show by Don Sweeney, Ed McMahon (Foreword) (Taylor Trade Publishing), 2006
When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen With David Fisher (Thomas Nelson 2007)
References
External links
1923 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts
American Korean War pilots
American game show hosts
American male comedians
American male television actors
Boston College alumni
Catholic University of America alumni
Game show announcers
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from Detroit
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Philadelphia
Military personnel from Detroit
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Military personnel from New Jersey
Military personnel from Philadelphia
People from Avalon, New Jersey
People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania
Quinnipiac University people
Radio and television announcers
Recipients of the Air Medal
United States Marine Corps officers
United States Marine Corps reservists
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
United States Naval Aviators | false | [
"The Presidential Rank Awards program is an individual award program granted by the United States government to career Senior Executive Service (SES) members and Senior Career Employees within the OPM-allocated Senior-Level (SL) or Scientific-Professional (ST) community. The awards have been given annually by the President of the United States since the establishment of the Senior Executive Service in 1978 except for a brief period of suspension from 2013 to 2014. The Presidential Rank Award honors high-performing senior career employees for \"sustained extraordinary accomplishment.\" Executives from across government are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by citizen panels, and designated by the president. Winners of these awards are deemed to be \"strong leaders\", professionals, or scientists who \"achieve results\" and \"consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry, and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service\". \n\nThese awards were suspended by President Obama in 2013 in favor of some non-monetary recognition because of the U.S. budget sequestration in 2013. In 2014, Obama announced the reinstatement of the Presidential Rank Awards programs.\n\nSenior Executive Service (SES)\n\nDistinguished Executive\nThe Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive is the highest annual award for career SES members. Prior to 1999, Distinguished Executives received a lump-sum payment of $20,000. Congress raised the amount of the Distinguished Executive awards granted in 1999 to 35% of the executive's annual salary. All recipients also receive a framed Distinguished certificate featuring a gold emblem signed by the president and a gold Rank Award pin.\n\nNo more than 1% of the career Senior Executive Service corps can receive the Distinguished Executive Rank Award in a given year. Of the U.S. government's 1.8 million civilian employees, only 6,800 have risen to be career Senior Executives.\n\nMeritorious Executive\nThe Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive is the second-highest annual award given to selected career SES members. The award may be given to no more than 5% of the members of the SES in any given year. Meritorious Rank Award recipients receive 20% of basic pay, a framed Meritorious certificate featuring a silver emblem signed by the president and a silver Rank Award pin.\n\nSenior Career Employees (SL/ST)\nIn 2001, Congress first authorized Rank Awards for Senior Professionals, with designations, criteria and tangible awards similar to those for Senior Executives. The first such awards were given in 2003.\n\nDistinguished Senior Professional\nThe Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Senior Professional is highest annual award for SL/ST career professionals. It may be awarded to no more than 1% of the members of the SL/ST corps in a given year. Recipients receive a cash award of 35% of their salary, a framed Distinguished certificate featuring a gold emblem signed by the U.S. President and a gold Rank Award pin.\n\nMeritorious Senior Professional\nThe Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Senior Professional is awarded annually to selected SL/ST career professionals. It may be awarded to no more than 5% of the members of the SL/ST corps in a given year. Meritorious Rank Award recipients receive 20% of basic pay, a framed Meritorious certificate featuring a silver emblem signed by the U.S. President and a silver Rank Award pin.\n\nSee also\n Awards and decorations of the United States government\n\nNotes\n\nCivil service in the United States\nAmerican awards",
"The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps uses the same commissioned officer rank structure as the United States Navy and Coast Guard: from ensign to admiral (O-1 through O-10). While the commissioned corps is authorized to use warrant officer ranks W-1 to W-4 under the U.S. Code of law, it does not currently use these ranks.\n\nRank insignia\n\nHistory\nThe present-day commissioned corps has its origins in the career corps of the Marine Hospital Service, which was established by federal legislation on January 4, 1889. The service adopted naval ranks in order to impose military discipline on the doctors of the service, and corresponded their service rank and grade with their medical title. The service continues to interchange officer ranks and service titles when referring to their grade.\n\n1889–1902 (Marine Hospital Service)\nInitially, the officer ranks and insignia of the Marine Hospital Service were as follows:\n\nOfficers of the Marine Hospital Service wore the same rank devices as officers in the armed forces, apart from the star of the surgeon general and the bars of passed assistant surgeons and assistant surgeons being gold instead of silver.\n\nEffective October 1, 1893, the supervising surgeon general wore gold epaulettes in place of shoulder straps. Officers who once served in the grade of surgeon general and were then reverted to the grade of surgeon, were also authorized to wear silver oak leaf insignia regardless of years of service.\n\nThe rank structure was further revised with effect from July 1, 1896:\n\n1902–1912 (Public Health and Marine Hospital Service)\nBy Act of Congress, on July 1, 1902, the Marine Hospital Service became the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. The rank structure was correspondingly expanded, with the creation of the rank of assistant surgeon general.\n\nThe rank structure of the new Public Health and Marine Hospital Service was the following:\n\nFrom 1912 (Public Health Service)\nThe United States Public Health Service was established by Act of Congress on August 14, 1912. In March 1914, the five-pointed gold star worn by the surgeon general was changed to silver, with the new rank of senior surgeon introduced between the ranks of surgeon and assistant surgeon general. The sleeve rank insignia were also altered to match those worn by Navy officers, with shoulder loops replacing straps. With effect from March 20, 1918, the gold bars worn by the ranks of passed assistant and assistant surgeons became silver, the same as the equivalent Army and Navy rank insignia. At the end of World War I, the rank insignia of the Commissioned Corps were as follows:\n\nBy an Act of April 9, 1930, the grade of surgeon general was raised to two-star rank.\n\nA further Act in 1943 raised the four existing bureau chiefs to the grade of assistant surgeon general with the equivalency to the rank of brigadier general. With the Public Health Service Act of 1944, the grade of passed assistant was redesignated to senior assistant, and the new grade of junior assistant was established as equivalent to rank of second lieutenant or ensign. The 1944 Act further established the grade of director, to rank equivalent with a colonel or Navy captain, along with the one-star graded post of deputy surgeon general, also elevating assistant surgeon generals to one-star rank. The surgeon general was also elevated to two-star rank. At the end of World War II, the ranks and insignia of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps were:\n\nA further act of February 28, 1948 authorized two grades for officers in the grade of assistant surgeon generals, with not more than half of the authorized number to hold the grade equivalent to major generals or rear admirals. Public Law 89-288 was enacted on October 22, 1965, elevating the grade of surgeon general to three-star rank.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nUnited States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps\nUniformed services of the United States"
]
|
[
"Ed McMahon",
"Military service",
"What branch of the military did he serve in?",
"he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.",
"Did he serve in any wars?",
"He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945.",
"Was he wounded in service?",
"his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,",
"What rank did he achieve by the end of his service?",
"After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel."
]
| C_956918195357440a93c2fc91e704503d_1 | Was he married while in the military? | 5 | Was Ed McMahon married while in the Marine Corps? | Ed McMahon | McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, however, both the Army and Navy required two years of college for their pilots program. McMahon enrolled into classes at Boston College and studied there from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, McMahon stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement was not lifted and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training. After completing the college requirement, McMahon was able to enlist as he previously wished. His primary flight training was in Dallas, followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsairs for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender unconditionally. As an officer in the reserves, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. This time, he flew the OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog), an unarmed single-engine spotter plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer, retiring in 1966 as a colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game show Who Do You Trust?, running from 1957 to 1962. McMahon then made his famous thirty-year mark as Carson's sidekick, announcer and second banana on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.
McMahon also hosted the original Star Search from 1983 to 1995, co-hosted TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Dick Clark from 1982 to 1998, presented sweepstakes for the direct marketing company American Family Publishers (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House), annually co-hosted the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1973 to 2008 and anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade during the 1970s and 80s.
McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident, Fun With Dick and Jane, Full Moon High and Butterfly, as well as briefly in the film version of the TV sitcom Bewitched and has also performed in numerous television commercials. According to Entertainment Weekly, McMahon is considered one of the greatest "sidekicks".
Early years
McMahon was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Edward Leo Peter McMahon Sr., a fund-raiser and entertainer, and Eleanor (Russell) McMahon. He was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, often visiting his paternal Aunt Mary Brennan at her home on Chelmsford Street. After three years as a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, McMahon served as a fifteen-year-old bingo caller in Maine. He put himself through college as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk. His first broadcasting job was at WLLH-AM in Lowell, and his television career launched in Philadelphia at WCAU-TV.
Military service
McMahon hoped to become a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot. Prior to the US entry into World War II, both the Army and Navy required pilot candidates to attend at least two years of college. McMahon studied at Boston College from 1940 to 1941. On The Howard Stern Show in 2001, he stated that after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the college requirement remained in effect and he still had to finish his two years of college before applying for Marine Corps flight training.
After completing the college requirement, McMahon began his primary flight training in Dallas. This was followed by fighter training in Pensacola, where he also earned his carrier landing qualifications and was designated as a Naval Aviator. He was a Marine Corps flight instructor in F4U Corsair fighters for two years, finally being ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945. However, his orders were canceled after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's unconditional surrender.
As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, McMahon was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He flew an OE-1 (the original Marine designation for the unarmed single-engine Cessna O-1 Bird Dog) spotter plane, serving as an artillery spotter for Marine artillery batteries and a forward air controller for Navy and Marine fighter bombers. He flew a total of 85 combat missions, earning six Air Medals. After the war, he remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring in 1966 as a Colonel. In 1982, McMahon received a state commission as a brigadier general in the California Air National Guard, an honorary award to recognize his support for the National Guard and Reserves.
The Catholic University of America
After World War II, McMahon studied at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., under the GI Bill and graduated in 1949. He majored in speech and drama while studying under Rev. Fr. Gilbert Hartke and was a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. After graduation, McMahon led the effort to raise funds for a theater to be named for Hartke and attended its dedication in 1970 with Helen Hayes and Sidney Poitier. While working as Carson's sidekick during The Tonight Show, McMahon served as the president of the national alumni association from 1967 to 1971 and would often return to campus, especially for homecoming. During the university's centennial celebration in 1987, McMahon and Bob Newhart performed. He received an honorary Doctor of Communication Arts in 1988.
"I owe so much to CU," McMahon once said. "That's where my career got its start." Today, the Ed McMahon Endowed Scholarship helps outstanding students and provides scholarship assistance to juniors and seniors who are pursuing a bachelor's degree in either the Department of Drama or the Department of Media Studies within the School of Arts and Sciences.
Entertainment career
Who Do You Trust?
McMahon and Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the ABC daytime game show Who Do You Trust? running from 1957 to 1962.
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The pair joined The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 1, 1962, on NBC. He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change". For almost 30 years, McMahon introduced the show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the "Human Laugh Track" and "Toymaker to the King". As part of the introductory patter to The Tonight Show, McMahon would state his name out loud, pronouncing it as , but neither long-time cohort Carson nor anyone else who interviewed him ever seemed to pick up on that subtlety, usually pronouncing his name .
Aside from his co-hosting duties, it also fell upon McMahon during the early years of Carson's tenure (when the show ran 105 minutes) to host the first fifteen minutes of Tonight, which did not air nationally. McMahon also served as guest host on at least one occasion, substituting for Carson during a week of programs that aired between July 29 and August 2, 1963, and again for two nights in October 1963. McMahon served as a counter to the notoriously shy Carson. Nonetheless, McMahon once told an interviewer that after his many decades as an emcee, he would still get "butterflies" in his stomach every time he would walk onto a stage and would use that nervousness as a source of energy.
His famous opening line "Heeere's Johnny!" was used in the 1980 horror film The Shining by the character Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) as he goes after his wife and child with an axe. He did in-program commercials for many sponsors of The Tonight Show, most notably Budweiser beer and Alpo dog food, and also did commercials for them that ran on other programs.
Star Search
McMahon was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and helped launch the careers of numerous actors, singers, choreographers and comedians. He stayed with the show until it ended in 1995 and in 2003, he made a cameo appearance on the CBS revival of the series, hosted by his successor Arsenio Hall.
Other roles
His long association with brewer Anheuser-Busch earned him the nickname "Mr. Budweiser" and he used that relationship to bring them aboard as one of the largest corporate donors to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Since 1973, McMahon served as co-host of the long-running live annual Labor Day weekend event of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. His 41st and final appearance on that show was in 2008, making him second only to Jerry Lewis himself in number. McMahon and Dick Clark hosted the television series (and later special broadcasts of) TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982 to 1993.
In 1967, McMahon had a role in the film The Incident and appeared as Santa Claus on The Mitzi Gaynor Christmas Show. From 1965 to 1969, McMahon served as "communicator" (host) of the Saturday afternoon segment of Monitor, the weekend news, features and entertainment magazine on the NBC Radio Network. The 1955 movie Dementia, which has music without dialogue, was released as Daughter of Horror in 1970. The newer version, which had a voice over by McMahon, still has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by him. McMahon had a supporting role in the original Fun with Dick and Jane in 1977.
He then played himself in "Remote Control Man", a season one episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories. In 2004, McMahon became the announcer and co-host of Alf's Hit Talk Show on TV Land. He has authored two memoirs, Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship as well as For Laughing Out Loud. Over the years, he emceed the game shows Missing Links, Snap Judgment, Concentration, and Whodunnit!.
McMahon also hosted Lifestyles Live, a weekend talk program aired on the USA Radio Network. Additionally, he also appeared in the feature documentary film, Pitch People, the first motion picture to take an in-depth look at the history and evolution of pitching products to the public. In the early 2000s, McMahon made a series of Neighborhood Watch public service announcements parodying the surprise appearances to contest winners that he was supposedly known for. (In fact, it is not clear whether the company McMahon fronted, American Family Publishers, regularly performed such unannounced visits, as opposed to Publishers Clearing House and its oft-promoted "prize patrol".)
Towards the end of the decade, McMahon took on other endorsement roles, playing a rapper for a FreeCreditReport.com commercial and in a Cash4Gold commercial alongside MC Hammer. McMahon was also the spokesman for Pride Mobility, a leading power wheelchair and scooter manufacturer. His final film appearance was in the independent John Hughes themed rom-com Jelly as Mr. Closure alongside actress Natasha Lyonne. Mostly in the 1980s through the 1990s, McMahon was the spokesperson for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.
Personal life
Marriage and children
McMahon married Alyce Ferrell on July 5, 1945, while he was serving as a flight instructor in the Marines. The couple had four children: Claudia (b. 1946), Michael Edward (1951–1995), Linda and Jeffrey. They separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. McMahon married Victoria Valentine on March 6, 1976. They adopted a daughter in 1985, Katherine Mary. The couple divorced in 1989. McMahon paid $50,000 per month in spousal and child support. On February 22, 1992, three months before his Tonight Show run came to a close, in a ceremony held near Las Vegas, McMahon married 37-year-old Pamela "Pam" Hurn, who had a son named Alex. McMahon's daughter Katherine served as best person at the wedding. McMahon was a longtime summer resident of Avalon, New Jersey.
Financial problems
In June 2008, it was announced that McMahon was $644,000 behind on payments on $4.8 million in mortgage loans and was fighting to avoid foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills home. McMahon was also sued by Citibank for $180,000. McMahon appeared on Larry King Live on June 5, 2008, with his wife to talk about this situation. In the interview, McMahon's wife Pam said that people assumed that the McMahons had a lot of money because of his celebrity status. Pamela McMahon also commented that they do not have "millions" of dollars. On July 30, 2008, McMahon's financial status suffered another blow. McMahon failed to pay divorce attorney Norman Solovay $275,168, according to a lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, had hired Solovay to represent Linda Schmerge, his daughter from another relationship, in a "matrimonial matter", said Solovay's lawyer, Michael Shanker.
On August 14, 2008, real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he would purchase McMahon's home from Countrywide Financial and lease it to McMahon, so the home would not be foreclosed. McMahon agreed instead to a deal with a private buyer for his hilltop home, said Howard Bragman, McMahon's former spokesman. Bragman declined to name the buyer or the selling price, but he said it was not Trump. In early September, after the second buyer's offer fell through, Trump renewed his offer to purchase the home.
Health problems
On April 20, 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company for more than $20 million, alleging that he was sickened by toxic mold that spread through his Beverly Hills house after contractors failed to properly clean up water damage from a broken pipe. McMahon and his wife, Pamela, became ill from the mold, as did members of their household staff, according to the Los Angeles County Superior Court suit. The McMahons blamed the mold for the death of the family dog, Muffin. Their suit, one of many in recent years over toxic mold, was filed against American Equity Insurance Co., a pair of insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. It sought monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 21, 2003, the long legal battle ended with McMahon being awarded $7.2 million from several companies who were negligent for allowing toxic mold into his home, sickening him and his wife and killing their dog. McMahon was injured in 2007 in a fall and, in March 2008, it was announced he was recovering from a broken neck and two subsequent surgeries. He later sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two doctors claiming fraud, battery, elder abuse, and emotional distress, and accused them of discharging him with a broken neck after his fall and botching two later neck surgeries.
On February 27, 2009, it was reported that McMahon had been in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital (later confirmed as Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) for almost a month. He was listed in serious condition and was in the intensive care unit. His publicist told reporters that he was admitted for pneumonia at the time, but could not confirm nor deny reports that McMahon had been diagnosed with bone cancer.
Death
McMahon died on June 23, 2009, shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was 86 years old. His nurse, Julie Koehne, RN, stated he went peacefully. No formal cause of death was given, but McMahon's publicist attributed his death to the many health problems he had suffered over his final months. McMahon had said that he still suffered from the injury to his neck in March 2007.
Tributes and legacy
The night of McMahon's death, Conan O'Brien paid him tribute on The Tonight Show:
He received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on March 20, 1986.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted McMahon into their Hall of Fame in 2010.
Books
Slimming Down (Grosset & Dunlap, 1972) ISBN 0448015501
Here's Ed: The Autobiography of Ed McMahon With Carroll Carroll (Putnam, 1976)
Ed McMahon's Superselling by Ed McMahon with Warren Jamison (Prentice Hall Press, 1989),
For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times (Warner Books, 1998), co-written with David Fisher
Here's Johnny! My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship (Berkley Publishing Group – Penguin Group, 2005)
Backstage at the Tonight Show by Don Sweeney, Ed McMahon (Foreword) (Taylor Trade Publishing), 2006
When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen With David Fisher (Thomas Nelson 2007)
References
External links
1923 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
Actors from Lowell, Massachusetts
American Korean War pilots
American game show hosts
American male comedians
American male television actors
Boston College alumni
Catholic University of America alumni
Game show announcers
Male actors from Boston
Male actors from Detroit
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from Philadelphia
Military personnel from Detroit
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Military personnel from New Jersey
Military personnel from Philadelphia
People from Avalon, New Jersey
People from Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania
Quinnipiac University people
Radio and television announcers
Recipients of the Air Medal
United States Marine Corps officers
United States Marine Corps reservists
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
United States Naval Aviators | false | [
"Rafael Asadov (Rafael Avaz oglu Asadov; 1952, in Ganja – 1992, in Agstafa District) was a National Hero of Azerbaijan.\n\nEarly life\nAsadov was born on October 27, 1952 in Ganja. After graduating high school in 1969, he entered Tbilisi Art School. After graduating from a military school in 1973, he continued his education at Saint Petersburg Ngabi Artillery Academy. He served in the Armed Forces of the USSR in Hungary, Vietnam and Afghanistan.\n\nIn 1991, Asadov was an active participant in military operations in Aghdam, Goranboy, Tovuz and Gadabay regions.\n\nPrivate life\nHe was married. Two children have been left behind. He was killed on November 12, 1992, while overseeing combat positions in preparation for the operation in the Agstafa region. He was buried in the Alley of Martyrs in Baku.\n\nRecognition\nAfter his death, he was named a National Hero of Azerbaijan by Decree No. 202 on September 16, 1994.\n\nReferences \n\nNational Heroes of Azerbaijan\n1952 births\n1992 deaths\nAzerbaijani military personnel of the Nagorno-Karabakh War\nMilitary personnel from Ganja, Azerbaijan",
"Vitaliy Markovich Primakov (; ) (3 December 1897 – 12 June 1937) was a Soviet revolutionary, military leader of the Red Army, and commander of the Red Cossacks. He was a close friend of the Kotsiubynsky family and a son-in-law of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky.\n\nEarly life\nVitaly Primakov was born in 1897 in Semenivka, Novozybkovsky Uyezd, Chernigov Governorate as part of a family with a Russian background. In 1914 he joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and was exiled to Siberia for political reasons in 1915.\n\nRevolution\nPrimakov was released from exile during February Revolution in 1917. He became a member of Kiev's Bolshevik committee. In August 1917, he was conscripted into the Russian Army. While being a delegate of Second Congress of Soviets in Petrograd he was assigned commander of one of the squadrons participating in the assault on the Winter Palace. Then he led Red Army squadrons during fights with the White Army troops of Lieutenant General Pyotr Krasnov near Gatchina.\n\nCivil War\nIn February 1918, using Cossack troops that crossed over to the communists, he formed the Red Cossacks military unit. In August 1919, Primakov became commander of the brigade. In October 1919, he was appointed commander of the Eighth Cavalry Division. In October 1920, Primakov became the commander of the First Corps of Red Cossacks.\n\nFor a successful breach of the White Army defense line near Fatezh in November 1919, he was awarded his first Order of the Red Banner. His second Order of the Red Banner was awarded for combat near Proskurov. Primakov then received his third Order of the Red Banner for fighting the Basmachi movement in Central Asia.\n\nService after Civil War\nIn 1923 Primakov graduated in Higher Academic Military Courses at RKKA. In 1924–25, he was the head of the Highest Cavalry school in Leningrad.\n\nIn 1925, he was sent to China to be military advisor of the Chinese First National Army. In 1927, he was appointed as the military attaché in Afghanistan. In 1929 – under the disguise of Turkish officer Ragib-bey – he led the Red Army intervention in Afghanistan. This was a military operation of Soviet troops to reinstate Amanullah Khan as ruler of Afghanistan. In 1930, Primakov was sent to Japan as military attaché there.\n\nIn 1931–33, Primakov was commander of the Thirteenth Infantry Corps. In February 1933 he became deputy commander of the North Caucasus Military District. In December 1934, he was appointed inspector of higher education institutions of Red Army. In January 1935, he became deputy commander of the Leningrad Military District.\n\nArrest and Trial\nPrimakov was arrested on 14 August 1936 as part of Stalin's Great Purge. He was subjected to torture and pleaded guilty of being part of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization and testified against many fellow Soviet military commanders. He was found guilty and sentenced to death on 11 June 1937. Primakov was rehabilitated posthumously in 1957.\n\nPersonal life\nPrimakov was married three times. He was once married to Oksana Kotsyubynska, the daughter of Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky. In 1930, he married Lilya Brik, the longtime lover of Vladimir Mayakovsky.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n https://web.archive.org/web/20090427001148/http://www.focus.in.ua/article/17229.html \n http://www.knowbysight.info/PPP/03824.asp \n Interview with Yuri Primakov\n\n1897 births\n1937 deaths\nPeople from Semenivka\nPeople from Novozybkovsky Uyezd\nRussian Social Democratic Labour Party members\nOld Bolsheviks\nAll-Russian Central Executive Committee members\nCentral Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members\nSoviet komkors\nRussian military personnel of World War I\nPeople of the Russian Revolution\nSoviet people of the Ukrainian–Soviet War\nSoviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War\nRecipients of the Order of the Red Banner\nCase of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization\nGreat Purge victims from Ukraine\nMembers of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union\nExecuted military personnel\nSoviet rehabilitations\nAfghan Civil War (1928–1929)"
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